# Ansible alternatives: what AI models name instead, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. 185 of the 252 answers in the 1 category where Ansible holds a standing named it neither first nor as an alternative; these are the first choices those answers made. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/vendors/ansible/alternatives/

## Named instead, most often (every category and segment added)

- Terraform: 96
- OpenTofu: 54
- Pulumi: 16
- AWS CloudFormation: 4
- Terraform/OpenTofu: 4
- Spacelift: 3

## Infrastructure as code

**Small business**: 51 of 84 answers did not name Ansible (Ansible is #5 of 10 at 0%).

- Terraform: first choice in 34 of those 51
- OpenTofu: first choice in 20 of those 51
- Pulumi: first choice in 7 of those 51
- AWS CloudFormation: first choice in 1 of those 51
- Terraform using HCP Terraform's Free plan: first choice in 1 of those 51
- Terraform/OpenTofu: first choice in 1 of those 51

**Mid-market**: 62 of 84 answers did not name Ansible (Ansible is #3 of 12 at 4%).

- Terraform: first choice in 31 of those 62
- OpenTofu: first choice in 21 of those 62
- Terraform with HCP Terraform: first choice in 2 of those 62
- Pulumi: first choice in 1 of those 62

**Enterprise**: 72 of 84 answers did not name Ansible (Ansible is #11 of 13 at 0%).

- Terraform: first choice in 31 of those 72
- OpenTofu: first choice in 13 of those 72
- Pulumi: first choice in 8 of those 72
- AWS CloudFormation: first choice in 3 of those 72
- Spacelift: first choice in 3 of those 72
- Terraform/OpenTofu: first choice in 3 of those 72
- AWS CDK: first choice in 1 of those 72
- Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform: first choice in 1 of those 72

Published under CC BY 4.0. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.