Cloud & Infrastructure · head to head
Pulumi vs Vagrant
Pulumi
Cloud & Infrastructure
Modern infrastructure as code using programming languages
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Pulumi the free Individual plan allows one user and one concurrent stack update; Vagrant vagrant 2.4.3 and later is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1 with IBM Corporation as licensor, not an OSI open source licence
- They diverge on capability: Pulumi covers Multi-language support, Vagrant covers Box management.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Pulumi and Vagrant actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cloud & Infrastructure).
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 Pulumi
- Multi-language support
- Multi-cloud
- State management
- Secrets management
- RBAC
- Stacks
- Automation API
- Policy as Code
Only in Vagrant
- Box management
- Provider support
- Multi-machine setups
- Provisioners
- Networking
- Synced folders
- Snapshots
- Plugins
Both cover
- AWS
- On-premise deployment
- Cloud deployment
- Linux support
- Windows support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Pulumi
- Defining cloud infrastructure as code in TypeScript, Python, Go, C# or Java rather than a DSLnot Vagrant
- Managing Pulumi state and secrets in a hosted backend instead of self-managed storagenot Vagrant
- Policy, drift detection and deployment workflows for platform engineering teamsnot Vagrant
Vagrant
- Reproducible local development environments defined in a Vagrantfilenot Pulumi
- Provisioning identical VMs across VirtualBox, VMware and Hyper-V for a teamnot Pulumi
- Sandboxing multi-machine setups on a developer laptopnot Pulumi
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
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
Vagrant
- Vagrant 2.4.3 and later is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1 with IBM Corporation as licensor, not an OSI open source licence
- The Additional Use Grant forbids offering Vagrant to third parties on a hosted or embedded basis in a paid product that competes with IBM's paid versions of Vagrant
- Each version converts to the MPL 2.0 Change License only four years after that version is first published
- Uses that fall outside the Additional Use Grant require a separately negotiated licence from the licensor
Pricing, plan by plan
Pulumi
Free- Pulumi CommunityFree
- Open source
- Community support
- Self-hosted
- Pulumi Cloud$10/month
- Hosted backend
- Team collaboration
- RBAC
Vagrant
Free- Open SourceFree
- Development environment provisioning
- Multiple providers
- Provisioner support
Which should you pick?
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.
Choose Vagrant if
- You need box management.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, Windows, Mac.
- You also want provider support.
Questions people ask
- Is Pulumi or Vagrant better?
- Neither clearly leads. Pulumi starts at Free and Vagrant at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Pulumi or Vagrant?
- Pulumi starts at Free and Vagrant at Free.
- Does Pulumi or Vagrant run on more platforms?
- Pulumi runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Api. Vagrant runs on Linux, Windows, Mac.
- Can I use Pulumi for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Pulumi best used for?
- Pulumi is most often used for defining cloud infrastructure as code in typescript, python, go, c# or java rather than a dsl, managing pulumi state and secrets in a hosted backend instead of self-managed storage, policy, drift detection and deployment workflows for platform engineering teams. Of those, defining cloud infrastructure as code in typescript, python, go, c# or java rather than a dsl and managing pulumi state and secrets in a hosted backend instead of self-managed storage are not what Vagrant is typically brought in for.
- What can Pulumi do that Vagrant cannot?
- Pulumi covers Multi-language support, Multi-cloud, State management, Secrets management. Vagrant covers Box management, Provider support, Multi-machine setups, Provisioners. Both handle AWS, On-premise deployment, Cloud deployment, Linux support.