No. 17 of 24 ·Infrastructure as Code Tools

AWS CDK

Windows · Mac · Linux

Freedom report

Two barsScore 5.1

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely3 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedThinly documented

AWS CDK is ranked #17 of 24 in infrastructure as code tools on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, macOS, Windows. There is a free plan.

AWS CDK plans and pricing

All plans

AWS CDK Free No charge for using AWS CDK; pay for AWS resources deployed by the tool. Charges may apply for deployed AWS resources aws.amazon.com · 5 Oct 2026

Compared on infrastructure as code tools

Free plan: Yes
Configuration language: general-purpose language
Supported clouds: AWS
State management: managed
Policy as code: Yes
Drift detection: Yes
Import existing resources: Yes
Self-hosted execution: Yes

Best AWS CDK alternatives

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Two bars Terraform Free tier No. 1$0.10/mo6.7 Two bars AWS CloudFormation Free tier No. 2Free6.6 Two bars Cloudify Free tier No. 3Free6.6 Two bars Kusion Free tier No. 4Free6.6 Two bars Pulumi Free tier No. 5$40/mo6.6 Two bars Terramate Free tier No. 6$449/mo6.6

The record

Purpose: AWS CDK lets you define cloud application resources using familiar programming languages.
Infrastructure as code: CDK applications define AWS infrastructure in supported programming languages and deploy it through AWS CloudFormation.
Languages: The stable language bindings are TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Java, C#/.NET, and Go.
Construct library: The AWS Construct Library provides reusable constructs covering many AWS services and features.
IDE integration: AWS CDK Explorer is a preview feature in the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code for browsing CDK projects, stacks, resources, and policies.
CI/CD: CDK Pipelines supports deploying applications through CI/CD pipelines to testing, integration, and production environments.
Resource costs: Using the CDK itself has no charge, while AWS resources deployed with it can incur charges.
Prerequisite: AWS CDK developers require Node.js 22.x or later, regardless of the application language they use.
Deployment security: CDK deployments use configured AWS credentials and IAM roles, and AWS recommends managing access according to IAM security best practices.
Security limitation: CDK cannot guarantee that custom constructs enforce compliance because general-purpose code can bypass their checks.
Intended users: AWS describes CDK as a framework for developers and administrators defining cloud infrastructure with supported programming languages.
Company background: Amazon Web Services is part of Amazon and launched in 2006.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Infrastructure as Code Tools in 2026#17 of 24

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Sources

aws.amazon.com/cdk/· checked 5 Oct 2026
docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/home.html· checked 5 Oct 2026
docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/versioning.html· checked 5 Oct 2026
aws.amazon.com/cdk/features/· checked 5 Oct 2026
docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/best-practices.html· checked 5 Oct 2026
aws.amazon.com/jp/blogs/aws/aws-cloud-development-kit-· checked 5 Oct 2026
docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/prerequisites.html· checked 5 Oct 2026
docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/security-iam.html· checked 5 Oct 2026
docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/security.html· checked 5 Oct 2026
aws.amazon.com/about-aws/· checked 5 Oct 2026