# AWS CloudFormation vs SST

**Leader by Vioscale score:** AWS CloudFormation

| Attribute | AWS CloudFormation | SST |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 60.3 (73% (medium)) | 50 (64% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | - | 1 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | - | 0 |
| adoption.github_stars | - | 26,260 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | - | 844,585 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"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. | 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. |
| 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":"cloud","language":"TypeScript","paradigm":"declarative_dsl","multicloud":false,"policy_as_code":false,"drift_detection":false,"import_existing":false,"state_management":"vendor_managed","open_source_engine":true,"provider_ecosystem":true,"gitops_reconciliation":false,"managed_saas_offering":true}` |
| integrations.count | 21 | 14 |
| 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)"}]` | `[{"name":"AWS Lambda"},{"name":"AWS API Gateway"},{"name":"AWS RDS Aurora"},{"name":"AWS ElastiCache Redis"},{"name":"AWS ECS Fargate"},{"name":"AWS CloudFront"},{"name":"AWS SES"},{"name":"AWS Cognito"},{"name":"PlanetScale"},{"name":"Cloudflare"},{"name":"Next.js"},{"name":"Astro"},{"name":"Rails"},{"name":"Hono"}]` |
| language.primary | - | TypeScript |
| license.spdx | - | MIT |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"windows":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"}}` | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://sst.dev","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T16:34:53.986Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | low | free |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | - | 1 |
| release.history | - | `[{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.17.1","date":"2026-07-12T20:18:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.17.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.17.0","date":"2026-06-26T07:53:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.17.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.16.0","date":"2026-06-24T12:25:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.16.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.15.2","date":"2026-05-29T11:35:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.15.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.15.1","date":"2026-05-29T11:20:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.15.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.15.0","date":"2026-05-29T09:14:50Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.15.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.14.3","date":"2026-05-20T13:48:34Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.14.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.14.2","date":"2026-05-20T12:42:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.14.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.14.1","date":"2026-05-12T16:53:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.14.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.14.0","date":"2026-05-12T15:40:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.14.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.13.2","date":"2026-05-12T14:48:46Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.13.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.13.1","date":"2026-05-05T17:48:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.13.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.13.0","date":"2026-05-04T20:10:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.13.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.12.11","date":"2026-05-01T12:55:34Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.12.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.12.10","date":"2026-04-29T17:41:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.12.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.12.9","date":"2026-04-29T12:39:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.12.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.12.8","date":"2026-04-29T12:03:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.12.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.12.7","date":"2026-04-29T10:58:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.12.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.12.6","date":"2026-04-29T10:07:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.12.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/anomalyco/sst/releases/tag/v4.12.5","date":"2026-04-29T08:57:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.12.5"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | yes | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.fedramp | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.hipaa | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | - | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=npm&package_name=%40jaydeebee%2Fsst&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Infrastructure as Code Tools)

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

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T17:33:33.395Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*