head to head · open source
OpenTofu vs kcl
OpenTofu has 30,703 GitHub stars, 1,414 forks, 320 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kcl has 2,440 stars, 177 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenTofu leads on adoption by 1,158% (30,703 vs 2,440 stars). OpenTofu is written in Go under MPL-2.0; kcl is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. OpenTofu has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, kcl 7%. 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.
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Side by side
| OpenTofu | kcl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 177 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenTofu if
- You weight community size — 31K 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 kcl if
- You want the kcl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and kcl fits your workflow better
About OpenTofu
Homepage Slack Get Started OpenTofu is an OSS tool for building, changing, and versioning infrastructure safely and efficiently. OpenTofu can manage existing and popular service providers as well as custom in house solutions. Getting help and contributing Have a question? Post it in GitHub Discussions Open a GitHub issue Join us in the opentofu channel on the CNCF Slack! Want to contribute? Please read the Contribution Guide. Recurring Events Community Meetings on Wednesdays at 12:30 UTC (calendar) Technical Steering Committee Meetings every other Tuesday at 4pm UTC (calendar) [!TIP] For more OpenTofu events…
read the full OpenTofu overview →
About kcl
KCL: Constraint based Record & Functional Language English 简体中文 Introduction Features What is it for Installation Documentation Contributing Introduction KCL is an open source, constraint based record and functional language that enhances the writing of complex configurations, including those for cloud native scenarios. With its advanced programming language technology and practices, KCL is dedicated to promoting better modularity, scalability, and stability for configurations. It enables simpler logic writing and offers ease of automation APIs and integration with homegrown systems. What is it for? You can use…
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenTofu or kcl more popular?
OpenTofu has 30,703 GitHub stars and kcl has 2,440. OpenTofu has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenTofu and kcl free?
Both are open source. OpenTofu is licensed under MPL-2.0 and kcl under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenTofu and kcl?
OpenTofu is written in Go and kcl in Rust. 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 kcl?
Choose OpenTofu if you want the larger community (30,703 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose kcl if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.