IaC Tool Pricing Comparison: Terraform, Crossplane, and Pulumi

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has transformed how organizations manage and provision IT infrastructure. Representing infrastructure declaratively through code, IaC offers numerous benefits, including increased efficiency, reduced errors, and improved collaboration. Pricing is an important factor when choosing an IaC tool. This article compares the pricing models of three popular IaC tools: Terraform, Crossplane, and Pulumi, while also exploring their underlying philosophies and open-source options.

Comparing Philosophies

While Terraform, Crossplane, and Pulumi all aim to streamline infrastructure management, they differ in their core approaches. Terraform and Pulumi are imperative tools, relying on explicit commands to provision infrastructure. Terraform utilizes HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL), a domain-specific language for infrastructure management, known for its simplicity and readability. Pulumi, on the other hand, takes a developer-centric approach, allowing infrastructure to be defined using general-purpose programming languages like Python, TypeScript, and Go. This enables developers to leverage existing skills and integrate infrastructure code with application code.

Crossplane distinguishes itself with a declarative philosophy rooted in Kubernetes. It operates within a Kubernetes environment, using continuous reconciliation to maintain the desired state automatically. This approach aligns with Kubernetes' native operations, making Crossplane a natural choice for Kubernetes-centric environments.

Terraform

Terraform, developed by HashiCorp, is an IaC tool widely adopted for its extensive provider ecosystem. It uses HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) to define and manage infrastructure resources. While the Terraform CLI is open source, HashiCorp has changed the license for Terraform to the Business Source License (BSL). Terraform offers both a free tier and a paid version called Terraform Cloud.

Terraform Cloud Pricing

Terraform Cloud's pricing is based on a Resources Under Management (RUM) model. This means that the cost is calculated based on the number of resources managed by Terraform, such as cloud instances, Kubernetes clusters, and security groups. The pricing structure includes:

• Free Tier: This tier offers up to 500 resources per month and includes all the essential capabilities needed for IaC provisioning.

• Standard Tier: This tier is designed for professional individuals or teams adopting IaC provisioning. The pricing starts at $0.00014 per hour per resource. The first 500 resources per month are free.

• Plus Tier: This tier is a custom offering designed for enterprises standardizing and managing infrastructure automation and lifecycle with scalable runs.

It's important to note that Terraform Cloud's pricing has undergone recent changes, moving away from a user-based model to the RUM model. This has resulted in cost increases for some customers. Additionally, this shift to RUM-based pricing makes cost projections more challenging for DevOps teams, as the number of resources managed can fluctuate.

Terraform Enterprise

Terraform Enterprise is another offering from HashiCorp, providing advanced features for collaborative infrastructure as code, compliance, and self-service infrastructure. On the Azure Marketplace, Terraform Cloud and Enterprise start at a one-time payment of $15,000 for one year. On the AWS Marketplace, Terraform Enterprise includes five workspaces and bronze support, with pricing starting at $15,000 for 12 months, $30,000 for 24 months, and $45,000 for 36 months. The average cost for Terraform Enterprise is about $37,000 annually.

Crossplane

Crossplane is an open-source Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) project that extends Kubernetes to enable platform teams to assemble infrastructure from multiple vendors and expose higher-level self-service APIs for application teams. It allows platform teams to define and manage infrastructure resources using a declarative approach.

Crossplane Pricing

Crossplane is a fully open-source project under the Apache License 2.0 and is provided at no cost. Users have the flexibility to modify and share it, making it an attractive option for those seeking customization and control over their infrastructure management tools.

A key feature of Crossplane is its managementPolicies, which allow users to control how Crossplane manages resources. These policies offer flexibility in managing external resources by defining whether Crossplane can create, update, delete, or simply observe them. This granular control enables users to tailor Crossplane's behavior to their specific needs and preferences.

Crossplane's new architecture offers significant cost savings due to improved efficiency. Benchmarks have shown that the new architecture provides a substantial speedup in resource provisioning and a significant reduction in memory and CPU utilization.

Upbound

Upbound is the company behind Crossplane and offers a managed Crossplane experience with enterprise features. Upbound provides a unified platform for building and managing control planes, simplifying Crossplane development with automated workflows, real-time validation, and free cloud-based testing.

Pulumi

Pulumi is an open-source IaC platform that allows developers to use familiar programming languages like Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, Go, C#, F#, Java, and YAML to define and manage infrastructure. This approach enables developers to leverage their existing coding skills and integrate infrastructure management seamlessly into their development workflows.

Pulumi Pricing

Pulumi offers a variety of pricing plans to cater to different needs:

• Individual: This plan is free forever and provides automatic state management, unlimited updates, and essential features for individual use. Pulumi Cloud is free for unlimited individual use, making it a very attractive option for individuals and small teams.

• Team: This plan is designed for growing teams and cloud projects. It costs $0.37 per resource per month and $0.50 per secret per month. This plan includes 150k free Pulumi Credits per month, letting you manage up to 200 cloud resources for free every month.

• Enterprise: This plan offers advanced cloud engineering capabilities for large teams in production. It costs $1.10 per resource per month (with volume pricing available) and $0.75 per secret per month (with volume pricing available).

• Business Critical: This plan offers self-hosting capabilities, organizational policies, audit log exports, and 24x7 support.

Pulumi also offers a Team Edition for Open Source, providing maintainers of open-source projects with access to the Team Edition of the Pulumi Service at no cost.

Pulumi Deployments:

Pulumi Deployments is a feature that allows users to automate infrastructure deployments. It costs $0.01 per deployment minute. Pulumi Deployments offers features like:

• GitHub Enterprise integration, enabling developers to provision infrastructure through GitHub.

• ChatOps integration, providing status notifications in Slack and Microsoft Teams.

• Self-hosted runners, allowing users to run agents on their own private infrastructure.

Open-Source and Free Versions

All three tools offer open-source or free versions:

• Terraform: The core Terraform CLI is open-source and free to use. However, Terraform Cloud, which provides a managed experience, has a paid pricing model.

  • OpenTofu: OpenTofu is a fully open-source Terraform fork and a drop-in replacement for Terraform, offering backward compatibility. It provides an alternative for users concerned about Terraform's licensing changes.

• Crossplane: Crossplane is a fully open-source project under the Apache License 2.0.

• Pulumi: Pulumi's Infrastructure as Code CLI and SDK are open-source and supported by an active community.

Discounts and Promotions

• Terraform: Terraform offers deal registration discounts for partners.

• Pulumi: Pulumi offers a program called "Pulumi for Startups" that provides early-stage companies with access to its IaC platform, helping them manage and automate cloud infrastructure using their preferred programming languages.

• Training Discounts: Training discounts might be available from third-party providers like Accelebrate.

Additional Costs

In addition to the direct costs associated with each tool, there may be additional costs to consider, such as:

• Cloud Provider Costs: IaC tools manage cloud resources, and the cost of those resources will vary depending on the cloud provider and the specific resources used. For example, AWS provides a pricing calculator to estimate the cost of its services.

• Training Costs: While all three tools have extensive documentation and community support, organizations may incur costs for training their teams on how to effectively use the chosen IaC tool.

Conclusion

Choosing the right IaC tool involves evaluating various factors, including pricing, features, and ease of use. Terraform, Crossplane, and Pulumi each offer unique advantages and cater to different needs and preferences.

Terraform is a mature and widely adopted tool with a large provider ecosystem. Its HCL language is relatively easy to learn, making it suitable for teams with varying levels of coding experience. However, the recent licensing change to BSL and the shift to RUM-based pricing might be a concern for some users.

Crossplane stands out with its Kubernetes-native approach and open-source nature. It provides a powerful platform for building and managing control planes, offering flexibility and cost-effectiveness. However, it requires Kubernetes expertise and might have a steeper learning curve for teams unfamiliar with Kubernetes concepts.

Pulumi appeals to developers with its support for familiar programming languages and its focus on developer-centric workflows. It offers a free tier for individual users and a range of pricing plans for teams of different sizes. However, the cost can increase significantly as the number of resources managed grows.

Organizations should consider factors such as their existing infrastructure, team skills, and budget constraints when choosing between these tools. For example:

• Small teams or individuals starting with IaC might find Pulumi's free tier and ease of use appealing.

• Large enterprises with complex infrastructure requirements might benefit from Terraform's mature ecosystem and enterprise support.

• Kubernetes-centric environments might find Crossplane's native integration and declarative approach advantageous.

The following table summarizes the key features and pricing of each tool:

By carefully considering the pricing models, features, and associated costs, organizations can make informed decisions that align with their budget and infrastructure management requirements.