# AWS CloudFormation vs CDKTF

| Attribute | AWS CloudFormation | CDKTF |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 60.3 (73% (medium)) | 56.4 (10% (low)) |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | - |
| description.long | A managed service for provisioning and managing AWS and third-party cloud resources through declarative templates (JSON/YAML) or programmatic languages. Automates infrastructure deployment across regions and accounts, detects configuration drift, and provides automatic rollback on errors. | Cloud Development Kit for Terraform (CDKTF) allows developers to use familiar programming languages to define and provision infrastructure, providing access to the entire Terraform ecosystem. IMPORTANT: CDKTF is deprecated as of December 10, 2025, and HashiCorp no longer supports or maintains it. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"cloud","language":"JSON, YAML, TypeScript, Python, Java, .NET","paradigm":"declarative_dsl","multicloud":false,"policy_as_code":true,"drift_detection":true,"import_existing":true,"state_management":"vendor_managed","open_source_engine":false,"provider_ecosystem":true,"gitops_reconciliation":true,"managed_saas_offering":true}` | `{"hosting":"self","language":"TypeScript, Python","paradigm":"declarative_dsl","multicloud":true,"policy_as_code":false,"drift_detection":false,"import_existing":true,"state_management":"vendor_managed","open_source_engine":true,"provider_ecosystem":true,"gitops_reconciliation":false,"managed_saas_offering":false}` |
| integrations.count | 21 | - |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"MongoDB"},{"name":"Datadog"},{"name":"Atlassian Opsgenie"},{"name":"JFrog"},{"name":"Trend Micro"},{"name":"Splunk"},{"name":"Aqua Security"},{"name":"FireEye"},{"name":"Sysdig"},{"name":"Snyk"},{"name":"Check Point"},{"name":"Spot by NetApp"},{"name":"Gremlin"},{"name":"Stackery"},{"name":"Iridium"},{"name":"AWS CDK"},{"name":"AWS SAM (Serverless Application Model)"},{"name":"Visual Studio"},{"name":"Kiro"},{"name":"AWS CloudFormation Registry"},{"name":"AWS Partner Network (APN)"}]` | - |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | - |
| pricing | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Third-party Resources & Custom Hooks","summary":"$0.0009/handler operation after 1,000 free ops/month","features":["Unlimited AWS::* and Alexa::* resource operations (no handler charges)","Third-party resource provisioning","Custom hook support","Handler operation billing after free tier","Duration overage billing"],"components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"handler operation"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.0009,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"second"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.00008,"currency":"USD","description":"Duration overage beyond 30 seconds per operation"}],"description":"Pay-per-operation model for third-party resource providers and custom hooks","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"free_handler_operations":"1,000/month","free_duration_per_operation":"30 seconds"}}],"summary":"Usage-based: $0.0009/handler operation + $0.00008/sec overage. 1,000 free operations/month. Data transfer at AWS rates.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://aws.amazon.com/cloudformation/pricing/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T16:36:19.015Z","startingPrice":{"amount":0.00008,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}}` | - |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | - |
| pricing.model | freemium | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | low | - |
| pricing.transparent | yes | - |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.fedramp | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.hipaa | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |

## Capabilities (Infrastructure as Code Tools)

| Capability | AWS CloudFormation | CDKTF |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Paradigm | Declarative DSL | Declarative DSL |
| Language | JSON, YAML, TypeScript, Python, Java, .NET | TypeScript, Python |
| **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 | Self-hosted only |
| **Adoption** |  |  |
| Import existing resources | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Open-source engine | ✗ | ✓ |
| **Ecosystem** |  |  |
| CNCF maturity | - | - |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T16:45:25.440Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*