AWS CDK vs AWS CloudFormation
| AWS CDK | AWS CloudFormation | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Free trial | No | No |
| Paid from | — | Free |
| Open source | No | No |
| Platforms | — | api, Linux, macOS, Web, Windows |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Configuration language | general-purpose language | yaml/json |
| Supported clouds | AWS | AWS |
| State management | managed | managed |
| Policy as code | Yes | Yes |
| Drift detection | Yes | Yes |
| Import existing resources | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted execution | Yes | Yes |
Both are listed in Best Infrastructure as Code Tools. On Inferse, AWS CloudFormation scores higher on our published basis.