head to head · open source
OpenTofu vs Pulumi
OpenTofu has 30,703 GitHub stars, 1,414 forks, 320 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Pulumi has 25,840 stars, 1,478 forks, 2,419 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenTofu leads on adoption by 19% (30,703 vs 25,840 stars). OpenTofu is written in Go under MPL-2.0; Pulumi is written in Go under Apache-2.0. OpenTofu has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Pulumi 6%. Pulumi 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 | Pulumi | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 26K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| 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 Pulumi if
- You want the Pulumi feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Pulumi 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 Pulumi
Infrastructure as Code for Humans and Agents Pulumi Infrastructure as Code is the easiest way to build and deploy infrastructure, of any architecture and on any cloud, using programming languages that you already know and love. Code and ship infrastructure faster with your favorite languages and tools, and embed IaC anywhere with Automation API. Simply write code in your favorite language and Pulumi automatically provisions and manages your resources on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Kubernetes, and 300+ providers using an infrastructure as code approach. Skip the YAML, and use standard language features…
read the full Pulumi overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenTofu or Pulumi more popular?
OpenTofu has 30,703 GitHub stars and Pulumi has 25,840. OpenTofu has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenTofu and Pulumi free?
Both are open source. OpenTofu is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Pulumi under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenTofu and Pulumi?
OpenTofu is written in Go and Pulumi in Go. 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 Pulumi?
Choose OpenTofu if you want the larger community (30,703 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose Pulumi if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.