How Kite Compares

See how Kite stacks up against Terraform, Pulumi, and Bicep. Built for the modern multi-cloud world.

Feature

Kite

Our Solution

Terraform

Pulumi

Bicep

Language & Syntax

Language Type

Domain-specific language (DSL)

Declarative configuration (HCL)

General-purpose languages (TypeScript, Python, Go)

Declarative DSL for Azure

Type Safety

Built-in strong typing

Limited type checking

Language-dependent

Strong typing for Azure resources

Learning Curve

Low - intuitive syntax

Medium - HCL syntax

Medium - requires programming knowledge

Low - JSON-like syntax

Inputs

Clean input string name = "default"

Verbose variable "name" { type = string default = "default" }

Language-native const name: string = "default"

Clean param name string = 'default'

Outputs

Clean output string name = resource.attribute

Verbose output "name" { value = type.resource.attribute }

export (language-dependent)

Clean output name string = resource.attribute

Variables

var name = value

locals { name = value }

const/let/var (language-dependent)

var name = value

Function Support

User-defined functions (fun keyword)

Limited (external data sources only)

Full (native language functions)

User-defined functions (func keyword)

Modularity & Imports

Import Syntax

import kite.aws.*

source = "module/path"

Language-native (import/require)

module name 'path'

Package Management

Built-in package manager

Terraform Registry

Language package managers (npm, pip, etc.)

Bicep Registry

Module Versioning

Semantic versioning

Module versions in source

Language package versioning

Registry versioning

Code Reusability

Mixins, modules, components

Modules

Functions, classes, components

Modules

Multi-Cloud Support

AWS Support

Native

No (Azure only)

GCP Support

Native

No (Azure only)

Azure Support

Native

Native (Azure-specific)

Cross-Cloud Abstraction

Unified resource model

Provider-specific

Azure-only

Features & Capabilities

State Management

Database-backed with versioning

File-based or remote backend

Cloud-based state service

Azure Resource Manager (ARM)

Resource Renaming

Automatic support

Manual (moved blocks or state mv)

Requires aliases property

Symbolic name refactoring

Runtime Iteration

Supports runtime values in loops

Plan-time only (known limitation)

Dynamic iteration support

Limited (compile-time loops)

Mixins

Native mixin system

No (uses modules)

Object-oriented patterns

Composition

Modules & components

Modules

Component resources

Modules

Decorators

Native decorator syntax (@count, @dependsOn, etc.)

No (uses variables)

Language-dependent (TypeScript/Python)

Built-in (@description, @secure, etc.)

Testing Support

Third-party tools

Unit and integration testing

Limited (ARM template validation)

Developer Experience

IDE Support

Excellent (IntelliJ extension)

Good

Excellent (language tooling)

Excellent (VSCode extension)

Error Messages

Clear and actionable

Can be cryptic

Language-dependent

Clear for Azure resources

Documentation

Comprehensive with examples

Extensive

Good

Good (Microsoft docs)

Enterprise & Operations

Team Collaboration

Built-in

Terraform Cloud

Pulumi Service

Azure DevOps / GitHub Actions

Policy as Code

Built-in

Sentinel (Enterprise)

CrossGuard

Azure Policy

Pricing

Free for small teams

Free (Cloud has limits)

Free tier available

Free (open source)

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