Infrastructure as Code Showdown: Terraform vs OpenTofu vs Pulumi in 2026
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has become the backbone of modern cloud operations, but choosing the right tool in 2026 requires navigating a landscape transformed by licensing controversies, community forks, and evolving developer preferences. This guide compares the three most significant players: Terraform, OpenTofu, and Pulumi. The Current State of IaC in 2026 The IaC ecosystem underwent a seismic shift in 2023 when HashiCorp changed Terraform’s license from Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL) to the Business Source License (BSL). This decision sparked the creation of OpenTofu, a community-driven fork that maintains the original open-source commitment. Meanwhile, Pulumi has carved out its niche by allowing developers to write infrastructure code in general-purpose programming languages rather than domain-specific languages. ...