Cloud Intermediate
IaC Comparison — Terraform vs Pulumi vs CDK vs Crossplane¶
IaCTerraformPulumiCDKCrossplane 5 min read
Comparison of IaC tools: language, state, ecosystem and when to choose which.
Overview¶
- Terraform — HCL, multi-cloud, largest ecosystem, de facto standard
- Pulumi — TS/Python/Go, multi-cloud, native testing
- CDK — TS/Python, AWS-only, L2/L3 constructs
- Crossplane — K8s API, GitOps-friendly
Decision Tree¶
Multi-cloud? → Terraform / Pulumi
AWS only? → CDK / Terraform
K8s-native? → Crossplane
Testing? → Pulumi / CDK
HCL OK? → Terraform
TypeScript? → CDK / Pulumi
Hybrid Approach¶
TF for base infra + Crossplane for self-service + CDK for app-specific.
Summary¶
There is no “best” option — it depends on your stack and team. Terraform = safe default.
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