Softwr

Technology · head to head

PagerDuty vs Pulumi

PagerDuty logo

PagerDuty

Technology

Real-time operations for real-time business

From
$21/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Pulumi logo

Pulumi

Cloud

Modern infrastructure as code using programming languages

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Pulumi has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: PagerDuty aIOps, status pages, and live call routing are expensive add-ons not included in base plans, significantly increasing total cost; Pulumi the free Individual plan allows one user and one concurrent stack update
  • They diverge on capability: PagerDuty covers Incident response, Pulumi covers Multi-language support.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which PagerDuty and Pulumi actually diverge.

Attributes where PagerDuty and Pulumi differ
AttributePagerDutyPulumi
Starting price$21/monthFree
Pricing modelUnknownsubscription
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Ios, Android, ApiLinux, Windows, Mac, Api
CategoryTechnologyCloud
Founded20092017

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in PagerDuty

  • Incident response
  • On-call management
  • Alert grouping
  • Escalation policies
  • Mobile incident management
  • Postmortems
  • Status pages
  • Event intelligence

Only in Pulumi

  • Multi-language support
  • Multi-cloud
  • State management
  • Secrets management
  • RBAC
  • Stacks
  • Automation API
  • Policy as Code

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

PagerDuty

  • Incident managementnot Pulumi
  • On-call schedulingnot Pulumi
  • Real-time alertingnot Pulumi
  • Service reliabilitynot Pulumi
  • Digital operationsnot Pulumi

Pulumi

  • Infrastructure as codenot PagerDuty
  • Cloud resource provisioningnot PagerDuty
  • DevOps automationnot PagerDuty
  • Multi-cloud managementnot PagerDuty

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

PagerDuty

  • AIOps, status pages, and live call routing are expensive add-ons not included in base plans, significantly increasing total cost
  • Complex escalation policies require workarounds for scheduling patterns beyond basic weekly rotations
  • 5-user minimum requirement forces costs even for small teams, with forced Business tier upgrades adding $12,000+ annually for larger teams

Pulumi

  • The free Individual plan allows one user and one concurrent stack update
  • The Team plan is $40 per month base including 40 credits, and caps the organisation at 10 users
  • SAML/SSO, RBAC, audit logs and drift detection require the Enterprise plan at $400 per month base
  • The per-resource rate rises from $0.1825 per resource per month on Team to $0.365 on Enterprise, so upgrading raises the unit price as well as the base fee
  • Managed secrets are billed separately at $0.50 per secret per month on Team and $0.75 on Enterprise
  • Self-hosting, SCIM user sync, audit log export and 24x7 support are only in Business Critical, which is custom priced with no published rate
  • Team includes up to 500 resources and Enterprise up to 2,000, with everything beyond billed on demand as credits

Pricing, plan by plan

PagerDuty

$21/month

No published plan breakdown. See the PagerDuty review.

Pulumi

Free
  • IndividualFree
    • 1 user
    • Unlimited projects/stacks
    • 500 workflow minutes monthly
  • Team$40/month
    • Up to 10 users
    • Secure collaboration
    • CI/CD integration
  • Enterprise$400/month
    • Unlimited users
    • SAML/SSO
    • RBAC
  • Business Critical$null/custom
    • Self-hosting
    • Advanced compliance
    • SCIM integration

Which should you pick?

Choose PagerDuty if

  • You need incident response.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android, Api.
  • You also want on-call management.
PagerDuty review

Choose Pulumi if

  • You need multi-language support.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, Mac, Api.
  • You also want multi-cloud.
Pulumi review

Questions people ask

Is PagerDuty or Pulumi better?
Neither clearly leads. PagerDuty starts at $21/month and Pulumi at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, PagerDuty or Pulumi?
Pulumi has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $21/month for PagerDuty and Free for Pulumi.
Does PagerDuty or Pulumi run on more platforms?
PagerDuty runs on Web, Ios, Android, Api. Pulumi runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Api.
Can I use Pulumi for free?
Yes. Pulumi has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. PagerDuty starts at $21/month.
What is PagerDuty best used for?
PagerDuty is most often used for incident management, on-call scheduling, real-time alerting, service reliability. Of those, incident management and on-call scheduling are not what Pulumi is typically brought in for.
What can PagerDuty do that Pulumi cannot?
PagerDuty covers Incident response, On-call management, Alert grouping, Escalation policies. Pulumi covers Multi-language support, Multi-cloud, State management, Secrets management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

PagerDuty: What is the minimum cost to use PagerDuty?

PagerDuty requires a minimum of 5 users per account. The Professional plan starts at $21 per user per month ($105/month minimum), with annual billing providing 16% discount.

Source
Pulumi: How much does Pulumi cost?

Pulumi offers a free Individual tier forever, Team plan at $40/month with 40 credits, and Enterprise at $400/month with 400 credits. Credit usage varies by resource type and workflow needs.

Source
PagerDuty: What integrations does PagerDuty support?

PagerDuty integrates with 750+ monitoring, ticketing, and collaboration tools including Datadog, Slack, Jira, ServiceNow, New Relic, and Nagios.

Source
Pulumi: What is included in the Pulumi free tier?

The free Individual tier includes 1 user, unlimited projects/stacks, 500 workflow minutes monthly, and 5 million Neo tokens free.

Source
PagerDuty: How much does AIOps cost in PagerDuty?

AIOps Intelligence is sold separately as an add-on starting at $699 per month, and is not included in any of the base plans.

Source
Pulumi: How are Pulumi credits charged?

1 Pulumi Credit equals $1 USD. Credits are drawn from a shared pool. IaC resources cost $0.1825/month per resource on Team and $0.365 on Enterprise; ESC secrets cost $0.50-$0.75/month; workflow minutes cost $0.01 each.

Source
Pulumi: Does Pulumi offer volume discounts?

Yes, the Enterprise tier ($400/month) includes volume discounts and is designed for approximately 2,000 IaC resources.

Source
Share

Related pages

More on PagerDuty

More on Pulumi

Keep looking

Other head to heads