head to head · open source
Pulumi vs headlamp
Pulumi has 25,694 GitHub stars, 1,431 forks, 2,419 open issues and last shipped yesterday. headlamp has 7,294 stars, 1,112 forks, 1,422 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Pulumi leads on adoption by 252% (25,694 vs 7,294 stars). Pulumi is written in Go under Apache-2.0; headlamp is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Pulumi has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, headlamp 15%. Pulumi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Pulumi | headlamp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 7.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Pulumi if
- You weight community size — 26K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick headlamp if
- You want the headlamp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and headlamp fits your workflow better
About Pulumi
Pulumi is an open source infrastructure as code tool that lets teams define and deploy cloud infrastructure using general purpose programming languages instead of YAML, aimed at developers, platform engineers, and agents working across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Kubernetes.
read the full Pulumi overview →
About headlamp
Headlamp is an Apache 2.0 licensed, vendor independent Kubernetes web UI written in TypeScript that runs either inside a cluster or locally as a desktop application, and it is built for platform engineers, cluster operators, and developers who need to inspect and change Kubernetes resources through a graphical interface.
read the full headlamp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Pulumi or headlamp more popular?
Pulumi has 25,694 GitHub stars and headlamp has 7,294. Pulumi has the larger community by that measure.
Are Pulumi and headlamp free?
Both are open source. Pulumi is licensed under Apache-2.0 and headlamp under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Pulumi and headlamp?
Pulumi is written in Go and headlamp in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Pulumi or headlamp?
Choose Pulumi if you want the larger community (25,694 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose headlamp if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.