# Compare Terraform vs AWS CloudFormation 2026 | Capterra > Unsure of what to choose? Check Capterra to compare Terraform and AWS CloudFormation based on pricing, features, product details, and verified reviews. Source: https://www.capterra.com/compare/179262-205397/HashiCorp-vs-CloudFormation --- # Terraform vs AWS CloudFormation Features and Cost Comparison Last updated March 13th, 2026 Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team.[Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) Your comparison: TerraformAWS CloudFormation2/4 selected [Terraform](https://www.capterra.com/p/179262/HashiCorp/)[4.8 (49)](https://www.capterra.com/p/179262/HashiCorp/reviews/) [AWS CloudFormation](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/)[4.5 (106)](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/reviews/) [## Terraform](https://www.capterra.com/p/179262/HashiCorp/)[4.8 (49)](https://www.capterra.com/p/179262/HashiCorp/reviews/) Starting Price $20.00/month Value-for-Money 4.8 Functionality 4.6 Ease of Use 4.3 Customer Service 4.2 Reviews Sentiment Based on [49 reviews](#user-reviews) Positive 49 Neutral 0 Negative 0 [## AWS CloudFormation](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/)[4.5 (106)](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/reviews/) Starting Price Contact vendor Value-for-Money 4.3 Functionality 4.5 Ease of Use 4.1 Customer Service 4.5 Reviews Sentiment Based on [106 reviews](#user-reviews) Positive 101 Neutral 3 Negative 2 ## Not a match? 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Best for IT admins, IT managers, Developers, Systems Engineers, Cloud Architects, Cloud Developers, Cloud Infrastructure Security teams, Infrastructure, Security, & Deployment teams ## User reviews Pros & cons VR Verified Reviewer Cloud Engineer > "Terraform supports multiple cloud providers, including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, offering flexibility and reducing vendor..." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/179262/HashiCorp/#Capterra___4916299) SA Samuel A. Software > "Despite being powerful, Terraform sometimes makes simple tasks hard and can be difficult to learn for new users." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/179262/HashiCorp/#Capterra___4825072) Mohit D. Cloud Engineer > "Some features like version control, reusability of modules, and multi-cloud features are very well integrated." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/179262/HashiCorp/#Capterra___4524028) Haniel L. Software Development Engineer II > "for example in the case of AWS API gateway deployments, it doesn't really deploy your stage API gateways and you need to do it manually." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/179262/HashiCorp/#Capterra___3610512) KA Kyle A. Data Engineer > "Terraform is amazing because it removes some of the complexity of AWS." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/179262/HashiCorp/#Capterra___3803766) Parth P. DevOps Engineer > "Prominent sentiment is that Terraform isn't exceptionally secure, fight tried, and spilling mysteries happen effectively on mishap." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/179262/HashiCorp/#Capterra___3232396) [View Reviews](https://www.capterra.com/p/179262/HashiCorp/reviews/) VR Verified Reviewer Software Engineer > "It integrates very well with other AWS services, allowing us to provision resources like compute, storage, networking, and..." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___7112973) Himanshi S. SRE > "Troubleshooting the stack errors is difficult, with vague messages that slow down problem resolution." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___7091218) VR Verified Reviewer Software Engineer > "What I like most about AWS CloudFormation is the ability to manage infrastructure using Infrastructure as Code." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___7112973) VR Verified Reviewer Software Engineer > "The biggest downside is the learning curve, especially when starting with complex templates." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___7112973) PU Philipp U. Lead Engineer > "Cloudformation natively supports everything in AWS so it is already solidly ahead of third party providers." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___7085455) VR Verified Reviewer Web Developer > "When a update fails in it, error messages are vague, finding the root cause of an issue is requires to Check CloudWatch Logs or..." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6645408) Karina A. President > "It's capability to efficiently manage and deploy complex cloud infrastructure through reusable, automated processes using..." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6640183) VR Verified Reviewer Student > "Templates used with Cloud Formation are in JSON or YAML and to start getting the picture, things can get a bit complicated…😊..." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6645344) VK Vasanthi K. Quality Analylist > "Facilitates cloud infrastructure management by enabling users to create, modify, and remove AWS resources in a controlled and..." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6643262) VR Verified Reviewer Custom Software Engineering Analyst > "Managing and viewing budget and cost of resources utilized would not be available at ease and would need to login to console to..." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6741409) GN George N. Mortgage Broker > "Calyx Point Cental uses AWS Cloudformation for their web management and developmen." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___7041369) SB Shivani B. Software Developer > "The steep learning curve and vague error messages, especially with complex templates, are what I liked least about AWS..." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6646499) VK Vasanthi K. Quality Analylist > "Additionally, its high configurability allows for resource preservation, enabling the formation of stacks with either basic or..." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6643262) DC Danielle C. Phone Banker > "The call lists have had the same numbers under different state reps so basically we are calling the same people twice for no..." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6645274) JK Jitae K. Sr.Devops > "We were able to manage CI/CD pipeline by using this CloudFormation with Codebuild/CodePipeline." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___7004130) Salman S. Employee > "However, debugging complex stacks is a bit tricky, and for very large environments, performance may be slower." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6645486) PU Philipp U. Lead Engineer > "Cloudformation is great in principle, and with enough manipulation can do everything that is needed." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___7085455) GT Gary T. Solutions Architect > "Large stacks can be slow, and rollbacks can take a long time if a failure occurs." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6746353) VR Verified Reviewer Software Engineer > "My overall experience with AWS CloudFormation is good, since this is the only easy to use tool to run deployment for aws artifacts." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___7081780) JS Jyoti S. Admin > "it isn't easy to work with in multi-region and multi-account scenarios." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6630258) Salman S. Employee > "I like how AWS Cloud F makes infrastructure management possible to automate by consistent, repeatable deployments with templates." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6645486) KR Kesavan R. Research Executive > "Nothing much as a negative but sometimes if the servers get down we won't be able to start our Jupiter notebook to run our codes." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___4821236) JK Jitae K. Sr.Devops > "It does support json/yaml format both and cost nothing for CloudFormation." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___7004130) YJJ Yoo Jin J. Lead Teacher > "Sometimes it can be complicated to use and require experience." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6632633) JS Jyoti S. Admin > "AWS CloudFormation is the best infrastructure for handling and managing AWS resources." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6630258) OI Omer I. Software Engineer > "CloudFormation templates cannot have complex logic, making them easy to understand, but this limited logic support sometimes..." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#GetApp___3466238) SB Shivani B. Software Developer > "It allows for consistent and repeatable deployments, which saves time and reduces errors." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6646499) Pawe W. Software Engineer > "The fact that it is strictly tied to AWS infrastructure and in the era of maintaining systems that are often relying on different..." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___3763850) SB Shivani B. Software Developer > "I also liked how it integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, making it easier to manage resources as code" [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6646499) Nhan N. Senior Software Engineer > "Sometimes rollback feature does not work correctly, I have to find and delete the resources manually." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___3809303) Agnoor G. Associate at Carelon > "Helps in automatically building of code which remove the necessity of having developement as a prior experience." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6663544) AB Anis B. Software Development Engineer > "Many times the CloudFormation deployment fails after trying for a long time, which is frustrating." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___4578182) SB Shivani B. Software Developer > "I really appreciated the way AWS CloudFormation simplifies infrastructure management by using templates." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6646499) GM George M. MD > "The only downside for me is the cost probably due to exchange rate in my country" [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___4437892) Iddy H. Solution Architect > "It automates resource provisioning and configuration, saving time and effort." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6667786) PE Pius E. Founder > "However, it is not easy for a first-time no-code builder to deploy an error-free stack." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___3545652) VR Verified Reviewer Custom Software Engineering Analyst > "There is large aws support to solve issue related to cloudformation template." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6741409) KC Kuldeep C. Software Intern > "No 'ideal' programming language which leads to learning either yaml/JSON." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___3495100) GT Gary T. Solutions Architect > "My overall experience with AWS CloudFormation has been positive, especially when it comes to automating infrastructure deployment..." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6746353) Raamnaaraayan R. Developer > "For troubleshooting, the tracking of error logs in the associated CloudWatch entries is quite challenging in CloudFormation." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___3112468) TZ Terence Z. Technical specialist > "CloudFront distribution has great performance with very minimal loading times for users." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6634444) AO Adebayo O. HelpDesk Support > "You have to be well vast with YAML to be able to use this, while this shouldn't be much of a big deal for software developers, it..." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___3295451) Advait K. President > "The best part is that it is pretty easy to use and felt easy to understand when i had started as a newbie, and i could integrate..." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6654843) VC Vincent C. Development Manager > "Cloudformation can sometimes fail to update stacks due to drift issues." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___3433839) SS Soumyajit S. Principal Consultant > "This become so easy for the developers to create the templates and makes the Admin's life too easy." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6625492) SK Sahil K. Sr. Nodejs Developer > "A bit complex to start with" [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___3488512) VR Verified Reviewer DATA ANALYST > "A very reliable and efficient technique for creating infrastructure stacks." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6644410) DS David S. Web Developer > "Sometimes it fails to delete and you have to delete the stack manually." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___2850622) VR Verified Reviewer Web Developer > "Overall its reliable tool for manage project infra as code." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6645408) CC Chetna C. Software Intern > "Sometimes I feel the error scenarios/messages are not well handled." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___2788811) AN Alberto N. Sales support > "Automating resource provisioning, CloudFormation streamlines the build process with preconfigured templates." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___4833374) MH Molly H. Software Develpoer > "Deleting resources can sometimes be a pain." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___3368971) VR Verified Reviewer Web Developer > "It has some pin points but they are manageable with best practices and Experience." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6645408) VR Verified Reviewer Marketing > "There is no equivalent." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___3433628) Abhishek P. Developer Assosciate > "The product is very productive and best thing is ease of integration with rest AWS services." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___6644930) VR Verified Reviewer Chef Marketing Officer > "Slightly annoying." [See full review](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#Capterra___3358095) [View Reviews](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/reviews/) ## User interface [Terraform](https://www.capterra.com/p/179262/HashiCorp/) 4.78 (49) [AWS CloudFormation](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/) 4.51 (106) ### Features Terraform Top features 15/42 - Access Controls/Permissions - Activity Tracking - AI Copilot - Alerts/Notifications - Anomaly Detection - API - Application Management - Audit Management - Backup and Recovery - Capacity Analytics - Change Management - Cloud Encryption - Compliance Management - Configuration Management - Cost Management - Database Support - Data Import/Export - Data Integration - Data Migration - Data Storage Management - Data Visualization - Disaster Recovery - Event Logs - Generative AI - Inventory Management - Monitoring - Multi-Cloud Management - Multitenancy - Network Monitoring - Patch Management - Performance Analysis - Real-Time Monitoring - Reporting & Statistics - Resource Management - Search/Filter - Security Management - Self Service Portal - Service Catalog - Service Level Agreement (SLA) Management - Third-Party Integrations - User Management - Workflow Management [See all features](https://www.capterra.com/p/179262/HashiCorp/#features) AWS CloudFormation 8/42 - Access Controls/Permissions - Activity Tracking - AI Copilot - Alerts/Notifications - Anomaly Detection - API - Application Management - Audit Management - Backup and Recovery - Capacity Analytics - Change Management - Cloud Encryption - Compliance Management - Configuration Management - Cost Management - Database Support - Data Import/Export - Data Integration - Data Migration - Data Storage Management - Data Visualization - Disaster Recovery - Event Logs - Generative AI - Inventory Management - Monitoring - Multi-Cloud Management - Multitenancy - Network Monitoring - Patch Management - Performance Analysis - Real-Time Monitoring - Reporting & Statistics - Resource Management - Search/Filter - Security Management - Self Service Portal - Service Catalog - Service Level Agreement (SLA) Management - Third-Party Integrations - User Management - Workflow Management [See all features](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/#features) ### Recognition No recognitions have been awarded to Terraform No recognitions have been awarded to AWS CloudFormation ### Deployment & support Terraform Deployment - Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based - Desktop Mac - Desktop Windows - Desktop Linux - On-Premise Windows - On-Premise Linux - Desktop Chromebook - Mobile Android - Mobile iPhone - Mobile iPad Support - Email/Help Desk - FAQs/Forum - Knowledge Base - Phone Support - 24/7 (Live rep) - Chat Training - In Person - Live Online - Webinars - Documentation - Videos AWS CloudFormation Deployment - Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based - Desktop Mac - Desktop Windows - Desktop Linux - On-Premise Windows - On-Premise Linux - Desktop Chromebook - Mobile Android - Mobile iPhone - Mobile iPad Support - Email/Help Desk - FAQs/Forum - Knowledge Base - Phone Support - 24/7 (Live rep) - Chat Training - In Person - Live Online - Webinars - Documentation - Videos ### Company Details Terraform - By HashiCorp - Located in United States - Founded in 2012 AWS CloudFormation - By Amazon Web Services - Located in United States - Founded in 2006 ## Popular Comparisons [Terraform](https://www.capterra.com/p/179262/HashiCorp/)[4.78 (49)](https://www.capterra.com/p/179262/HashiCorp/reviews/) vs [Microsoft Azure](https://www.capterra.com/p/16365/Azure/)[4.58 (1,943)](https://www.capterra.com/p/16365/Azure/reviews/) $20/month Price $31.39/month 4.6 Features 4.6 4.3 Ease of Use 4.1 [View full comparison](https://www.capterra.com/compare/16365-179262/Azure-vs-HashiCorp) [AWS CloudFormation](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/)[4.51 (106)](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/reviews/) vs [Google Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/)[4.68 (2,259)](https://www.capterra.com/p/268690/Google-Cloud-Platform/reviews/) Contact vendor for pricing Price Contact vendor for pricing 4.5 Features 4.6 4.1 Ease of Use 4.5 [View full comparison](https://www.capterra.com/compare/205397-268690/CloudFormation-vs-Google-Cloud-Platform) [AWS CloudFormation](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/)[4.51 (106)](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/reviews/) vs [Datadog](https://www.capterra.com/p/135453/Datadog-Cloud-Monitoring/)[4.56 (357)](https://www.capterra.com/p/135453/Datadog-Cloud-Monitoring/reviews/) Contact vendor for pricing Price $15/month 4.5 Features 4.5 4.1 Ease of Use 4.3 [View full comparison](https://www.capterra.com/compare/135453-205397/Datadog-Cloud-Monitoring-vs-CloudFormation) [AWS CloudFormation](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/)[4.51 (106)](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/reviews/) vs [Site24x7](https://www.capterra.com/p/168192/Site24x7/)[4.71 (343)](https://www.capterra.com/p/168192/Site24x7/reviews/) Contact vendor for pricing Price $10/month 4.5 Features 4.6 4.1 Ease of Use 4.5 [View full comparison](https://www.capterra.com/compare/168192-205397/Site24x7-vs-CloudFormation) [AWS CloudFormation](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/)[4.51 (106)](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/reviews/) vs [Zapier](https://www.capterra.com/p/130182/Zapier/)[4.66 (3,043)](https://www.capterra.com/p/130182/Zapier/reviews/) Contact vendor for pricing Price $29.99/month 4.5 Features 4.6 4.1 Ease of Use 4.3 [View full comparison](https://www.capterra.com/compare/130182-205397/Zapier-vs-CloudFormation) [AWS CloudFormation](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/)[4.51 (106)](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/reviews/) vs [ManageEngine Applications Manager](https://www.capterra.com/p/172323/ManageEngine-Applications-Manager/)[4.61 (255)](https://www.capterra.com/p/172323/ManageEngine-Applications-Manager/reviews/) Contact vendor for pricing Price $395/year 4.5 Features 4.7 4.1 Ease of Use 4.6 [View full comparison](https://www.capterra.com/compare/172323-205397/ManageEngine-Applications-Manager-vs-CloudFormation) [AWS CloudFormation](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/)[4.51 (106)](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/reviews/) vs [viaSocket](https://www.capterra.com/p/10020406/viaSocket/)[4.83 (640)](https://www.capterra.com/p/10020406/viaSocket/reviews/) Contact vendor for pricing Price $30/month 4.5 Features 4.6 4.1 Ease of Use 4.7 [View full comparison](https://www.capterra.com/compare/205397-10020406/CloudFormation-vs-viaSocket) [AWS CloudFormation](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/)[4.51 (106)](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/reviews/) vs [DigitalOcean](https://www.capterra.com/p/205055/DigitalOcean/)[4.63 (158)](https://www.capterra.com/p/205055/DigitalOcean/reviews/) Contact vendor for pricing Price $4/month 4.5 Features 4.6 4.1 Ease of Use 4.6 [View full comparison](https://www.capterra.com/compare/205055-205397/DigitalOcean-vs-CloudFormation) [AWS CloudFormation](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/)[4.51 (106)](https://www.capterra.com/p/205397/CloudFormation/reviews/) vs [MuleSoft Anypoint Platform](https://www.capterra.com/p/275022/Anypoint-Platform/)[4.43 (573)](https://www.capterra.com/p/275022/Anypoint-Platform/reviews/) Contact vendor for pricing Price Contact vendor for pricing 4.5 Features 4.5 4.1 Ease of Use 4.4 [View full comparison](https://www.capterra.com/compare/205397-275022/CloudFormation-vs-Anypoint-Platform)