Pulumi vs OpenTofu
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Pulumi and OpenTofu built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
Choose Pulumi if…
Infrastructure written in a language you already know, with a managed cloud that is free forever for individuals and open source — one user, unlimited projects and state management at $0.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose OpenTofu if…
Not having a vendor. OpenTofu is a drop-in replacement for Terraform held by the Linux Foundation specifically so a licence change cannot happen to it again — free, self-hosted, with providers and modules from its own registry.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- Pulumi: Your estate is large. Pulumi meters resources under management at $0.1825 each a month past the first 500, so the bill tracks how much infrastructure you have rather than how often you change it — Scalr charges per run and explicitly nothing per resource.
- OpenTofu: Somebody has to answer for who changed what. There is no account, so there is no audit trail and no SSO — access control is whatever your CI and state backend enforce, which is exactly the gap the other three sell into.
5 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Pulumi 0
OpenTofu 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Pulumi | OpenTofu |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| What the free plan includes | One user, IaC state management, unlimited projects and updates, up to 500 workflow minutes, and 5 million Pulumi Neo tokens a month — free forever for individuals and open source. | Everything, with no account. Providers and modules come from the OpenTofu Registry, and the project states an aim of feature parity with Terraform for future releases. |
| Entry paid plan | $40/month for Team, which includes 40 Credits at $1 each and up to 500 resources; beyond that usage is billed on demand at $0.1825 per IaC resource per month. | None. OpenTofu is the tool rather than a platform: there is nothing to buy, no hosted state and no vendor to bill you — which is the reason the other three in this category exist. |
| Pricing model | Per resource under management, converted through a credit: 1 Credit = $1, one IaC resource costs 0.1825 a month and one managed secret 0.50. Workflow minutes are metered separately at $0.01 past 500 free. | Nothing is metered because nothing is sold. Governance rather than price is the pitch: the project is held by the Linux Foundation specifically so a licence change cannot happen to it again. |
| Observability | ||
| Self-hostable | Supported — Listed as a line item on the plan comparison, not a separate product | Supported |
| Auth | ||
| SAML single sign-on | Supported — SAML/SSO with RBAC, on Enterprise; SCIM sync on the tier above | Not supported — No account and no directory to federate with; access control is your own CI and state backend |
| Audit logs | Supported — Enterprise tier, above the $40/month Team plan | None, and there cannot be: OpenTofu is a binary you run, with no account, no hosted state and no service to keep a trail of. What a platform sells is partly this. |
Where they differ.
What the free plan includes
- Pulumi
- One user, IaC state management, unlimited projects and updates, up to 500 workflow minutes, and 5 million Pulumi Neo tokens a month — free forever for individuals and open source.
- OpenTofu
- Everything, with no account. Providers and modules come from the OpenTofu Registry, and the project states an aim of feature parity with Terraform for future releases.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pulumi Pricing ↗
“limited updates and history Up to 500 workflow minutes Pulumi Neo with 5M free tokens/month”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- OpenTofu ↗
“Where can I find providers and modules for OpenTofu? The OpenTofu Registry host”
Read 2026-09-15 · official site
Entry paid plan
- Pulumi
- $40/month for Team, which includes 40 Credits at $1 each and up to 500 resources; beyond that usage is billed on demand at $0.1825 per IaC resource per month.
- OpenTofu
- None. OpenTofu is the tool rather than a platform: there is nothing to buy, no hosted state and no vendor to bill you — which is the reason the other three in this category exist.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pulumi Pricing ↗
“Team Everything you need to get started. $40 /month Includes 40 Credits Up to 500 resources, additional usage billed on demand”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- OpenTofu ↗
“It serves as a drop-in replacement for Terraform, preserving your existing workflows”
Read 2026-09-15 · official site
Pricing model
- Pulumi
- Per resource under management, converted through a credit: 1 Credit = $1, one IaC resource costs 0.1825 a month and one managed secret 0.50. Workflow minutes are metered separately at $0.01 past 500 free.
- OpenTofu
- Nothing is metered because nothing is sold. Governance rather than price is the pitch: the project is held by the Linux Foundation specifically so a licence change cannot happen to it again.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pulumi Pricing ↗
“Additional usage, in Credits (1 Credit = $1) 1 IaC resource 0.1825/month 1 managed secret 0.50/”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- OpenTofu ↗
“This risk is minimized by giving OpenTofu to the Linux Foundation, and OpenTofu's aim of maintaining feature parity with Terraform for future releases reduces the te”
Read 2026-09-15 · official site
SAML single sign-on
- Pulumi
- Supported — SAML/SSO with RBAC, on Enterprise; SCIM sync on the tier above
- OpenTofu
- Not supported — No account and no directory to federate with; access control is your own CI and state backend
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pulumi Pricing ↗
“EVERYTHING IN TEAM, PLUS: Unlimited users SAML/SSO and RBAC Neo scheduled tasks Internal developer platform (IDP) Audit logs”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- OpenTofu ↗
“community-driven infrastructure as code tool under the Linux Foundation's stewardship”
Read 2026-09-15 · official site
Audit logs
- Pulumi
- Supported — Enterprise tier, above the $40/month Team plan
- OpenTofu
- None, and there cannot be: OpenTofu is a binary you run, with no account, no hosted state and no service to keep a trail of. What a platform sells is partly this.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pulumi Pricing ↗
“Unlimited users SAML/SSO and RBAC Neo scheduled tasks Internal developer platform (IDP) Audit logs Drift detection and remediation”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- OpenTofu ↗
“It serves as a drop-in replacement for Terraform, preserving your existing workflows”
Read 2026-09-15 · official site
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: Pulumi or OpenTofu?
Pulumi: $40/month for Team, which includes 40 Credits at $1 each and up to 500 resources; beyond that usage is billed on demand at $0.1825 per IaC resource per month.
OpenTofu: None. OpenTofu is the tool rather than a platform: there is nothing to buy, no hosted state and no vendor to bill you — which is the reason the other three in this category exist.
Should I choose Pulumi or OpenTofu?
Pick Pulumi if Infrastructure written in a language you already know, with a managed cloud that is free forever for individuals and open source — one user, unlimited projects and state management at $0.
Pick OpenTofu if Not having a vendor. OpenTofu is a drop-in replacement for Terraform held by the Linux Foundation specifically so a licence change cannot happen to it again — free, self-hosted, with providers and modules from its own registry.