# Infrastructure as code: what AI models recommend, November 2026 Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "infrastructure-as-code tool" and as "IaC platform for provisioning cloud resources", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/cloud/infrastructure-as-code **Standing:** Terraform leads with 58% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 64 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts. ## First-choice share | Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | [Terraform](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/terraform/index.md) | 58% | 17% | 87 | | 2 | [OpenTofu](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/opentofu/index.md) | 31% | 4% | 57 | | 3 | [Pulumi](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/pulumi/index.md) | 6% | 8% | 75 | | 5 | [Ansible](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/ansible/index.md) | 2% | 22% | 50 | | 6 | [AWS CloudFormation](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-cloudformation/index.md) | 0% | 22% | 65 | | 7 | [AWS CDK](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-cdk/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 38 | | 8 | [Azure Bicep](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-bicep/index.md) | 0% | 20% | 41 | | 9 | [Crossplane](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/crossplane/index.md) | 0% | 23% | 30 | | 10 | [Spacelift](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/spacelift/index.md) | 0% | 12% | 17 | | 11 | [env0](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/env0/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 10 | | 25 | [Google Cloud Deployment Manager](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-cloud-deployment-manager/index.md) | 0% | 33% | 12 | | 39 | [Puppet](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/puppet/index.md) | 0% | 50% | 18 | Rank is by share of first choices among all 41 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels. ## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt - Claude Haiku 4.5: Terraform; alternatives AWS CDK, OpenTofu, Pulumi - GPT-5.4 mini: Terraform; alternatives AWS CDK, AWS CloudFormation, Azure Bicep, Pulumi - Gemini 3.5 Flash: OpenTofu, Terraform; alternatives AWS CDK, Atlantis, Pulumi, Spacelift - Perplexity Sonar: Terraform; alternatives AWS CDK, AWS CloudFormation, OpenTofu, Pulumi - Grok 4.20: OpenTofu, Terraform; alternatives Pulumi, Terragrunt - Mistral Small: Terraform; alternatives Pulumi, Puppet - DeepSeek V4 Flash: Terraform; alternatives Atlantis, OpenTofu, Pulumi, Spacelift - Llama 4 Maverick: Terraform; alternatives Ansible, OpenTofu - Qwen 3.7 Flash: Terraform; alternatives AWS CDK, AWS CloudFormation, Pulumi - Kimi K2: OpenTofu, Terraform; alternatives Pulumi, Spacelift, env0 - GLM 4.7 FlashX: Terraform; alternatives AWS CloudFormation, Ansible, Azure Bicep, OpenTofu - MiniMax M2.5: Terraform; alternatives Ansible, Pulumi - GPT-6 Luna: Terraform with HCP Terraform; alternatives AWS CloudFormation, OpenTofu, Pulumi - Muse Glimmer 30B: Terraform; alternatives OpenTofu, Pulumi ## Sources the answers cite 62 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 13 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers: - pulumi.com: 35 answers, 74 citations - docs.aws.amazon.com: 25 answers, 41 citations - spacelift.io: 15 answers, 18 citations - devopsschool.com: 14 answers, 14 citations - github.com: 13 answers, 18 citations - toolradar.com: 13 answers, 15 citations - opentofu.org: 12 answers, 15 citations - techtarget.com: 12 answers, 13 citations Pages named in the most answers: - https://devopsschool.com/blog/infrastructure-as-code-iac-tools-in-2024 (14 answers) - https://pulumi.com/blog/best-terraform-alternatives (14 answers) - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/pdfs/prescriptive-guidance/latest/choose-iac-tool/choose-iac-tool.pdf (13 answers) - https://pulumi.com/docs/iac/comparisons/terraform (13 answers) - https://legitsecurity.com/aspm-knowledge-base/best-iac-tools (11 answers) - https://pulumi.com/blog/infrastructure-as-code-tools (11 answers) - https://spacelift.io/blog/infrastructure-as-code-tools (11 answers) - https://guideflow.com/blog/infrastructure-as-code-tools (10 answers) - https://claranet.com/uk/blog/choosing-right-technologies-iac-implementation (8 answers) - https://computingforgeeks.com/best-infrastructure-as-code-iac-cloud-automation-tools (8 answers) ## Warned against - AWS CloudFormation: 14 of 65 labels negative. "Avoid: ... CloudFormation without strict template security" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt) - Terraform: 15 of 87 labels negative. "Avoid for tight budgets: Paid platforms like Terraform Enterprise, Pulumi Team, or Spacelift" (Grok 4.20, budget prompt) - Ansible: 11 of 50 labels negative. "Why avoid for IaC: Weak state-tracking engines compared to purpose-built IaC tools." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt) - Chef: 9 of 16 labels negative. "Why avoid for IaC: Weak state-tracking engines compared to purpose-built IaC tools." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt) ## Movement since October 2026 Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat. Same leader: Terraform at 58%. - Pulumi: 0% to 6%, +6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 5 → 3 of 41. - OpenTofu: 35% to 31%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 2 of 41, unchanged. - Ansible: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 3 → 5 of 41. - Terraform: 57% to 58%, +1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 1 of 41, unchanged. - AWS CloudFormation: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 7 → 6 of 41. - AWS CDK: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 6 → 7 of 41. - Azure Bicep: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 8 of 41, unchanged. - Crossplane: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 9 of 41, unchanged. - Spacelift: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 of 41, unchanged. - env0: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 14 → 11 of 41. - Google Cloud Deployment Manager: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 54 → 25 of 41. - Puppet: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 58 → 39 of 41. ## Record - Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology - License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.