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

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. 89 of the 252 answers in the 1 category where Terraform 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/terraform/alternatives/

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

- OpenTofu: 26
- Terraform/OpenTofu: 9
- Ansible: 5
- AWS CloudFormation: 3
- Pulumi: 3
- Terraform with HCP Terraform: 2

## Infrastructure as code

**Small business**: 20 of 84 answers did not name Terraform (Terraform is #1 of 10 at 55%).

- OpenTofu: first choice in 6 of those 20
- Terraform/OpenTofu: first choice in 4 of those 20
- Ansible: first choice in 2 of those 20
- Pulumi: first choice in 2 of those 20
- Terraform using HCP Terraform's Free plan: first choice in 1 of those 20

**Mid-market**: 32 of 84 answers did not name Terraform (Terraform is #1 of 12 at 57%).

- OpenTofu: first choice in 12 of those 32
- Ansible: first choice in 3 of those 32
- Terraform with HCP Terraform: first choice in 2 of those 32
- Terraform/OpenTofu: first choice in 1 of those 32

**Enterprise**: 37 of 84 answers did not name Terraform (Terraform is #1 of 13 at 53%).

- OpenTofu: first choice in 8 of those 37
- Terraform/OpenTofu: first choice in 4 of those 37
- AWS CloudFormation: first choice in 3 of those 37
- Pulumi: first choice in 1 of those 37
- Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform: first choice in 1 of those 37
- Scalr: first choice in 1 of those 37
- Terraform with HCP Terraform or Terraform Enterprise: first choice in 1 of those 37

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