Question 1

What's the difference between Terraform and AWS CloudFormation?

Accepted Answer

Terraform is multi-cloud and can manage resources across many providers (AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, SaaS tools) using a consistent workflow. AWS CloudFormation is AWS-only and uses AWS-native templates and tooling. If you need one IaC approach across multiple clouds or tools, Terraform is often preferred; if you are all-in on AWS and want a fully AWS-native experience, CloudFormation can be a good fit.

Question 2

When should I use Terraform?

Accepted Answer

Use Terraform when you want repeatable, version-controlled infrastructure provisioning; need consistent environments (dev/stage/prod); want reusable modules for standard patterns (VPC/networking, Kubernetes clusters, databases); or need to manage resources across multiple clouds and SaaS services. It’s especially useful for teams practicing DevOps/GitOps-style workflows where infrastructure changes go through code review and automated pipelines.

Question 3

How much does Terraform cost?

Accepted Answer

Terraform (the CLI and core) is open-source and free to use. Your main costs are the cloud resources you create and the operational tooling around Terraform (e.g., CI/CD runners, remote state storage). HashiCorp also offers paid products such as Terraform Enterprise and hosted offerings that add features like centralized governance, role-based access control, policy enforcement, and collaboration; pricing depends on edition and scale.

Terraform

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