OpenTofu vs Terraform

OpenTofu is a community-driven open-source fork of Terraform.

OpenTofuOpen-source infrastructure as code, a fork of Terraform

TerraformInfrastructure as code for any cloud

Which to pick

Pick OpenTofu if you want…

Open-source Terraform alternative
Integrations with GCP, AWS KMS or GCP KMS (on OpenTofu's list, not Terraform's)

Pick Terraform if you want…

Multi-cloud IaC with versioned configurations
Integrations with Azure, Google Cloud Platform or Oracle Cloud (on Terraform's list, not OpenTofu's)

Side by side

What it is: OpenTofu:OpenTofu is an open-source fork of Terraform for infrastructure-as-code.; Terraform:Terraform is an open-source infrastructure-as-code tool to define, provision and version cloud resources.
Best for: OpenTofu:Open-source Terraform alternative; Terraform:Multi-cloud IaC with versioned configurations
Who it’s for: OpenTofu:Developers and teams needing open-source IaC tooling.; Terraform:Developers, DevOps engineers and SREs building cloud infrastructure.
Pricing: OpenTofu:Open source; Terraform:Open source
Open source: OpenTofu:Yes, 30,345 GitHub stars; Terraform:Yes
Works with: OpenTofu:AWS, GCP, AWS KMS, GCP KMS, OpenBao; Terraform:AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Oracle Cloud, Docker, HCP Terraform, GitHub Actions, Vercel

OpenTofu features

Exclusion Flag. Use -exclude to selectively skip resources during plan and apply operations.
Provider Iteration. Dynamically generate providers with for_each for multi-region, multi-environment deployments.
Early Variable/Local Evaluation. Update modules globally via a single variable change for consistent versioning.
State Encryption. Client-side encryption of state files with multiple key providers (PBKDF2, AWS KMS, GCP KMS, OpenBao).
Community-Driven Development. Open source project governed by the Linux Foundation with contributions from many vendors.

Terraform features

Declarative configuration. Define infrastructure in a high-level language that Terraform plans and applies.
Multi-cloud support. Provision resources on AWS, Azure, GCP, Oracle Cloud, Docker and more.
Terraform CLI. Command-line interface for init, plan, apply and state management.
HCP Terraform integration. Collaborative workflow and remote state storage in HashiCorp Cloud Platform.
Sandbox environment. Pre-installed sandbox for safe experimentation with Terraform.
Style guide & best practices. Guidelines for configuration style and adoption phases.

OpenTofu vs Terraform FAQ

Is OpenTofu or Terraform free?+

Yes, both are free and open source.

Is OpenTofu or Terraform open source?+

Yes, both are open source: OpenTofu (opentofu/opentofu on GitHub, MPL-2.0 license) and Terraform.

Do OpenTofu and Terraform integrate with the same tools?+

Partly. Both list AWS. OpenTofu also lists GCP, AWS KMS, GCP KMS and OpenBao; Terraform also lists Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Oracle Cloud, Docker and 5 more.

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