Infrastructure as code · September 2026 Edition
Terraform vs Pulumi
Ten of twelve models named Terraform first on the direct prompt; zero named Pulumi. Both were named by all twelve models and Terraform carries 70 labels and Pulumi 66, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in one category this edition.
Named in one category this edition.
First-choice share46%7%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate20%6%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#3A position in a field of 12; printed, not drawn.
Labels7066A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Terraform reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.OpenTofu was named alongside these two in eight of the twelve direct answers. Terraform vs OpenTofu · OpenTofu vs Pulumi
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the infrastructure as code page.
By framing
How many of the twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
TerraformFirst choices, of twelve modelsPulumi
Direct100
Paraphrase901 against Terraform
Comparative103
Budget-constrained305 against Terraform · 3 against Pulumi
Scale-constrained44
Negative217 against Terraform · 1 against Pulumi
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.
The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Terraform and Pulumi stood in it.
Terraform first, Pulumi an alternative
10 of 12 modelsPulumi was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Claude Haiku 4.5Terraform alternatives: AWS CloudFormation, Ansible, Pulumi
GPT-5.4 miniOpenTofu, Terraform alternatives: AWS CloudFormation, Azure Bicep, Pulumi
Perplexity SonarTerraform alternatives: Ansible, OpenTofu, Pulumi
Grok 4.1 FastOpenTofu, Terraform alternatives: AWS CloudFormation / CDK, Atlantis, Pulumi
Mistral SmallTerraform alternatives: AWS CDK, Azure Bicep, OpenTofu, Pulumi
DeepSeek V4 FlashTerraform alternatives: AWS CloudFormation, Ansible, OpenTofu, Pulumi
Qwen 3.7 FlashTerraform alternatives: AWS CDK, Ansible, Azure Bicep, Pulumi
Kimi K2OpenTofu, Terraform alternatives: AWS CDK, Pulumi
GLM 4.7 FlashXOpenTofu, Terraform alternatives: AWS CDK, AWS CloudFormation, Pulumi
MiniMax M2.5Terraform alternatives: AWS CloudFormation, Pulumi
Neither was the first choice, one was named
1 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Gemini 3.5 FlashOpenTofu alternatives: Pulumi, Spacelift, Terraform, env0
Neither was named
1 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Llama 4 Maverickno first choice
Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Terraform leads by forty-two points.
Terraform50%#1 of 11Pulumi8%#3 of 11Mid-marketThe figures above
Terraform leads by thirty-nine points.
Terraform46%#1 of 12Pulumi7%#3 of 12Enterprise
Terraform leads by forty-six points.
Terraform58%#1 of 14Pulumi12%#3 of 14What the models said about Terraform
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“Avoid starting new projects with: 1. Terraform under BSL (use OpenTofu instead)” Kimi K2 · negative prompt · hard negative
“HashiCorp changed Terraform’s license from the open-source MPL 2.0 to the restrictive Business Source License (BSL)... raises long-term concerns about price hikes” Qwen 3.7 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“Terraform's 2023 licensing change to BUSL-1.1 (no longer open source) and inherent limitations with domain-specific languages create challenges” Claude Haiku 4.5 · negative prompt · soft negative
“Terraform is often the safest choice for mid-market companies because it offers flexibility, a mature ecosystem, strong community support, and cloud-agnostic capabilities” Claude Haiku 4.5 · direct prompt · first choice
“For most mid-sized B2B companies, Terraform is the safest and most flexible choice due to its maturity, multi-cloud support, and extensive ecosystem.” Mistral Small · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“For a typical mid-market B2B company, I'd usually start with Terraform — or OpenTofu if you want an open-source, community-governed alternative.” GPT-5.4 mini · direct prompt · first choice
What the models said about Pulumi
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“Pulumi's free tier is limited: The free Individual tier supports only 1 user, making it impractical for teams without paying.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · budget prompt · soft negative
“Team tier is paid (~$40–$150+/user/month); higher learning curve for ops teams not comfortable with programming.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · budget prompt · soft negative
“Pitfalls: Less mature ecosystem/modules than Terraform, "footguns" from general-purpose languages” Grok 4.1 Fast · negative prompt · soft negative
“If your developers are already writing TypeScript/Python, Pulumi or AWS CDK can flatten the learning curve significantly.” Kimi K2 · scale prompt · first choice
“The best infrastructure as code tools in 2026 are Pulumi, Terraform, OpenTofu... Pulumi offers a distinct approach” Claude Haiku 4.5 · comparative prompt · first choice
“Pulumi | Strong multi-language support, excellent secrets engine, and great developer UX.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · scale prompt · first choice
Comparisons are drawn for the top three products in each category. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.