vioscale
Comparison

AWS CDK vs Pulumi

No clear leader: Pulumi (69.2) and AWS CDK (65.0) 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 →
Machine formatsJSONMarkdownGraphQLor send Accept: application/json
AWS CDK65
Pulumi69
Score
Vioscale score
AWS CDK65 / 100high · 76%
Pulumi69 / 100high · 75%
Pricing
Free tier
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi✓
Model
Price level
AWS CDKfree
Pulumilow
Transparent
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi✓
Integrations
Count
AWS CDK5
Pulumi6
Security
Disclosure policy
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi✓
Hipaa
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi–
Pci
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi–
Scorecard
AWS CDK5.9
Pulumi7.2
Soc2
AWS CDK–
Pulumi✓
Vulnerabilities
Reliability
Status page
AWS CDK✓
Pulumi✓
Adoption
Dependent repos
AWS CDK4,665
Pulumi2,143
Github stars
AWS CDK12,876
Pulumi25,610
Package downloads weekly
AWS CDK1,691,427
Pulumi1,787,798
Activity
Commits last 30d
AWS CDK100
Pulumi100
Release
Cadence days
AWS CDK4
Pulumi5
History
AWS CDK20 items
Pulumi20 items
License
Spdx
Language
Primary
AWS CDKTypeScript
PulumiGo
Market
Availability

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

A cloud infrastructure management platform that lets teams define and deploy resources across multiple cloud providers using standard programming languages. Includes state management, policy enforcement, and tooling for discovering and migrating existing infrastructure.

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

HybridFree tier

Team Edition with per-resource-hour and deployment-minute metering. Bulk discounts available for >$20k/year spend. Free credits included.

  • Team EditionPer resource-hour and per deployment-minute charges. Free credits included.
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✓
Self-hosted
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

6 total
  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Google Cloud
  • Terraform
  • CloudFormation
  • Azure Resource Manager
Independently observed

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