AWS CloudFormation comparisons
AWS CloudFormation is compared head-to-head with Terraform, Pulumi and OpenTofu and more: 7 head-to-heads in Infrastructure as Code Tools, each with the specs and prices we checked.
AWS CloudFormation head-to-head
- AWS CloudFormation vs Terraform
- AWS CloudFormation vs Pulumi
- AWS CloudFormation vs OpenTofu
- AWS CloudFormation vs env zero
- AWS CloudFormation vs Spacelift
- AWS CloudFormation vs Scalr
- AWS CloudFormation vs Harness Infrastructure as Code Management
AWS CloudFormation vs each of them
| # | Tool | Free plan | Paid from | Configuration language | Supported clouds | State management | Policy as code | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | AWS CloudFormation | Yes | Yaml/json | AWS | Managed | Yes | 8.5 | |
| 1 | Terraform | Yes | Hcl | Amazon Web Services, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure | Both | Yes | 9.4 | |
| 2 | Pulumi | Yes | $40/mo | General-purpose language | AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes | Both | Yes | 9.2 |
| 3 | OpenTofu | Yes | Free | Hcl | Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Kubernetes, Helm, GitHub, Splunk, Datadog | Both | Yes | 9.1 |
| 4 | env zero | Yes | Hcl | AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure | Both | Yes | 8.9 | |
| 5 | Spacelift | Yes | $20,000/yr | Hcl | AWS, Azure, GCP | Both | Yes | 8.8 |
| 6 | Scalr | Yes | $0.99/unit usage-based | Hcl | AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform | Both | Yes | 8.7 |
| 7 | Harness Infrastructure as Code Management | Yes | Hcl | Both | Yes | 8.6 |
Compare AWS CloudFormation with any infrastructure as code tool
These are the matchups our editors wrote up. The compare tool pairs AWS CloudFormation with any other product in Infrastructure as Code Tools — and up to four at once — from the same checked specs.
Compare AWS CloudFormation with any tool side by side →
Every infrastructure as code tools head-to-head →
Our full AWS CloudFormation verdict, pricing and fact sheet →
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Compared by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
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