head to head · open source
OpenTofu vs headlamp
OpenTofu has 30,232 GitHub stars, 1,371 forks, 320 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. headlamp has 7,310 stars, 1,112 forks, 1,422 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. OpenTofu leads on adoption by 314% (30,232 vs 7,310 stars). OpenTofu is written in Go under MPL-2.0; headlamp is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. OpenTofu has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, headlamp 15%. OpenTofu was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| OpenTofu | headlamp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 7.3K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenTofu if
- You weight community size — 30K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick headlamp if
- You want the headlamp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and headlamp fits your workflow better
About OpenTofu
OpenTofu is an open source infrastructure as code (IaC) tool that enables users to define and manage cloud and on premises infrastructure using declarative configuration files. It lives in the cloud infrastructure management ecosystem and serves as a community driven fork of Terraform, maintaining compatibility with Terraform’s configuration language and provider ecosystem while operating under the MPL 2.0 license.
read the full OpenTofu overview →
About headlamp
Headlamp is an Apache 2.0 licensed, vendor independent Kubernetes web UI written in TypeScript that runs either inside a cluster or locally as a desktop application, and it is built for platform engineers, cluster operators, and developers who need to inspect and change Kubernetes resources through a graphical interface.
read the full headlamp overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Cloud Infrastructure Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Cloud Infrastructure Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenTofu or headlamp more popular?
OpenTofu has 30,232 GitHub stars and headlamp has 7,310. OpenTofu has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenTofu and headlamp free?
Both are open source. OpenTofu is licensed under MPL-2.0 and headlamp under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenTofu and headlamp?
OpenTofu is written in Go and headlamp in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, OpenTofu or headlamp?
Choose OpenTofu if you want the larger community (30,232 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose headlamp if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.