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Best Free Alternatives to Pulumi Cloud (Service)
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Category: Infrastructure as Code (IaC)Verified for 2025
Top Recommended Replacements
Pulumi (S3/Self-Hosted Backend)
FREEBest Direct Swap
Why we like it
You can use the full Pulumi CLI for free by simply typing `pulumi login s3://my-bucket`; this stores your state file in your own cloud storage (costing pennies) instead of Pulumi's SaaS; supports encryption via AWS KMS.
Keep in mind
You lose the nice Web UI history and clickable diffs (it's CLI only).
SST (Ion)
FREEBest for AWS Devs
Why we like it
The 'Next-Gen' IaC; it uses a Pulumi/Terraform bridge under the hood but offers a vastly superior developer experience (Zero-Config); completely free and open source; deploys to AWS instantly.
Keep in mind
AWS focused (though expanding); less 'general purpose' than raw Pulumi.
CDK for Terraform (CDKTF)
FREEBest Enterprise Alternative
Why we like it
Allows you to write TypeScript/Python/Go (like Pulumi) but compiles it down to standard Terraform/OpenTofu code; this gives you the 'Safety' of the vast Terraform ecosystem with the 'Power' of code.
Keep in mind
Slightly slower 'compile' step compared to native Pulumi.
OpenTofu
FREEBest Standard IaC
Why we like it
If you don't *need* a programming language (TypeScript) and are fine with configuration (HCL), OpenTofu is the industry standard free tool; strictly declarative and easier for Ops teams to audit.
Keep in mind
HCL is not a real programming language (no loops/if-statements in the traditional sense).
Winglang
FREEBest Cloud Agnostic
Why we like it
A new language designed specifically for cloud infra; write code once and deploy to AWS, Azure, or GCP without changing logic; creates a true 'Cloud Abstraction Layer'.
Keep in mind
New language to learn; smaller community.
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