vioscaleAI
Comparison

AWS CDK vs Pulumi

No clear leader: AWS CDK (70.0) and Pulumi (69.4) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

AWS CDK full profile →Pulumi full profile →
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AWS CDK70
Pulumi69
Score
vioscaleAI score
AWS CDK70 / 100high · 75%
Pulumi69 / 100high · 75%
Pricing
Free tier
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi✓
Model
AWS CDKopen_source
Pulumiquote
Price level
AWS CDKfree
Pulumiunknown
Transparent
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi✓
Integrations
Count
AWS CDK5
Pulumi20
Security
Certifications
AWS CDK–
PulumiSOC 2 Type II
Disclosure policy
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi✓
Fedramp
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi–
Gdpr
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi–
Hipaa
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi–
Pci
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi–
Scorecard
AWS CDK5.9
Pulumi7.1
Soc2
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi✓
Trust center
Vulnerabilities
Reliability
Status page
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi✓
Adoption
Dependent repos
AWS CDK4,665
Pulumi2,143
Github stars
AWS CDK12,933
Pulumi25,758
Package downloads weekly
AWS CDK1,569,573
Pulumi1,440,025
Activity
Commits last 30d
AWS CDK99
Pulumi100
Release
Cadence days
AWS CDK6
Pulumi5
History
AWS CDK20 items
Pulumi20 items
License
Spdx
Language
Primary
AWS CDKTypeScript
PulumiGo
Market
Availability
Content
Faq
AWS CDK8 items
Pulumi8 items

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for infrastructure as code tools. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Core
Paradigm
AWS CDKGeneral language
PulumiGeneral language
Language
AWS CDKTypeScript, Python, Java, .NET, Go
PulumiTypeScript, Python, Go, C#, Java, YAML
Portability
Multicloud / cloud-agnostic
AWS CDK✗
Pulumi✓
Architecture
State management
AWS CDKVendor-managed
PulumiVendor-managed
Extensibility
Pluggable provider ecosystem
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi✓
Governance
Policy as code
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi✓
Ops
Drift detection
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi✓
GitOps continuous reconciliation
AWS CDK-
Pulumi✗
Deployment
Managed SaaS offering
AWS CDK✗
Pulumi✓
Hosting
AWS CDK-
PulumiCloud only
Adoption
Import existing resources
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi✓
Licensing
Open-source engine
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi✓
Ecosystem
CNCF maturity
AWS CDK-
Pulumi-

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

AWS CDK

A development framework that lets you define AWS cloud resources and infrastructure using standard programming languages like TypeScript, Python, Java, .NET, and Go. CDK compiles your code into CloudFormation templates for deployment.

Independently observed

Pulumi

An infrastructure-as-code system that lets you define, deploy, and manage cloud resources across multiple providers using Go, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, Java, .NET, and YAML, with declarative provisioning, policy enforcement, and integrated state management.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

AWS CDK

Open sourceFree tier
as of verify ↗

Pulumi

Usage-based

Metered pricing per resource-hour and deployment-minute. Contact sales for bulk discounts on annual commitments over $20,000.

  • Team EditionContact sales
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
AWS CDK✗
Pulumi✓
CLI
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

AWS CDK

5 total
  • AWS CloudFormation
  • AWS Lambda
  • AWS SNS
  • AWS Step Functions
  • AWS EC2
Independently observed

Pulumi

28 total
  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Google Cloud
  • Terraform
  • CloudFormation
  • Azure Resource Manager
  • Kubernetes
  • GitHub
  • Slack
  • Backstage
  • npm
  • PyPI
  • NuGet
  • Helm
  • AWS Secrets Manager
  • Azure Key Vault
  • Vault
  • 1Password
  • Cloudflare
  • MongoDB
  • Snowflake
  • GitHub Actions
  • GitLab Pipelines
  • Jenkins
  • +4 more
Independently observed
Still deciding?

AWS CDK or Pulumi: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.