Back
OpenTofu vs Terraform
Trust Score comparison · March 2026
Signal Comparison
600k+Downloads / mo10M+ / mo
250 commitsCommits (90d)421 commits
24k ★GitHub stars43k ★
300 q'sStack Overflow28k q's
GrowingCommunityVery High
OpenTofuTerraform
Key Differences
| Factor | OpenTofu | Terraform |
|---|---|---|
| License | MPL 2.0 | BSL 1.1 |
| Language | Go | HCL |
| Hosted | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Free tier | — | — |
| Open Source | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| TypeScript | — | — |
Pick OpenTofu if…
- Existing Terraform users who want a truly open-source, community-governed IaC tool
- Avoiding HashiCorp's BSL license restrictions on Terraform 1.6+
- Teams that want the Terraform ecosystem with an open governance model
Pick Terraform if…
- You want a consistent way to provision cloud resources across providers
- You need to version-control your infrastructure like code
- Your team needs repeatable, auditable infrastructure changes
Side-by-side Quick Start
OpenTofu
# Install OpenTofu
brew install opentofu
# main.tf (Terraform-compatible syntax)
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "example" {
bucket = "my-tf-test-bucket"
}
tofu init && tofu plan && tofu applyTerraform
# main.tf
terraform {
required_providers {
aws = { source = "hashicorp/aws", version = "~> 5.0" }
}
}
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "app_assets" {
bucket = "my-app-assets-${var.env}"
}
resource "aws_ecs_service" "app" {
name = "my-app"
cluster = aws_ecs_cluster.main.id
desired_count = 2
}
# terraform init && terraform plan && terraform applyCommunity Verdict
Based on upvoted notes🏆
Terraform wins this comparison
Trust Score 84 vs 78 · 6-point difference
Terraform leads on Trust Score with stronger signal data across downloads and community health. That said, the other tool is worth considering if your use case matches its specific strengths above.