CloudBurn

About CloudBurn

CloudBurn is a transformative FinOps platform engineered to shift cloud cost governance left in the software development lifecycle. It is specifically designed for engineering teams utilizing Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tools like Terraform or AWS CDK. The core mission of CloudBurn is to eradicate the pervasive and costly problem of surprise AWS bills by providing real-time, pre-deployment cost intelligence. Traditional cloud financial management is reactive, with teams discovering budgetary overruns weeks after deployment, when resources are already provisioned and accruing charges. CloudBurn changes this paradigm by integrating directly into the code review process. It automatically analyzes pull requests containing infrastructure changes, calculates the precise monthly cost impact using live AWS pricing data, and posts a detailed report as a comment. This empowers developers, platform engineers, and FinOps practitioners to have informed discussions about cost efficiency during the design phase, when changes are trivial and free. By catching expensive misconfigurations before they reach production, CloudBurn transforms cost from a post-deployment shock into a first-class, actionable metric in every infrastructure decision, fostering a culture of cost-aware development and delivering immediate, measurable ROI.

Features of CloudBurn

Automated Pull Request Cost Analysis

CloudBurn seamlessly integrates with your GitHub workflow to provide automatic, hands-off cost analysis on every infrastructure pull request. Once configured, the system requires no manual intervention. It automatically detects changes in Terraform plans or AWS CDK diffs, processes them, and delivers a comprehensive cost report directly within the PR conversation. This automation ensures that cost visibility is consistent, continuous, and never overlooked, embedding financial accountability directly into the standard development process without adding friction for engineers.

Real-Time, Region-Specific AWS Pricing

The platform leverages real-time, official AWS pricing data, ensuring estimates are accurate and reflective of the latest rates and your specific deployment regions. Unlike static spreadsheets or outdated internal calculators, CloudBurn dynamically fetches pricing for services like EC2, RDS, and Fargate based on the exact instance types, storage configurations, and regions defined in your code. This granularity guarantees that the cost projections you see during review are the same figures that will appear on your actual AWS bill, providing a reliable source of truth for financial planning.

Granular Resource-Level Cost Breakdown

CloudBurn delivers exceptional transparency by breaking down cost impacts at the individual resource level. Its reports clearly list each modified or new resource, displaying the current cost (often $0.00 for new resources), the new projected monthly cost, and the delta. Each entry can be expanded to view precise pricing details, including hourly rates, usage types, and service descriptions. This granularity allows teams to pinpoint exactly which change is driving cost increases and facilitates targeted, intelligent discussions about potential optimizations or alternative configurations.

Secure GitHub-Centric Integration

Security and simplicity are foundational. CloudBurn is installed and managed entirely through the GitHub Marketplace, with billing, setup, and repository permissions handled 100% via GitHub's secure infrastructure. This model eliminates the need to share sensitive cloud credentials or manage separate logins. The integration uses GitHub Actions to securely process plan outputs, maintaining a clean separation of duties and aligning with modern, secure CI/CD practices, making adoption straightforward for organizations of any size.

Use Cases of CloudBurn

Preventing Costly Developer Misconfigurations

A developer, focused on functionality and deadlines, might inadvertently specify an xlarge EC2 instance where a large would suffice, or enable expensive premium features without realizing the cost impact. CloudBurn catches these decisions immediately. When the PR is opened, a comment highlights the $200+ monthly cost of the oversized instance, prompting a review discussion. The developer can then adjust the Terraform or CDK code to a more cost-effective size before merging, preventing a recurring expense that would have otherwise gone unnoticed for weeks.

Enabling Proactive FinOps and Budget Governance

FinOps teams and engineering managers struggle to govern cloud spend when infrastructure is defined and deployed autonomously by distributed teams. CloudBurn provides them with a proactive governance tool. By making cost a visible metric in every code review, it empowers teams to self-correct while giving leadership assurance that no high-cost change can be deployed without review. This creates a scalable, collaborative model for cloud financial management that doesn't rely on gatekeeping or slow, centralized approval processes.

Optimizing Infrastructure During Refactoring

During a major application refactor or migration, teams often need to provision new databases, caching layers, or container services. These changes can have complex, interconnected cost implications. CloudBurn provides immediate feedback on the total financial impact of the refactoring plan. Teams can model different architectural approaches in separate feature branches, compare the cost reports in their respective pull requests, and make data-driven decisions that balance performance, resilience, and budgetary constraints before any new resources are launched.

Educating Teams on AWS Service Costs

Many engineers lack deep familiarity with the pricing models of all AWS services. CloudBurn acts as an always-available, contextual learning tool. As developers write IaC, they receive instant feedback on the cost consequences of their choices. Over time, this cultivates intrinsic cost-awareness and expertise. Teams naturally learn which services are expensive, how different regions affect price, and how to design efficient systems from the start, leading to a more cost-competent engineering culture organization-wide.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does CloudBurn calculate the cost estimates?

CloudBurn calculates estimates by analyzing the output of your terraform plan or cdk diff command. It identifies the resources being created, modified, or destroyed, and extracts their configuration details (e.g., instance type, region, storage size). This data is then sent to CloudBurn's secure service, which queries the real-time AWS Price List API to fetch the exact On-Demand pricing for those specific resources in your specified region. It calculates a projected monthly cost based on 730 hours of runtime per month.

Is my Terraform plan or AWS CDK code sent to CloudBurn's servers?

Only the essential output of the terraform plan -json or cdk diff command is transmitted for analysis. This output contains a structured diff of resource changes, not your actual source code or module definitions. The transmission is handled securely through the GitHub Actions workflow you control. CloudBurn does not require or access your AWS credentials; all pricing data is fetched from AWS's public API using CloudBurn's own integration.

Can CloudBurn analyze costs for existing infrastructure or only new changes?

CloudBurn is primarily designed for analyzing the delta of changes proposed in a pull request. It compares the proposed state against the current state (as defined in your main branch). Therefore, it shows the cost impact of the change: for a new resource, it shows the new monthly cost; for a modification, it shows the difference between the old and new configuration. It is not a tool for auditing the total cost of an entire, already-deployed codebase.

What happens after my 14-day Pro trial ends?

After the 14-day Pro trial, you can choose to subscribe to the Pro plan for continued access to all features, including unlimited cost analyses and advanced reporting. If you choose not to subscribe, your account will automatically revert to the free Community plan. The Community plan remains free forever but may have limitations on the number of cost analyses per month or access to certain advanced features, allowing you to continue using CloudBurn at a baseline level.