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    SECURITYPublished 2026-09-22
    AWS Security HubAWS Security Hub
    vs
    Third-Party CSPMThird-Party CSPM

    AWS Security Hub vs Third-Party CSPM

    AWS's own tool, or a dedicated platform, do you need both?

    Security Hub is real, native, and billed per check. A third-party CSPM covers the same ground plus IaC, application code, and secrets, in one platform. Here's the honest tradeoff, not a sales pitch either way.

    Service Overview

    AWS Security Hub

    AWS Security Hub

    Cloud Security Posture Management

    Deep, native integration with GuardDuty, Inspector, Macie, and Config, zero third-party setup

    TypeNative AWS finding aggregation & compliance scoring
    PricingEssentials plan (the current default for newly-enabled accounts): $3.75/resource unit/month, checks and ingestion included. Legacy CSPM plan (still billable if that's how your account is configured): $0.0010/check (first 100K/month), then $0.0008, then $0.0005 over 500K, plus $0.00003/finding after 10K free.
    Third-Party CSPM

    Third-Party CSPM

    Cloud Security Posture Management

    Often bundles IaC scanning, application code SAST, and secrets detection alongside posture in one platform

    TypeIndependent platform, often covering multiple clouds and layers
    PricingVaries by vendor, typically a flat per-account or per-asset subscription rather than a per-check meter

    Side-by-Side Comparison

    $ diff --side-by-side
    CriteriaSecurity HubThird-Party CSPM
    Native to AWSYes, built and billed by AWS directlyNo, a separate vendor and account relationship
    Multi-Cloud CoverageAWS onlyVaries by vendor, many cover AWS, Azure, and GCP from one platform
    Pricing ModelPer-check and per-finding (CSPM plan) or per-resource-unit (Essentials plan)Typically flat subscription, easier to predict month to month
    IaC Scanning IncludedNo, a separate concern handled by Amazon Inspector code scanning, Amazon Q Developer, or other toolingOften included in the same platform
    Application Code (SAST) IncludedNo, Inspector covers some of this separately and is billed separatelyOften included in the same platform
    Secrets Detection IncludedNot a dedicated featureOften included in the same platform
    SetupZero external account linking, enable within the AWS consoleRequires connecting a read-only role/account to a third-party platform
    Compliance FrameworksCIS, PCI DSS, NIST, FSBP built inVaries by vendor, often broader (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR mapped directly)

    When to Use What

    $ cat DECISION_GUIDE.md
    IFYou run AWS only and already lean heavily on native tooling
    THENSecurity Hub
    WHYNo new vendor relationship, findings from GuardDuty/Inspector/Macie already flow in natively, and the CIS/PCI/NIST/FSBP checks cover the common baseline without extra setup.
    IFYou run AWS plus Azure or GCP and want one place to see posture across all of them
    THENThird-party CSPM
    WHYSecurity Hub has no visibility outside AWS. A multi-cloud team maintaining separate native tools per cloud is exactly the fragmentation a third-party platform is built to remove.
    IFYou also need IaC scanning, application code SAST, and secrets detection, not just cloud posture
    THENThird-party CSPM
    WHYSecurity Hub covers posture and compliance scoring only. Getting IaC, SAST, and secrets coverage the AWS-native way means separately configuring and billing for other services, several different consoles to check instead of one.
    IFYou want the simplest possible pricing to forecast
    THENDepends on the vendor, but often third-party
    WHYSecurity Hub's per-check, per-finding, or per-resource-unit pricing scales with your environment's size and noisiness, which is fair but harder to predict. A flat subscription is easier to budget against, though it's worth checking whether a vendor's flat price still has usage tiers underneath.
    IFSmall team, one AWS account, no dedicated security engineer
    THENEither, but weigh setup time
    WHYSecurity Hub requires no new account relationship, real value with just a few clicks. A third-party platform adds one more account to connect, but can also mean one dashboard instead of several native AWS services to separately configure. Worth trying both before committing.

    Security Insights

    This usually isn't actually "either/or"

    Nothing stops you from enabling Security Hub for its native, zero-setup baseline while also running a third-party CSPM for multi-cloud coverage or the extra layers (IaC, SAST, secrets) it includes. Many teams do both, the real decision is which one is your primary dashboard.

    Security Hub now has two different pricing models, know which you're quoting

    Essentials, billed a flat $3.75 per monitored resource unit per month with checks and ingestion included, is now the default plan on newly-enabled accounts. The older CSPM plan (billed per check and per ingested finding) is still live and billable on accounts still configured that way. Comparing a third-party vendor's flat price against the wrong Security Hub plan will give you a misleading cost comparison.

    Coverage breadth matters more than the sticker price for most SMB teams

    A platform that bundles cloud posture, IaC scanning, application code SAST, and secrets detection into one subscription is often solving a different problem than raw per-check cost: it's replacing three or four separate tools and dashboards with one.

    Key Takeaways

    $ cat SUMMARY.md
    1.Security Hub is real, native, and zero-setup if you're already on AWS, but AWS-only and posture/compliance-scoped.
    2.Third-party CSPM platforms typically add multi-cloud coverage and often bundle IaC, SAST, and secrets detection in one place.
    3.Know which Security Hub pricing plan you're comparing against, CSPM (per-check) and Essentials ($3.75/resource unit) price very differently.
    4.Many teams reasonably run both rather than choosing one exclusively.
    CSPMSecurity HubCloud Security Posture ManagementCompliance

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