Pulumi
Configuration management tools
Cloud infrastructure automation software
DevOps software
CI/CD tools
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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$40 per month
Free TrialFree version
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- Information technology and software
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- Transportation and logistics
What is Pulumi
Pulumi is an infrastructure as code (IaC) platform used to provision and manage cloud resources using general-purpose programming languages. It targets platform engineering, DevOps, and development teams that want to define infrastructure alongside application code and reuse existing language tooling and libraries. Pulumi supports multiple cloud providers and Kubernetes and can run via a managed service or self-managed backends for state and collaboration. It differentiates from template- or DSL-based IaC by using languages such as TypeScript, Python, Go, .NET, and YAML for infrastructure definitions.
General-purpose language IaC
Pulumi lets teams author infrastructure using common programming languages, enabling loops, conditionals, functions, and packaging patterns that are harder to express in purely declarative formats. This approach can reduce context switching for developers who already work in these languages. It also allows reuse of existing IDE features, linters, and unit-testing frameworks. For teams standardizing on software engineering practices for infrastructure, this can improve maintainability.
Multi-cloud and Kubernetes coverage
Pulumi provides providers for major public clouds and Kubernetes, enabling a consistent workflow across environments. Teams can manage cloud resources and Kubernetes objects within the same project and language runtime. This supports use cases such as provisioning cloud primitives and then deploying cluster add-ons or application manifests. It can be useful for organizations operating across more than one cloud or mixing cloud and Kubernetes deployments.
Collaboration and policy controls
Pulumi includes state management and collaboration features through Pulumi Cloud, and it also supports self-managed state backends. It offers policy-as-code capabilities (Pulumi CrossGuard) to enforce guardrails such as tagging, encryption, and network restrictions during deployments. These controls help standardize infrastructure changes across teams and repositories. The combination supports governance needs without requiring a separate configuration management product for many cloud provisioning scenarios.
Programming model adds complexity
Using general-purpose languages introduces software engineering concerns such as dependency management, versioning, and runtime behavior. Teams may need stronger code review, testing, and module design practices to keep infrastructure projects understandable. Debugging failures can involve both cloud provider errors and language/runtime issues. This can be a learning curve for operators accustomed to purely declarative IaC.
State and workflow considerations
Like other stateful IaC tools, Pulumi requires careful handling of state, secrets, and concurrent updates to avoid drift and failed deployments. Organizations must choose between the managed service and self-managed backends and define operational processes for backups and access control. Migration between backends or restructuring stacks/projects can require planning. These operational details can be non-trivial in regulated or large-scale environments.
Not a full CI/CD suite
Pulumi integrates with CI systems and can be used in deployment pipelines, but it does not replace end-to-end CI/CD platforms that provide build orchestration, release management, and extensive pipeline governance. Teams typically pair it with existing source control and CI runners for approvals, artifact handling, and environment promotion. Organizations seeking a single tool for application delivery and infrastructure may need additional products. This can increase integration and maintenance work across the toolchain.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| Individual | Free (Free forever) | Free for individuals and open-source use; IaC state management; unlimited projects, stacks, updates & history; 500 free deployment minutes; 25 free ESC secrets; 10K free API calls/month; 1 member. |
| Team | $40 / mo | Up to 10 users; 500 IaC resources included; additional resources billed on-demand at $0.00025/hour (listed as $0.185/month) per resource; 3,000 workflow minutes included; workflow/deployment minutes billed at $0.01/min beyond included; features: secure collaboration, CI/CD integrations, Pulumi Neo AI assistance, OIDC, webhooks, automatic secrets rotation, community support; start a free trial. |
| Enterprise | $400 / mo | 2,000 IaC resources included; additional resources start at $0.0005/hour ($0.365/month) per resource (volume discounts available); unlimited users; SAML/SSO & RBAC; audit logs; drift detection; time-to-live stacks; priority feature requests; contact sales / start trial. |
| Business Critical | Custom / Contact sales | Custom pricing for advanced governance and controls; includes self-hosting option (Self-Hosted Pulumi included in Business Critical); compliance policies, org-wide policy enforcement, SCIM, audit logs export, volume pricing & invoicing, private Slack & Professional Services, 24x7 Enterprise Support; 14-day free trial for Business-critical Edition (site) and 30-day free trial for Self-Hosted activation. |
Additional usage-based pricing & notes:
- Pulumi Deployments (agent/execution minutes): $0.01 per deployment minute (charges are in addition to Pulumi Cloud edition billing). (Pulumi product page)
- ESC secret management (on-demand): Team billed at $0.000685/hour ($0.50 per secret per month); Enterprise at $0.001/hour ($0.75 per secret per month). 25 free secrets for Individual edition; 10K free API calls/month.
- Billing options: self-serve monthly (card) billed in arrears; prepaid committed usage available via sales with discounts.
- Open-source / non-profit usage: Open-source Free edition available for qualifying non-profit/open-source projects.
Seller details
Pulumi Corporation
Seattle, WA, USA
2017
Private
https://www.pulumi.com/
https://x.com/pulumicorp
https://www.linkedin.com/company/pulumi/
