cdk8s
Define Kubernetes native apps and abstractions using object-oriented programming [Moved to: https://github.com/cdk8s-team/cdk8s] (by awslabs)
Pulumi
Pulumi - Infrastructure as Code in any programming language 🚀 (by pulumi)
| cdk8s | Pulumi | |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | 210 | |
| 2,154 | 25,261 | |
| - | 0.5% | |
| 8.9 | 10.0 | |
| about 5 years ago | 1 day ago | |
| TypeScript | Go | |
| Apache License 2.0 | Apache License 2.0 |
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.
cdk8s
Posts with mentions or reviews of cdk8s.
We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives
and similar projects. The last one was on 2021-08-15.
- ECS migrate to EKS part 3
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Ping Me! (Intro: IaC and Prep Work)
One apparent limitation of the CDK is that, at least for the nonce, it can only be used with AWS (there are two notable projects in the work right now that will greatly expand CDK's reach: cdk8s and cdktf). With Terraform you can use choose from a plethora of providers. Hell, I was able to set up my home network running on Unifi Dream Machine using Terraform. How cool is that?!
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Can you tell which person is a Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer?
This is funny. We've been learning cdk8s at work and it keeps bringing the BTK killer to mind.
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Yaml Is The Worst Thing Ever Created K8s Should
Either https://github.com/awslabs/cdk8s or something like https://dhall-lang.org/
How about https://github.com/awslabs/cdk8s
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Projen: The Next CDK Suprise!
I would be remiss to not point out that both the Kubernetes CDK, awslabs/cdk8s, and Terraform CDK, hashicorp/terraform-cdk both already use projen.
Pulumi
Posts with mentions or reviews of Pulumi.
We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives
and similar projects. The last one was on 2025-12-12.
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Pulumi Has a Free API: Infrastructure as Code with Real Programming Languages
Pulumi lets you define cloud infrastructure using real programming languages — TypeScript, Python, Go, C#, Java — instead of YAML or HCL. You get loops, conditionals, functions, type checking, and IDE autocomplete for your infrastructure.
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Building on AWS with Cursor
This is different from having Cursor write Terraform or Pulumi. Those tools let you define infrastructure explicitly, which means Cursor would need to generate proper Terraform configurations, understand AWS resource dependencies, and manage state correctly. AI-generated infrastructure code risks hallucinations that create security vulnerabilities, resource misconfigurations, and version conflicts - meaning you need to carefully review thousands of lines of generated IaC before deploying.
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What AWS’s 2025 AI and Cloud Updates Mean for Engineers Building Large Systems
Pulumi put together a full breakdown, but here is the technical signal behind the announcements.
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Antivirus on AWS
Of course, deploying Lambda Functions and Lambda Layers depend a lot on the IAC tool you use. We use SST, which is Pulumi under the hood.
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Top 12 Puppet Alternatives for Automation
Website: https://www.pulumi.com/
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Why Cloud Incident Response is Critical for DevOps and ITÂ Teams
Tools like Terraform, Pulumi, and CloudFormation.
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Platform Engineering for the uninitiated
The DevOps way had already seen adoption of Infrastructure as Code, and tools like Terraform, Chef, Pulumi, etc. enabled us to think of our cloud resources as configurations and code. Cloud Engineering needed to evolve along similar lines, and the elephant in the room was - a need for standardization, enter GitOps!
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DevOps in 2025: the future is automated, git-ified, and kinda scary but fun.
Pulumi infra-as-code but with real programming languages
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Getting my feet wet with Crossplane
Terraform isn't without issue, though. Some feel that the descriptive configuration language is limiting. Pulumi offers to describe the infrastructure in a couple of existing programming languages, e.g., Python, JavaScript, and Kotlin. Instead of repeating ten configuration lines with only a single parameter changed, you can write functions and loops.
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Congrats to the Pulumi Deploy and Document Challenge Winners!
Thank you to Pulumi for sponsoring this challenge and giving the community a chance to build and deploy something awesome!
What are some alternatives?
When comparing cdk8s and Pulumi you can also consider the following projects:
aws-cdk-rfcs - RFCs for the AWS CDK
Home Manager using Nix - Manage a user environment using Nix [maintainer=@khaneliman, @rycee]
projen - Rapidly build modern applications with advanced configuration management
Ansible - Ansible is a radically simple IT automation platform that makes your applications and systems easier to deploy and maintain. Automate everything from code deployment to network configuration to cloud management, in a language that approaches plain English, using SSH, with no agents to install on remote systems. https://docs.ansible.com.
ubiquity-unifi-dream-machine-setup-example - An example of how you can use Terraform to set up your home network running on UDM.
Chef - Chef Infra, a powerful automation platform that transforms infrastructure into code automating how infrastructure is configured, deployed and managed across any environment, at any scale