CircleCI vs Pulumi Pricing (2026)

How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.

CircleCI pricing Pulumi pricing
Starts at $15/mo $40/mo
Number of plans 3 4
Free plan
Free trial — —
Pricing model usage-based hybrid

Price is one row. To weigh the features too, use our feature comparison template →

CircleCI pricing

Official page

Free

$0/mo
  • Up to 6,000 build minutes
  • Up to 5 active users/month
  • Docker, Windows, Linux, Arm, macOS, self hosted runners
  • 30x concurrency

Performance

$15/mo
  • 30,000 credits included free
  • 5 active users included free
  • Larger resources
  • 80x concurrency
  • Optional 8x5 support add-on

Scale

Custom
  • Customizable plans
  • Enterprise controls
  • Largest resource classes
  • All environments, even GPU
  • Optional 24/7 support add-on

Pulumi pricing

Official page

Free

$0/mo
  • 1 user
  • IaC state management
  • Pulumi Deployments
  • Basic Pulumi ESC
  • Unlimited projects, stacks, and environments
  • Unlimited updates and history
  • Up to 500 workflow minutes

Essentials

$40/mo
  • Unlimited users
  • Secure collaboration and CI/CD
  • Neo code reviews and Slack integration
  • Resource Search and Property Search
  • OIDC and org access tokens
  • Webhooks
  • Automatic secrets rotation
  • Policy results in advisory mode
  • Service-level objectives, an uptime commitment, and support tickets

Pro

Popular
$400/mo
  • SAML/SSO and advanced RBAC
  • Organization-managed policy enforcement
  • Preventative policies
  • Custom policy packs
  • Neo scheduled tasks
  • Internal developer platform (IDP)
  • Automated audit log export
  • Drift detection and remediation
  • Time-to-live stacks
  • Customer-managed keys

Enterprise

Custom
  • Self-hosting available
  • Conformance packs for CIS, CIS Kubernetes, CMMC, HITRUST, ISO 27001, NIST, and PCI DSS
  • Automatic group & user sync (SCIM)
  • Unlimited custom policy packs
  • Policy remediation
  • Contract pricing and invoicing

CircleCI vs Pulumi FAQ

Which one is cheaper?
CircleCI starts lower at $15/mo, compared to $40/mo for Pulumi.
Can I use either one for free?
Both offer free plans, so you can try each without paying. Start with whichever fits your workflow better and upgrade when you hit the limits.
How do they charge?
Different approach here. CircleCI uses usage-based pricing, while Pulumi goes with hybrid. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
Which one is a better deal?
Depends on what you need. CircleCI: Sitting in the middle of the CI/CD pack, undercutting some enterprise-first competitors on entry price while still using usage-based mechanics that can get expensive at scale. They're clearly fishing for teams that started on GitHub Actions or Jenkins and now need something more purpose-built without jumping straight to enterprise pricing. Pulumi: Pulumi sits mid-to-premium in the IaC tooling space — free and open-source alternatives exist, but Pulumi's charging for the managed platform layer (state management, policy, collaboration) on top of the actual engine. They're not competing on being cheap; they're betting teams will pay for convenience and governance once infra complexity outpaces what a free tier or DIY state backend can handle.

Still deciding? See the best CircleCI alternatives or the best Pulumi alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.

Stop checking your competitors manually.

Outmano watches your competitors' prices and features for you. See how competitor pricing monitoring works.

Try Outmano free »

14-day free trial