head to head · open source
OpenTofu vs OpenStack
OpenTofu has 30,703 GitHub stars, 1,414 forks, 320 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenStack has 6,072 stars, 1,625 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenTofu leads on adoption by 406% (30,703 vs 6,072 stars). OpenTofu is written in Go under MPL-2.0; OpenStack is written in Python under Apache-2.0. OpenTofu has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, OpenStack 27%. OpenStack 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 | OpenStack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 OpenStack if
- You want the OpenStack feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and OpenStack 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 OpenStack
OpenStack ========= OpenStack is a collection of interoperable components that can be deployed to provide computing, networking and storage resources. Those infrastructure resources can then be accessed by end users through programmable APIs. This repository just represents OpenStack as a collection of git submodules. You can find the repositories for individual components at: You can learn more about the various components in OpenStack at: To learn more about how to contribute to OpenStack, please head to our Contributor portal: To learn more about how OpenStack is governed, you can visit: Why this repository ?…
read the full OpenStack 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 OpenStack more popular?
OpenTofu has 30,703 GitHub stars and OpenStack has 6,072. OpenTofu has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenTofu and OpenStack free?
Both are open source. OpenTofu is licensed under MPL-2.0 and OpenStack under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenTofu and OpenStack?
OpenTofu is written in Go and OpenStack in Python. 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 OpenStack?
Choose OpenTofu if you want the larger community (30,703 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose OpenStack if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.