CDKTF
Ranked 10 of 10 IaC tools by recommenders
Recommended for expressing Terraform infrastructure in general-purpose languages with functions and loops. Main caveat: it just generates JSON/HCL underneath, which some find clunky.
Recommended for expressing Terraform infrastructure in general-purpose languages with functions and loops. Main caveat: it just generates JSON/HCL underneath, which some find clunky.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Real languages with functions and loops
“That + being able to use functions, variables, loops, arrays, and structs for composition made it a completely different experience.”
Comment from 21 Feb 2026 in “Almost Every infrastructure decision I endorse or regret after 4 years” Works with unmodified Terraform modules
“which can handle unmodified modules”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “The future of Terraform CDK”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Clunky: generates JSON/HCL underneath
“I always found it kind of clunky how it's ultimately just generating JSON/HCL anyway”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “The future of Terraform CDK” Seen as awful, just the least bad
“CDKTF was awful, it was just the least bad thing around.”
Comment from 20 Feb 2026 in “Almost Every infrastructure decision I endorse or regret after 4 years” Imperative languages too unconstrained
“Imperative languages are too unconstrained.”
Comment from 20 Feb 2026 in “Almost Every infrastructure decision I endorse or regret after 4 years”
Other IaC tools people recommend
The four most recommended other IaC tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 10 IaC tools, rankedWhat people said
6 of the 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“That + being able to use functions, variables, loops, arrays, and structs for composition made it a completely different experience.”
“CDKTF was awful, it was just the least bad thing around.”
“Imperative languages are too unconstrained.”
“I always found it kind of clunky how it's ultimately just generating JSON/HCL anyway”
“HCL just does not have the modularity and expressiveness that Python, or other languages CDKTF supports.”
“which can handle unmodified modules”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.