vioscaleAI
Comparison

AWS CDK vs SST

On the evidence we track, AWS CDK leads this comparison with a composite score of 70/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

AWS CDK full profile →SST full profile →
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★AWS CDK70
SST52
Score
vioscaleAI score
AWS CDK70 / 100high · 75%
SST52 / 100medium · 55%
Pricing
Free tier
AWS CDK✓
SST✓
Model
Price level
AWS CDKfree
SSTfree
Transparent
AWS CDK✓
SST✓
Integrations
Count
AWS CDK5
SST14
Security
Disclosure policy
AWS CDK✓
SST–
Fedramp
AWS CDK✓
SST–
Gdpr
AWS CDK✓
SST–
Hipaa
AWS CDK✓
SST–
Pci
AWS CDK✓
SST–
Scorecard
AWS CDK5.9
SST–
Soc2
AWS CDK✓
SST–
Trust center
Vulnerabilities
Reliability
Status page
AWS CDK✓
SST–
Adoption
Dependent repos
AWS CDK4,665
SST0
Github stars
AWS CDK12,933
SST26,353
Package downloads weekly
Activity
Commits last 30d
AWS CDK99
SST1
Release
Cadence days
AWS CDK6
SST1
History
License
Spdx
AWS CDKApache-2.0
SSTMIT
Language
Primary
Market
Availability
Content
Faq
AWS CDK8 items
SST6 items

Capabilities

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

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

What each one is

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

AWS CDK

Leader

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

SST

A framework that defines and deploys complete applications with a single TypeScript config file, automating infrastructure setup for databases, APIs, web servers, and cloud services.

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

Leader
Open sourceFree tier
as of verify ↗

SST

Open source
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✗
SST✓
CLI
AWS CDK✓
SST✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
AWS CDK✓
SST✓

Integrations

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

In common (1)
  • AWS Lambda

AWS CDK

Leader
5 total - 4 not shared
  • AWS CloudFormation
  • AWS SNS
  • AWS Step Functions
  • AWS EC2
Independently observed

SST

14 total - 13 not shared
  • AWS API Gateway
  • AWS RDS Aurora
  • AWS ElastiCache Redis
  • AWS ECS Fargate
  • AWS CloudFront
  • AWS SES
  • AWS Cognito
  • PlanetScale
  • Cloudflare
  • Next.js
  • Astro
  • Rails
  • Hono
Independently observed
Still deciding?

AWS CDK or SST: 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.