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AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) vs Codespaces comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 14, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

AWS Cloud Development Kit (...
Ranking in Development Platforms
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Codespaces
Ranking in Development Platforms
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
4.8
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
IDE (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Development Platforms category, the mindshare of AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) is 6.9%, down from 9.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Codespaces is 10.3%, down from 10.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Development Platforms Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Codespaces10.3%
AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK)6.9%
Other82.8%
Development Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

KA
Mid TypeScript/AWS Engineer at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Seamless integration and improved workflow with decent ROI
There is room for improvement in the use of EventBridge and the initial setup of CDK, which can be a bit challenging. The IAM policies could be simplified to make the setup process more straightforward. AWS could also improve the transparency of Lambda's internal processes and provide more visibility into Lambda logs.
Zishan Sayyed Yunus - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant manager at Interactive avenues
Smooth workflow with deployment and validation efficiency
I think there should be a scheduler option if you want to run it, similar to Google Cloud, where you can specify how long you want to keep your scheduling active. If you want to use it as a server or for a temporary time duration, you should be able to schedule it so the server will be activated between specific durations and auto-deactivate to save costs. Sometimes, at the initial stages, there is a lack of instances. It takes more time to create the instance, but now it's much faster to activate your Codespaces and delete it. The earlier Git Codespaces billing setup on GitHub was much simpler. You could easily see how much credit you have, how much you have used, and your balance. Now they have changed it, and it's confusing to understand how much Codespaces time you have, how much you have used, and how much they are charging.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"One of the most valuable aspects of CDK is its ability to integrate various components seamlessly, such as Lambda functions, API Gateway, DynamoDB, and EventBridge."
"The most valuable features of the AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) are its speed and ease of deployment."
"You can use AWS CDK to write code to provision infrastructure."
"The setup process is very straightforward."
"AWS CDK offers seamless integration, which was a significant factor in choosing it for cloud computing."
"AWS CDK has notably streamlined the deployment process compared to other methods, primarily by defining cloud infrastructure as code."
"The review functionality of the pull requests is very handy, as not only can you give comments, but you can also suggest replacements for sentences with different words."
"We see benefits from Codespaces in terms of onboarding new team members; it is very simple."
"The most valuable features of the solution are Copilot and Advanced Security."
"The product allows us to implement feature-related changes or improvements on time. Whenever I write a section of the code or create a new code, it automatically integrates with the former code."
"Codespaces' most valuable feature is the repository, which helps the developers to work together. Its data commands are also useful."
"I prefer Codespaces because it gets activated in seconds and has all the pre-dependencies which any developer could need, such as Docker and Python."
"The developer experience is consistent, and its pricing makes sense since it optimizes the resources."
"The integration with Visual Studio Code offers a good and fast user experience that feels like a local experience."
 

Cons

"There is room for improvement in the use of EventBridge and the initial setup of CDK, which can be a bit challenging."
"There is room for improvement in the use of EventBridge and the initial setup of CDK, which can be a bit challenging."
"There are some issues with different plugins."
"They could allow combining multiple languages, such as JavaScript and Python for the platform. At present, we can use only one language."
"The primary issue we've encountered is pricing. Some customers find the pricing to be somewhat high. Additionally, there's a discrepancy between the promised resource utilization and the actual utilization. The resource utilization calculations don't align with the provided guidelines. So, the pricing and resource utilization calculations could be refined."
"Using AWS CDK requires some knowledge of popular programming languages."
"Sometimes it is just two or three hours a day where they are totally unreachable, and it might happen like five times a month."
"We get merge conflict errors and need to resolve them."
"The earlier Git Codespaces billing setup on GitHub was much simpler. You could easily see how much credit you have, how much you have used, and your balance. Now they have changed it, and it's confusing to understand how much Codespaces time you have, how much you have used, and how much they are charging."
"When I close the laptop and open it in a different place, the state of the environment disappears, and I need to rerun several commands. This context switch affects productivity."
"The product indicates incorrect statistics."
"The technical support could respond faster."
"The main issue is related to state preservation on a disconnection. When I close the laptop and open it in a different place, the state of the environment disappears, and I need to rerun several commands."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Since AWS CDK is an open-source solution, it's free to use."
"From what I've seen, the solution doesn't seem like it's overly expensive for what you get."
"I am using the product’s free version."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
13%
Educational Organization
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AWS CDK?
The most valuable features of the AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) are its speed and ease of deployment.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS CDK?
Over time, I expect AWS to become more cost-efficient and resilient. Although the pricing is currently high, I hope they continue to improve their system, which will lead to cost reductions.
What needs improvement with AWS CDK?
There is room for improvement in the use of EventBridge and the initial setup of CDK, which can be a bit challenging. The IAM policies could be simplified to make the setup process more straightfor...
What do you like most about Codespaces?
The most valuable features of the solution are Copilot and Advanced Security.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Codespaces?
We found the price of Codespaces is acceptable for us.
What needs improvement with Codespaces?
I am not the best person regarding the negative sides of Codespaces. As I mentioned, our team provides different tools for developers, so we are not so deep in every tool. From time to time, we got...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) vs. Codespaces and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,899 professionals have used our research since 2012.