# AWS CloudFormation alternatives: what AI models name instead, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. 148 of the 252 answers in the 1 category where AWS CloudFormation holds a standing named it neither first nor as an alternative; these are the first choices those answers made. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-cloudformation/alternatives

## Named instead, most often (every category and segment added)

- Terraform: 69
- OpenTofu: 42
- Pulumi: 12
- Ansible: 6
- Spacelift: 5
- AWS SAM: 1

## Infrastructure as code

**Small business**: 50 of 84 answers did not name AWS CloudFormation (AWS CloudFormation is #6 of 11 at 0%).

- Terraform: first choice in 22 of those 50
- OpenTofu: first choice in 18 of those 50
- Ansible: first choice in 6 of those 50
- Pulumi: first choice in 4 of those 50
- AWS SAM: first choice in 1 of those 50
- Azure Bicep: first choice in 1 of those 50
- Terraform/OpenTofu: first choice in 1 of those 50

**Mid-market**: 40 of 84 answers did not name AWS CloudFormation (AWS CloudFormation is #5 of 13 at 0%).

- Terraform: first choice in 18 of those 40
- OpenTofu: first choice in 10 of those 40
- Pulumi: first choice in 1 of those 40
- Terraform with HCP Terraform: first choice in 1 of those 40

**Enterprise**: 58 of 84 answers did not name AWS CloudFormation (AWS CloudFormation is #5 of 14 at 3%).

- Terraform: first choice in 29 of those 58
- OpenTofu: first choice in 14 of those 58
- Pulumi: first choice in 7 of those 58
- Spacelift: first choice in 5 of those 58
- Scalr: first choice in 1 of those 58
- Terraform with HCP Terraform or Terraform Enterprise: first choice in 1 of those 58

Published under CC BY 4.0. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.