Cloudcraft alternative · 2026
Cloudcraft is at its best mapping infrastructure that already runs, and it is now free inside Datadog. When the diagram has to exist before the infrastructure does, or without giving a tool read access to production, Datadef draws it from a sentence or from your Terraform.
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Generate the kind of diagram you'd build in Cloudcraft: free, in your browser, no account.
No account needed · Editable canvas, not a picture
Cloudcraft builds its live diagrams by reading your cloud accounts. Standalone, connecting AWS takes a Pro subscription and a read-only IAM role; inside Datadog, it draws from the cloud integrations Datadog already collects. Datadef needs neither: connect the Git repository read-only and Pro’s repo sync parses every .tf file, with no terraform init, no state file and no cloud credentials.
Target states, migration plans and design reviews are diagrams of infrastructure that does not exist yet. Describe it in a sentence, or paste the Terraform under review, and Datadef lays it out with official AWS, Azure and GCP icons inside account, VPC and subnet zones, ready to edit by hand or with AI.
Cloudcraft is now included with every Datadog subscription, which is good news if you already run Datadog. Without it, live sync means standalone Pro, billed per user. Datadef Pro is a flat $12 a month or $8 billed yearly, Team is $99 a month for up to 5 people, and the scratch canvas is free with no account.
| Feature | Datadef | Cloudcraft |
|---|---|---|
| Diagram from a plain-English prompt | ||
| Auto-generated diagram needs cloud account access | No, it reads code or a description | Yes: IAM role (Pro) or Datadog integration |
| Live inventory of deployed resources | ||
| Clouds | AWS, Azure, GCP | AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, vSphere in Datadog; AWS and Azure standalone |
| 3D isometric view | ||
| Monitoring, cost and security overlays | In Datadog | |
| Stays current | Daily repo sync, redraws only on real changes | Live sync from the accounts |
| Pricing | Flat $8/mo billed yearly, free scratch canvas | Free in Datadog; standalone Pro per user |
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Stay with Cloudcraft if:
Inside Datadog, yes: Cloudcraft in Datadog is free for all Datadog customers, with unlimited users and diagrams, as announced at DASH 2026. The standalone app at cloudcraft.co keeps a free plan for designing diagrams by hand; connecting a live AWS account there requires a Pro subscription, billed per user.
No. Datadef never connects to a cloud account. It draws from what you describe, from Terraform you paste, or from a Git repository connected read-only on GitHub, GitLab or Azure DevOps. Repo sync parses Terraform file by file and draws modules as zones, with no terraform init, no state file and no credentials.
Repo sync follows one branch or tag and checks it every day. A commit that changes nothing structural does not redraw the diagram, nodes you moved by hand keep their position, and an architecture.md is written alongside. Copies embedded in a README, Notion or Confluence follow the canvas.
There is no direct importer. Drop an exported image or a screenshot of the blueprint into the prompt and the AI rebuilds its zones, services and connections as an editable canvas. If the infrastructure lives in Terraform, connecting the repository gives a more faithful result than redrawing a picture.
Yes. Datadef runs a native MCP server at datadef.io/mcp, so Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, ChatGPT and other MCP clients can create, edit and export diagrams from a conversation, for example right after a Terraform change is merged.
Free scratch canvas, no account, no credit card: 1 AI diagram and 2 AI edits a day. Pro unlocks unlimited AI, saved projects, repo sync, live embeds and MCP for $12 a month or $96 a year, after a 7-day free trial.
Open the free canvas