# AWS CDK vs Pulumi

| Attribute | AWS CDK | Pulumi |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 70 (75% (high)) | 69.4 (75% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 99 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 4,665 | 2,143 |
| adoption.github_stars | 12,933 | 25,758 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 1,569,573 | 1,440,025 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"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. It is indexed under Infrastructure as Code Tools.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_hub","question":"What is AWS CDK?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"AWS CDK is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_hub","question":"Is AWS CDK free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"AWS CDK supports a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_hub","question":"What platforms does AWS CDK support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. AWS CDK can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_hub","question":"Can AWS CDK be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 5 integrations for AWS CDK, including AWS CloudFormation, AWS Lambda, AWS SNS, AWS Step Functions and AWS EC2. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_ec2","question":"What does AWS CDK integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed HIPAA for AWS CDK. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as AWS CDK not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/trust-center/?nc1=f_cc","question":"What security certifications does AWS CDK have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Yes. AWS CDK is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk","question":"Is AWS CDK open source?","confidence":0.99},{"answer":"AWS CDK is available worldwide. The vendor is headquartered in the United States.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_hub","question":"Where is AWS CDK available?","confidence":0.75}]` | `[{"answer":"A platform for defining and managing cloud infrastructure using TypeScript, Python, Go, C#, Java, or HCL instead of domain-specific languages, with built-in policy enforcement, compliance tracking, and AI-powered resource discovery. It is indexed under Infrastructure as Code Tools.","source":"https://www.pulumi.com/blog/pricing-calculator-blog/","question":"What is Pulumi?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Pulumi is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Paid editions are also offered: Team Edition, Enterprise and Business Critical, priced on request. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.pulumi.com/blog/pricing-calculator-blog/","question":"Is Pulumi free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Pulumi supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.pulumi.com/blog/pricing-calculator-blog/","question":"What platforms does Pulumi support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Pulumi can be deployed cloud / SaaS, on-premise, air-gapped and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.pulumi.com/blog/pricing-calculator-blog/","question":"Can Pulumi be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 12 integrations for Pulumi, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Terraform, CloudFormation, Kubernetes, GitHub and Slack, plus 4 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.pulumi.com/blog/pricing-calculator-blog/","question":"What does Pulumi integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 for Pulumi. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Pulumi not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.pulumi.com/tutorials/eval-compliance-terraform/","question":"What security certifications does Pulumi have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Yes. Pulumi is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi","question":"Is Pulumi open source?","confidence":0.99},{"answer":"Pulumi is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States.","source":"https://www.pulumi.com/blog/pricing-calculator-blog/","question":"Where is Pulumi available?","confidence":0.5}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true}` |
| description.long | 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. | 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. |
| features.capabilities | `{"language":"TypeScript, Python, Java, .NET, Go","paradigm":"general_language","multicloud":false,"policy_as_code":true,"drift_detection":true,"import_existing":true,"state_management":"vendor_managed","open_source_engine":true,"provider_ecosystem":true,"managed_saas_offering":false}` | `{"hosting":"cloud","language":"TypeScript, Python, Go, C#, Java, YAML","paradigm":"general_language","multicloud":true,"policy_as_code":true,"drift_detection":true,"import_existing":true,"state_management":"vendor_managed","open_source_engine":true,"provider_ecosystem":true,"gitops_reconciliation":false,"managed_saas_offering":true}` |
| integrations.count | 5 | 20 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"AWS CloudFormation"},{"name":"AWS Lambda"},{"name":"AWS SNS"},{"name":"AWS Step Functions"},{"name":"AWS EC2"}]` | `[{"name":"AWS"},{"name":"Azure"},{"name":"Google Cloud"},{"name":"Terraform"},{"name":"CloudFormation"},{"name":"Azure Resource Manager"},{"name":"Kubernetes","native":true,"category":"container","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"GitHub","native":true,"category":"vcs","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Slack","native":false,"category":"chat","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Backstage","native":true,"category":"devops","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"npm","native":false,"category":"package_manager","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"PyPI","native":false,"category":"package_manager","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"NuGet","native":false,"category":"package_manager","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Helm","native":true,"category":"cloud-native"},{"name":"AWS Secrets Manager","native":true,"category":"secrets"},{"name":"Azure Key Vault","native":true,"category":"secrets"},{"name":"Vault","native":true,"category":"secrets"},{"name":"1Password","native":true,"category":"secrets"},{"name":"Cloudflare","native":true,"category":"infrastructure"},{"name":"MongoDB","native":true,"category":"database"},{"name":"Snowflake","native":true,"category":"database"},{"name":"GitHub Actions","native":true,"category":"ci-cd"},{"name":"GitLab Pipelines","native":true,"category":"ci-cd"},{"name":"Jenkins","native":true,"category":"ci-cd"},{"name":"CircleCI","native":true,"category":"ci-cd"},{"name":"Atlassian Bitbucket","native":true,"category":"ci-cd"},{"name":"External Secrets Operator","native":true,"category":"secrets"},{"name":"Secrets Store CSI Driver","native":true,"category":"secrets"}]` |
| language.primary | TypeScript | Go |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_hub","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T21:53:47.459Z"}` | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Team Edition","contactSales":true}],"summary":"Metered pricing per resource-hour and deployment-minute. Contact sales for bulk discounts on annual commitments over $20,000.","currency":"USD","sourceUrl":"https://www.pulumi.com/blog/pricing-calculator-blog/","retrievedAt":"2026-10-05T11:12:11.575Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | quote |
| pricing.price_level | free | unknown |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 6 | 5 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.273.0","date":"2026-10-08T20:09:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.273.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.272.0","date":"2026-09-30T14:12:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.272.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.271.0","date":"2026-09-25T18:49:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.271.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.270.0","date":"2026-09-17T18:35:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.270.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.269.0","date":"2026-09-10T21:09:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.269.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.268.0","date":"2026-09-02T19:42:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.268.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.267.0","date":"2026-08-27T18:35:43Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.267.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.266.0","date":"2026-08-19T19:02:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.266.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.265.0","date":"2026-08-13T19:48:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.265.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.264.0","date":"2026-08-10T18:02:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.264.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.263.0","date":"2026-07-31T16:57:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.263.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.262.2","date":"2026-07-29T14:24:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.262.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.262.1","date":"2026-07-24T14:54:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.262.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.262.0","date":"2026-07-22T20:53:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.262.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.261.0","date":"2026-07-02T16:42:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.261.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.260.0","date":"2026-06-16T23:45:38Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.260.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.259.0","date":"2026-06-12T09:53:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.259.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.258.1","date":"2026-06-09T09:30:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.258.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.258.0","date":"2026-06-04T20:43:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.258.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.257.0","date":"2026-05-21T20:24:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.257.0"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.267.0","date":"2026-10-01T11:49:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.267.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.266.0","date":"2026-09-30T11:33:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.266.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.265.0","date":"2026-09-25T22:34:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.265.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.264.0","date":"2026-09-23T09:54:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.264.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.263.0","date":"2026-09-16T11:16:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.263.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.262.0","date":"2026-09-10T11:37:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.262.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.261.0","date":"2026-09-02T16:55:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.261.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.260.0","date":"2026-08-28T11:06:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.260.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.259.0","date":"2026-08-19T20:04:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.259.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.258.0","date":"2026-08-17T19:04:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.258.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.257.0","date":"2026-08-13T14:42:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.257.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.256.0","date":"2026-08-04T19:34:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.256.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.255.0","date":"2026-07-28T13:37:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.255.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.254.0","date":"2026-07-23T15:10:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.254.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.253.0","date":"2026-07-14T11:30:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.253.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.252.0","date":"2026-07-13T12:34:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.252.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.251.0","date":"2026-07-08T12:41:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.251.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.250.0","date":"2026-07-02T00:47:36Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.250.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.249.0","date":"2026-07-01T14:20:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.249.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/pulumi/pulumi/releases/tag/v3.248.0","date":"2026-06-24T14:50:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.248.0"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.certifications | - | `[{"name":"SOC 2 Type II","status":"active"}]` |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | yes |
| security.fedramp | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.hipaa | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | 5.9 | 7.1 |
| security.soc2 | yes | yes |
| security.trust_center | https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/?nc2=h_dsc_aa_cmp | https://www.pulumi.com/tutorials/eval-compliance-terraform/ |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":8,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=npm&package_name=aws-cdk-lib&per_page=100","last_12m":3,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=npm&package_name=%40pulumi%2Fpulumi&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Infrastructure as Code Tools)

| Capability | AWS CDK | Pulumi |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Paradigm | General language | General language |
| Language | TypeScript, Python, Java, .NET, Go | TypeScript, Python, Go, C#, Java, YAML |
| **Portability** |  |  |
| Multicloud / cloud-agnostic | ✗ | ✓ |
| **Architecture** |  |  |
| State management | Vendor-managed | Vendor-managed |
| **Extensibility** |  |  |
| Pluggable provider ecosystem | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Governance** |  |  |
| Policy as code | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Ops** |  |  |
| Drift detection | ✓ | ✓ |
| GitOps continuous reconciliation | - | ✗ |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Managed SaaS offering | ✗ | ✓ |
| Hosting | - | Cloud only |
| **Adoption** |  |  |
| Import existing resources | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Open-source engine | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Ecosystem** |  |  |
| CNCF maturity | - | - |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T17:47:43.803Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*