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Pulumi vs Terraform
Trust Score comparison · March 2026
Signal Comparison
400k / wknpm downloads10M+ / mo
300 commitsCommits (90d)421 commits
23k ★GitHub stars43k ★
2k q'sStack Overflow28k q's
GrowingCommunityVery High
PulumiTerraform
Key Differences
| Factor | Pulumi | Terraform |
|---|---|---|
| License | Apache 2.0 | BSL 1.1 |
| Language | TypeScript / Python | HCL |
| Hosted | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Free tier | — | — |
| Open Source | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| TypeScript | ✓ | — |
Pick Pulumi if…
- Teams who prefer TypeScript or Python over Terraform's HCL DSL
- Complex infrastructure with loops, conditionals, and shared logic hard to express in YAML
- Multi-cloud deployments where one codebase manages AWS, GCP, and Azure
Pick Terraform if…
- You want a consistent way to provision cloud resources across providers
- You need to version-control your infrastructure like code
- Your team needs repeatable, auditable infrastructure changes
Side-by-side Quick Start
Pulumi
import * as aws from '@pulumi/aws';
const bucket = new aws.s3.Bucket('my-bucket', {
acl: 'private',
tags: { Environment: 'production' },
});
export const bucketName = bucket.id;Terraform
# main.tf
terraform {
required_providers {
aws = { source = "hashicorp/aws", version = "~> 5.0" }
}
}
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "app_assets" {
bucket = "my-app-assets-${var.env}"
}
resource "aws_ecs_service" "app" {
name = "my-app"
cluster = aws_ecs_cluster.main.id
desired_count = 2
}
# terraform init && terraform plan && terraform applyCommunity Verdict
Based on upvoted notes🏆
Terraform wins this comparison
Trust Score 84 vs 82 · 2-point difference
Terraform leads on Trust Score with stronger signal data across downloads and community health. That said, the other tool is worth considering if your use case matches its specific strengths above.