You might look for an alternative to Pulumi if you need a simpler setup, broader ecosystem support, or a different pricing model. Pulumi’s flexibility with general-purpose languages can introduce complexity, and its SaaS-based state management may not suit all compliance or cost requirements.
Pulumi also offers self-managed state storage through backends like S3, Azure Blob, or GCS, and enterprise users can deploy a self-hosted Pulumi Cloud, giving full control over infrastructure state.
Technically, Pulumi uses programming languages like TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Go, C#, Java, F#, VB.NET, and YAML for infrastructure as code (IaC), which adds power but also increases the learning curve and potential for logic bugs.
Choosing an alternative would depend on your language preferences, infrastructure scope, and team workflow.
The following tools represent a mix of modern, cloud-native frameworks and established infrastructure automation solutions. Each has its own strengths, design philosophy, and ideal use cases.
The top Pulumi alternatives include:
Terraform, an IaC tool developed by HashiCorp, is the most popular Pulumi alternative. It enables users to provision, manage, and version infrastructure using a declarative configuration language.
Terraform supports a wide range of cloud providers (such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud) and on-premises solutions, allowing teams to codify infrastructure consistently and repeatably. Terraform emphasizes automation, reproducibility, and infrastructure state management.
In the broader IaC ecosystem, Terraform is often compared with alternatives like Pulumi, which offers a similar approach but uses general-purpose programming languages instead of a domain-specific language (DSL).
While Pulumi appeals to developers looking for flexibility with languages like TypeScript or Python, Terraform maintains its popularity due to its mature ecosystem, provider support, and focus on simplicity through its own language, HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL).
Key features of Terraform
- Declarative syntax with HCL: Define infrastructure using a domain-specific language designed for clarity and ease of use, focusing on the desired end state rather than step-by-step logic.
- Broad multicloud support: Integrates with hundreds of providers, including AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, and more, enabling unified workflows across diverse platforms.
- Execution planning (terraform plan): Provides a safe preview of changes before they’re applied, helping users catch unintended modifications and improve review processes.
- Infrastructure state management: Maintains a persistent state file to track existing resources, detect configuration drift, and ensure safe incremental updates.
- Reusable modules and community registry: Encourages modular infrastructure design and promotes reuse through a large ecosystem of community-contributed modules.
License/Pricing: Business Source License (BSL) v1.1 (versions prior to Terraform v1.5.6 (Aug 2023) remain MPL 2.0)
Website https://www.terraform.io
Read more: Pulumi vs. Terraform : Key Differences and Comparison
OpenTofu is an open-source IaC framework and a community-driven fork of Terraform, created in response to HashiCorp’s relicensing of Terraform under the Business Source License (BSL) in 2023. As of April 2025, OpenTofu is a CNCF Sandbox project, reinforcing its vendor-neutral community governance.
Governed by the Linux Foundation, OpenTofu aims to remain fully open and vendor-neutral, continuing the tradition of truly permissive IaC tooling.
Functionally, OpenTofu mirrors Terraform’s capabilities, offering declarative configuration, state management, modular architecture, and a broad provider ecosystem. It’s compatible with existing Terraform configurations and workflows, which makes migration straightforward for teams seeking continuity without licensing constraints.
OpenTofu presents itself as a principled alternative to both Terraform and Pulumi. While Pulumi differentiates itself by using general-purpose programming languages like TypeScript and Python, OpenTofu retains the HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) and emphasizes openness, transparency, and long-term community stewardship.
It is often chosen by organizations seeking an Apache-licensed alternative that aligns with open-source values while delivering proven, Terraform-compatible infrastructure management.
Key features of OpenTofu
- Full Terraform compatibility: OpenTofu supports existing Terraform modules and providers, facilitating seamless migration without the need to rewrite configurations.
- Community-driven governance: Under the stewardship of the Linux Foundation, OpenTofu ensures transparent development and vendor-neutral decision-making, promoting a collaborative ecosystem.
- Enhanced security features: Introduces built-in state encryption, allowing sensitive infrastructure data to be stored securely without relying on external tools.
- Advanced workflow capabilities: Offers features like early variable evaluation and selective resource exclusion, providing greater flexibility and control over infrastructure deployments.
- Robust ecosystem support: With access to over 3,900 providers and 23,600 modules, OpenTofu enables comprehensive infrastructure management across various platforms.
License/Pricing: Mozilla Public License (MPL) v2.0
Website: https://opentofu.org
Read more: OpenTofu vs Terraform: Key Differences and Comparison
Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Templates are Microsoft’s native Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solution for deploying and managing resources in Azure. They use JSON to describe the desired state of infrastructure, enabling users to define, configure, and deploy entire environments consistently and repeatably.
ARM Templates integrate tightly with the Azure ecosystem, making them a go-to choice for teams operating exclusively within Microsoft’s cloud platform.
Despite being more verbose and less flexible than some modern alternatives, they are widely used for their stability, native support, and enterprise-grade integration with Azure services like Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), policies, and Blueprints.
Compared to alternatives like Pulumi, which offer multi-cloud capabilities and support general-purpose languages, ARM Templates are Azure-specific and use JSON, which lacks programmability and can be more difficult to maintain at scale.
Note: Microsoft now recommends Bicep as the preferred language for new deployments. ARM templates remain supported but are considered less ideal due to their verbosity.
Key features of ARM Templates
- Native Azure integration: Built directly into the Azure platform, offering seamless support for Azure services, RBAC, policies, and governance tools.
- Declarative JSON syntax: Allows you to define infrastructure requirements clearly and lets Azure resolve dependencies and orchestration behind the scenes.
- Idempotent deployments: Ensures repeated executions of the same template produce consistent, predictable infrastructure states without unintended changes.
- Template validation and preview: Supports pre-deployment validation and what-if analysis to visualize changes before applying them, improving safety.
- Secure and policy-compliant: Works natively with Azure Blueprints, locks, and security policies to enforce organizational standards at scale.
License/Pricing: Proprietary (built-in Azure feature; no additional cost for usage)
Website: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/templates/overview
For teams building entirely on AWS, CloudFormation offers a native way to define and manage infrastructure as code. It enables users to declare their desired infrastructure in YAML or JSON templates, which AWS then interprets to automate the provisioning and configuration of resources across its cloud ecosystem.
Unlike tools like Pulumi, which support multiple cloud providers and programming languages, CloudFormation is tightly integrated with the AWS ecosystem and tailored exclusively for managing AWS-native services. This makes it a preferred choice for organizations that are fully invested in AWS and want a deeply integrated, AWS-supported provisioning tool.
Compared to Pulumi, which emphasizes flexibility through general-purpose languages, CloudFormation focuses on predictable and consistent deployments through its template-driven model.
Although its DSL is less expressive than Pulumi’s language-based approach or Terraform’s HCL, CloudFormation offers first-party support, integration with AWS features like IAM and CloudTrail, and automatic resource dependency handling.
Key features of AWC CloudFormation
- AWS-native provisioning: Designed specifically for AWS, it provides deep integration with the full range of AWS services, including support for newly released features.
- Declarative templates in YAML/JSON: Infrastructure is defined using structured configuration files, allowing teams to version and reuse templates across environments.
- Automatic dependency resolution: CloudFormation understands the relationships between resources and orchestrates creation or deletion in the correct order without manual input.
- Change sets: Enables previewing of proposed changes before execution, helping teams assess the impact of updates to infrastructure stacks safely.
- Stack management and drift detection: Resources are grouped and managed as stacks, with built-in drift detection to identify when the actual state deviates from the expected configuration.
License/Pricing: Proprietary (free to use; users pay only for the AWS resources created)
Website: https://aws.amazon.com/cloudformation
Read more: Terraform vs. AWS CloudFormation : The Ultimate Comparison
Google Deployment Manager is a configuration-driven service that enables users to define and manage Google Cloud infrastructure through code.
Note: Cloud Deployment Manager will reach end of support on December 31, 2025. Google Cloud now recommends transitioning to Infrastructure Manager (gcloud infra-manager), which supports Terraform-compatible blueprints and broader tooling integration.
Deployment Manager offers a declarative approach to resource provisioning. It allows infrastructure to be described using YAML or JSON files, with optional Jinja2 or Python templates for greater flexibility.
Tailored specifically for Google Cloud, it helps teams codify and automate infrastructure deployments within the platform’s native ecosystem. Although it delivers strong integration with Google’s services, it lacks multi-cloud capabilities and has seen relatively limited feature updates in recent years.
In contrast to tools like Pulumi, which support multiple cloud providers and allow infrastructure definitions in familiar programming languages, Deployment Manager remains focused on template-based automation within a single-cloud scope. It is best suited for teams deeply embedded in Google Cloud environments seeking straightforward, policy-aligned provisioning.
Key features of Google Deployment Manager
- Google Cloud-native tooling: Designed to work seamlessly with GCP’s APIs, identity management, and organizational policy controls.
- Declarative infrastructure definitions: Uses YAML or JSON to express the desired state of resources, simplifying deployments and updates.
- Template extensibility with Python or Jinja2: Allows for reusable, parameterized templates to promote maintainability and reduce duplication.
- Pre-deployment previews: Supports change previews to help users understand the impact of deployments before applying them.
- Integrated lifecycle management: Coordinates creation, update, and deletion of infrastructure resources through consistent deployment workflows.
License/Pricing: Proprietary (free to use; costs apply to provisioned Google Cloud resources)
The AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) is a software development framework that enables engineers to define cloud infrastructure using familiar programming languages such as TypeScript, Python, Java, C#, and Go.
Rather than writing static configuration files, users write code that synthesizes into AWS CloudFormation templates, which then provision the infrastructure.
AWS CDK brings a developer-centric approach to infrastructure such as code (IaC), emphasizing reusability, abstraction, and integration with modern development workflows. It’s particularly appealing for software engineers who prefer expressing infrastructure logic in the same languages they use for application code.
In comparison to Pulumi, which also allows infrastructure definitions using general-purpose languages but supports multiple clouds, AWS CDK is focused solely on Amazon Web Services.
This tight focus enables deeper alignment with AWS best practices and resources, but limits portability. For teams operating entirely within AWS, CDK provides a powerful and expressive alternative to YAML/JSON-based systems like CloudFormation or Terraform.
Key features of AWS CDK
- Code-first IaC: Define infrastructure using real programming languages, enabling use of variables, loops, conditionals, and all standard programming constructs.
- Automatic synthesis to CloudFormation: Translates high-level code into standard CloudFormation templates, ensuring compatibility with AWS-native infrastructure management.
- Rich construct library: Offers pre-built, reusable constructs (L1–L3) that abstract complex configurations into developer-friendly components.
- Language support across multiple ecosystems: Supports TypeScript, Python, Java, C#, and Go, allowing teams to use their preferred language without compromising functionality.
- Integrated with CI/CD and testing: Encourages infrastructure unit testing, code reuse, and integration with common development workflows, enhancing maintainability and automation.
License/Pricing: Apache License 2.0
Website: https://aws.amazon.com/cdk/
Bicep is Microsoft’s domain-specific language (DSL) for deploying Azure resources. It offers a streamlined and more readable alternative to Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates.
Developed to address the verbosity and complexity of JSON-based ARM templates, Bicep introduces a more concise syntax while maintaining full compatibility with Azure’s deployment engine.
Bicep transpiles to ARM JSON at runtime, meaning it inherits all API coverage from ARM without delay. New Azure features are instantly available to Bicep users.
This IaC tool is purpose-built for Azure and is ideal for teams that want native tooling without the overhead of general-purpose programming. Unlike Pulumi, which supports multiple clouds and uses familiar programming languages like TypeScript or Python, Bicep sticks to a declarative model and focuses entirely on Azure-native scenarios.
Because Bicep transpiles directly into ARM templates, it benefits from the same robust security, compliance, and governance features that are already built into Azure. It also offers tight integration with Azure CLI and Visual Studio Code, making it a natural fit for Microsoft-centric workflows.
Key features of Bicep
- Concise and clean syntax: Reduces the complexity of traditional ARM templates by offering a more human-readable, purpose-built language.
- Native Azure support: Works seamlessly with Azure’s resource manager, policy controls, and RBAC, no extra tooling or translation layer required.
- Full ARM template compatibility: Transpiles into ARM JSON under the hood, preserving all capabilities while improving the authoring experience.
- Built-in tooling and IDE support: Offers rich developer tooling, including autocomplete, validation, and linting through Visual Studio Code extensions.
- Modular and reusable design: Encourages decomposition of templates into reusable modules, promoting scalability and maintainability across environments.
License/Pricing: MIT License
Website: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/bicep/
Read more: Bicep vs. Terraform – Differences & Key Features Comparison
Ansible is an open-source automation tool developed by Red Hat that specializes in configuration management, application deployment, and infrastructure provisioning. It uses simple, human-readable YAML files (called playbooks) to describe automation tasks.
Unlike many other IaC tools, Ansible operates primarily in a procedural manner — executing steps in order.
Though traditionally associated with configuration management, Ansible has become a prominent player in the broader IaC landscape. It supports cloud resource provisioning through modules for platforms like AWS, Azure, and GCP, making it viable as a multi-cloud infrastructure tool.
In comparison to Pulumi, which emphasizes infrastructure definition via code in general-purpose languages, Ansible appeals to teams seeking agentless automation, simplicity, and minimal setup. It’s often used alongside other tools (e.g., Terraform) to complement infrastructure provisioning with configuration and deployment steps, though it can handle both.
Key features of Ansible
- Agentless architecture: Requires no software to be installed on managed nodes—uses SSH or WinRM for communication, simplifying setup and security.
- YAML-based playbooks: Automation tasks are defined using straightforward YAML syntax, making them readable by developers and non-developers alike.
- Wide ecosystem of modules: Offers built-in support for hundreds of cloud, network, and system resources, allowing flexible infrastructure and configuration tasks.
- Procedural execution model: Executes tasks in a defined sequence, giving users granular control over the automation flow and state transitions.
- Powerful orchestration capabilities: Easily coordinates tasks across many machines, roles, and environments, often used to handle post-provisioning and application lifecycle workflows.
License/Pricing: GNU General Public License (GPL) v3.0
Website: https://www.ansible.com
Read more: Terraform vs. Ansible : Key Differences and Comparison of Tools
CDK for Terraform (CDKTF) is a framework from HashiCorp that lets users define Terraform infrastructure using familiar general-purpose programming languages, including TypeScript, Python, Java, C#, and Go.
CDKTF brings together Terraform’s robust provisioning engine with the flexibility of imperative languages, offering a developer-friendly alternative to the traditional HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL).
Instead of writing .tf files, CDKTF users write application-like code that compiles into standard Terraform configuration under the hood. This allows teams to incorporate conditionals, loops, functions, and modular abstractions more naturally than in a declarative-only approach.
CDKTF is HashiCorp’s answer to the growing demand for language-native IaC workflows (much like Pulumi) while maintaining compatibility with the Terraform ecosystem, providers, and state model.
For developers who want Terraform’s breadth but prefer to work in familiar coding environments, CDKTF strikes a balance between structure and flexibility.
Key features of CDKTF
- Use real programming languages: Define infrastructure using TypeScript, Python, Java, C#, or Go—bringing logic, reuse, and type safety to IaC.
- Backed by Terraform engine: Transpiles code into standard Terraform JSON, preserving compatibility with Terraform providers, modules, and workflows.
- Rich abstraction model: Supports encapsulation and reusable constructs, enabling cleaner, more scalable infrastructure codebases.
- Multicloud and provider support: Leverages Terraform’s extensive provider ecosystem, allowing cross-platform infrastructure automation in a language-native way.
- Built-in tooling and IDE integration: Offers features like autocompletion, static analysis, and testing, making it easier for developers to work with infrastructure as part of normal software development.
License/Pricing: Mozilla Public License (MPL) v2.0
Website: https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/cdktf
Read more: How to Build on AWS with CDK for Terraform (CDKTF)
Crossplane is a Kubernetes-native Infrastructure as Code (IaC) framework that turns Kubernetes into a universal control plane for managing not just container workloads, but also cloud infrastructure.
Instead of relying on external tools to provision infrastructure, Crossplane extends Kubernetes itself to manage resources like databases, storage buckets, and VMs using standard Kubernetes APIs.
By modeling infrastructure as custom resources (CRDs), Crossplane lets platform teams define high-level abstractions and compose them into reusable, versioned APIs for application teams. This approach shifts infrastructure ownership toward a GitOps-driven, self-service model inside Kubernetes, bridging the gap between infrastructure provisioning and workload management.
Unlike Pulumi, which uses imperative code in general-purpose languages, Crossplane adheres to a fully declarative paradigm.
It also differs from Terraform or Ansible in that it deeply integrates with Kubernetes’ reconciliation loop, making it ideal for teams that have already embraced Kubernetes as a foundational platform.
Key features of Crossplane
- Kubernetes-native design: Treats infrastructure as Kubernetes resources, allowing the same control plane and tooling to manage both applications and infrastructure.
- Custom infrastructure APIs: Enables platform engineers to define and expose opinionated infrastructure abstractions to developers via CRDs and compositions.
- Full GitOps compatibility: Integrates naturally with GitOps workflows using tools like ArgoCD and Flux, supporting continuous infrastructure reconciliation from Git.
- Multi-cloud provisioning: Supports AWS, Azure, GCP, Alibaba Cloud, and more, enabling a unified model for managing resources across providers from within Kubernetes.
- Separation of concerns: Decouples infrastructure implementation from consumption, letting platform teams manage policies while developers consume infrastructure safely.
License/Pricing: Apache License 2.0
Website: https://crossplane.io
While not purpose-built for cloud-native IaC, several legacy configuration management tools have historically played a role in infrastructure automation and are sometimes considered alternatives in more traditional environments:
11. Chef
Chef is a configuration management tool that uses Ruby-based DSLs to automate infrastructure setup and application deployment.
While powerful for enforcing system state across fleets of servers, it follows a procedural and imperative approach that contrasts with Pulumi’s declarative, multi-cloud capabilities. Chef is best suited for traditional infrastructure environments rather than modern cloud-native workflows.
12. Puppet
Puppet automates system configuration using a declarative language and operates via an agent-master architecture. It’s known for managing large-scale infrastructure consistently, though its focus is primarily on server state rather than cloud provisioning.
Compared to Pulumi, Puppet is more limited in flexibility and is less aligned with today’s containerized and cloud-first patterns.
13. SaltStack
SaltStack combines configuration management, remote execution, and orchestration using YAML-based configurations and a high-speed communication bus.
Though it supports some provisioning tasks, Salt is largely centered on system state enforcement and event-driven automation.
Unlike Pulumi, it lacks native support for modern multi-cloud IaC workflows and developer-centric tooling.
Spacelift is the most flexible orchestration platform for Infrastructure as Code. Spacelift provides excellent capabilities to automate running your Pulumi stacks. That means you don’t have to configure your own CI pipelines. Especially if you have several stacks and want to connect them together, and it does not stop there.
Spacelift supports Pulumi and Terraform, and in addition to these tools, you get OpenTofu, Kubernetes, CloudFormation, Ansible, and Terragrunt, making sure that all of your workflows can be easily achieved.
Spacelift’s pricing model is based on concurrency, ensuring that you won’t need to have a calculator with you at all times to try and predict costs – pricing is very predictable.
With Spacelift you:
- get policies across various decision points
- can build dependencies between stacks and share outputs from one to another
- detect infrastructure drift and optionally remediate it
- can bring your own image, and control what happens between runner phases
- can integrate any tool you want
- can build self-service infrastructure
- can do lots more
If you need an IaC management solution that handles workflows for Pulumi and other tools as well, create a free account with Spacelift today, or book a demo with one of our engineers.
To choose an alternative to Pulumi, evaluate your IaC needs across language support, cloud compatibility, team workflow, and deployment model.
If you prefer a declarative approach or use multiple cloud providers, Terraform or OpenTofu are the most common choices due to their wide ecosystem and strong community. For teams already using Python or YAML-based automation, AWS CDK or Crossplane may fit better.
And always consider a workflow orchestrator like Spacelift to tie your stacks, policy, and automation together, regardless of the IaC engine underneath.
Cost-effective Pulumi Cloud alternative
Spacelift is a highly cost-effective Pulumi Cloud alternative that works with Pulumi, Terraform, and many other IaC frameworks. It supports self-hosted on-prem workers, workflow customization, drift detection, and much more.
