Best Cloud Management Software in 2026
Updated
In short: Terraform is ranked #1 of 33 as of 5 October 2026, ahead of Cloudify and Pulumi. The best-ranked option with a free plan is Cloudify. The lowest first paid tier on this page is Terraform at $0.10/mo.
Managing cloud environments can involve provisioning, governance, automation, and self-service access across different providers. Compare entries on cloud coverage and providers, deployment model, infrastructure as code, provisioning automation, policy governance, and self-service catalog to see which capabilities match your operations. Terraform, Pulumi, and Cloudify are among the named options; Cloud 66, Cloudforet, and Cycloid are also listed. The criteria include free-plan availability and paid-from pricing, alongside the technical features, so you can weigh access and cost in context. Consider which provider coverage and degree of control matter for the environments you manage.
33 cloud management software ranked on what their makers publish — plans and prices, free tiers, platforms and the facts on their own pages.
33ranked
13free plans on this page
$0.10/molowest paid tier
5 Oct 2026last checked
Input list Cloud Management Software 25 channels on this page · 66 of 200 spec lines stated by the makers
Ch Tool Free planPaid fromCloud coverageCloud providersPolicy governanceProvisioning automationInfrastructure as codeSelf-service catalog Spec sheet Score
01 Terraform Free planYesPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governancenot statedProvisioning automationnot statedInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalognot stated 1/8spec lines stated 7.9
02 Cloudify Free planYesPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governancenot statedProvisioning automationnot statedInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalognot stated 1/8spec lines stated 7.6
03 Pulumi Free planYesPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governancenot statedProvisioning automationnot statedInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalognot stated 1/8spec lines stated 7.6
04 Juju Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragehybridCloud providersAmazon EC2, Amazon EKS, Canonical Kubernetes, Equinix Metal, Google GCE, Google GKE, LXD, MAAS, Manual, MicroK8s, Microsoft AKS, Microsoft Azure, OpenStack, Oracle OCI, VMware vSpherePolicy governancenot statedProvisioning automationYesInfrastructure as codeYesSelf-service catalognot stated 4/8spec lines stated 7.3
05 Cloud 66 Free planYesPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragehybridCloud providersAmazon Web Services, DigitalOcean, Google Compute Engine, Hetzner Cloud, Latitude.sh, Linode, OVHcloud, Microsoft Azure, VultrPolicy governanceYesProvisioning automationYesInfrastructure as codeYesSelf-service catalognot stated 6/8spec lines stated 7.2
06 Cloudforet Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragehybridCloud providersAWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Alibaba CloudPolicy governanceYesProvisioning automationYesInfrastructure as codeYesSelf-service catalogYes 6/8spec lines stated 7.2
07 Cycloid Free planNoPaid from29/user/moCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governanceYesProvisioning automationnot statedInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalognot stated 3/8spec lines stated 7.0
08 HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software Free planNoPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governancenot statedProvisioning automationnot statedInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalognot stated 1/8spec lines stated 7.0
09 Apache CloudStack Free planYesPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governancenot statedProvisioning automationnot statedInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalognot stated 1/8spec lines stated 6.9
10 Canonical OpenStack Free planYesPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragehybridCloud providersnot statedPolicy governancenot statedProvisioning automationYesInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalogYes 4/8spec lines stated 6.9
11 Platform9 Private Cloud Director Free planYesPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governanceYesProvisioning automationYesInfrastructure as codeYesSelf-service catalogYes 5/8spec lines stated 6.9
12 Scalr Free planYesPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governancenot statedProvisioning automationnot statedInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalognot stated 1/8spec lines stated 6.9
13 VMware Workstation Pro Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governancenot statedProvisioning automationnot statedInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalognot stated 0/8spec lines stated 6.9
14 Waldur Free planYesPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragehybridCloud providersOpenStack, Microsoft Azure, AWS, DigitalOcean, VMware vCenter, OpenNebulaPolicy governanceYesProvisioning automationYesInfrastructure as codeYesSelf-service catalogYes 7/8spec lines stated 6.8
15 OpenNebula Free planYesPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governancenot statedProvisioning automationnot statedInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalognot stated 1/8spec lines stated 6.7
16 Flexera One IT Asset Management Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governancenot statedProvisioning automationnot statedInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalognot stated 0/8spec lines stated 6.6
17 Stakater Cloud Orchestrator Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragehybridCloud providersAWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Red Hat OpenShift, IBM Fusion, SUSE Rancher, CNCF-conformant KubernetesPolicy governanceYesProvisioning automationYesInfrastructure as codeYesSelf-service catalogYes 6/8spec lines stated 6.6
18 HPE Morpheus Enterprise Free planNoPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governancenot statedProvisioning automationnot statedInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalognot stated 1/8spec lines stated 6.5
19 Mirantis OpenStack for Kubernetes Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governanceYesProvisioning automationYesInfrastructure as codeYesSelf-service catalognot stated 3/8spec lines stated 6.5
20 OpenStack Barbican Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governancenot statedProvisioning automationnot statedInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalognot stated 0/8spec lines stated 6.5
21 Jamcracker Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragehybridCloud providersAWS, Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, VMware, OpenStack, private cloudsPolicy governanceYesProvisioning automationYesInfrastructure as codeYesSelf-service catalogYes 6/8spec lines stated 6.4
22 Danube Cloud Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governancenot statedProvisioning automationYesInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalognot stated 1/8spec lines stated 6.3
23 OpenText Cloud Management Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governanceYesProvisioning automationnot statedInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalognot stated 1/8spec lines stated 5.9
24 gPanel Free planNoPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragesingleCloud providersGoogle WorkspacePolicy governanceYesProvisioning automationYesInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalognot stated 5/8spec lines stated 5.7
25 Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager Free planNoPaid fromnot statedCloud coveragenot statedCloud providersnot statedPolicy governancenot statedProvisioning automationnot statedInfrastructure as codenot statedSelf-service catalognot stated 1/8spec lines stated 5.5
Compare all 25 in a table
| # | Tool | Score | Free plan | From | Free plan | Paid from | Cloud coverage | Cloud providers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Terraform | 7.9 | Free plan | $0.10/mo | Yes | — | — | — |
| 2 | Cloudify | 7.6 | Free plan | Free | Yes | — | — | — |
| 3 | Pulumi | 7.6 | Free plan | $40/mo | Yes | — | — | — |
| 4 | Juju | 7.3 | Free plan | Free | — | — | hybrid | Amazon EC2, Amazon EKS, Canonical Kubernetes, Equinix Metal, Google GCE, Google GKE, LXD, MAAS, Manual, MicroK8s, Microsoft AKS, Microsoft Azure, OpenStack, Oracle OCI, VMware vSphere |
| 5 | Cloud 66 | 7.2 | Free plan | $23/mo | Yes | — | hybrid | Amazon Web Services, DigitalOcean, Google Compute Engine, Hetzner Cloud, Latitude.sh, Linode, OVHcloud, Microsoft Azure, Vultr |
| 6 | Cloudforet | 7.2 | Free plan | Free | — | — | hybrid | AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Alibaba Cloud |
| 7 | Cycloid | 7.0 | Free plan | $45/mo | No | 29 /user/mo | — | — |
| 8 | HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software | 7.0 | No | $50/mo | No | — | — | — |
| 9 | Apache CloudStack | 6.9 | Free plan | Free | Yes | — | — | — |
| 10 | Canonical OpenStack | 6.9 | Free plan | Free | Yes | — | hybrid | — |
| 11 | Platform9 Private Cloud Director | 6.9 | Free plan | $1,000/mo | Yes | — | — | — |
| 12 | Scalr | 6.9 | Free plan | Free | Yes | — | — | — |
| 13 | VMware Workstation Pro | 6.9 | Free plan | Free | — | — | — | — |
| 14 | Waldur | 6.8 | No | — | Yes | — | hybrid | OpenStack, Microsoft Azure, AWS, DigitalOcean, VMware vCenter, OpenNebula |
| 15 | OpenNebula | 6.7 | No | — | Yes | — | — | — |
| 16 | Flexera One IT Asset Management | 6.6 | No | — | — | — | — | — |
| 17 | Stakater Cloud Orchestrator | 6.6 | No | — | — | — | hybrid | AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Red Hat OpenShift, IBM Fusion, SUSE Rancher, CNCF-conformant Kubernetes |
| 18 | HPE Morpheus Enterprise | 6.5 | No | — | No | — | — | — |
| 19 | Mirantis OpenStack for Kubernetes | 6.5 | No | — | — | — | — | — |
| 20 | OpenStack Barbican | 6.5 | Free plan | Free | — | — | — | — |
| 21 | Jamcracker | 6.4 | No | — | — | — | hybrid | AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, VMware, OpenStack, private clouds |
| 22 | Danube Cloud | 6.3 | No | — | — | — | — | — |
| 23 | OpenText Cloud Management | 5.9 | No | — | — | — | — | — |
| 24 | gPanel | 5.7 | No | — | No | — | single | Google Workspace |
| 25 | Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager | 5.5 | No | — | No | — | — | — |
Is your tool on this list?
Numbered spots on this list can be sponsored, and a sponsored row is labelled as paid.
Questions about this list
Which cloud management software is ranked first on Specifiction?
Terraform is ranked #1 of 33 with a score of 7.9. Cloudify is second and Pulumi third.
How many of these have a free plan?
13 of the 25 on this page publish a free plan on their own pricing pages.
Which is the cheapest paid option?
On this page, Terraform has the lowest first paid tier we found: $0.10/mo.
How is this list ranked?
Ranked on what each maker publishes, the fullest spec sheet first: how deeply the product is documented, the platforms it runs on, a free tier or trial to test it, and its standing.
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