# Crossplane vs Terraform

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Terraform

| Attribute | Crossplane | Terraform |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 56.5 (28% (low)) | 62.4 (53% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 76 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 24 | 1,108 |
| adoption.github_stars | 12,148 | 49,829 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A Kubernetes-based platform engineering framework that allows organizations to create declarative APIs exposing infrastructure capabilities. It enables safe self-service provisioning for users, automation systems, and AI agents while enforcing policies and governance through a centralized control plane. It is indexed under Infrastructure as Code Tools.","source":"https://www.crossplane.io","question":"What is Crossplane?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Crossplane is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.crossplane.io","question":"Is Crossplane free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Crossplane can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.crossplane.io","question":"Can Crossplane be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Crossplane is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane","question":"Is Crossplane open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"Terraform is an infrastructure as code tool that lets you build, change, and version infrastructure safely and efficiently. It manages low-level components like compute, storage, and networking as well as high-level components like DNS entries and SaaS features. It is indexed under Infrastructure as Code Tools.","source":"https://www.terraform.io","question":"What is Terraform?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Terraform is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.terraform.io","question":"Is Terraform free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Terraform supports a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.terraform.io","question":"What platforms does Terraform support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Terraform can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.terraform.io","question":"Can Terraform be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 10 integrations for Terraform, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Oracle Cloud, Docker, Consul, Packer and Vault, plus 2 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.terraform.io","question":"What does Terraform integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 and ISO 27001 for Terraform. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Terraform not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.terraform.io/security","question":"What security certifications does Terraform have?","confidence":0.7}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Crossplane is an extensible, open-source framework for building cloud-native control planes. It provides a declarative approach to orchestrating applications and infrastructure across multiple clouds through pluggable providers and configurable APIs. | Terraform is an infrastructure-as-code platform that lets teams define, provision, and manage cloud and on-premise infrastructure through declarative configuration files. It generates execution plans before making changes, manages resource dependencies, and enables version control and collaboration on infrastructure definitions. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"self","language":"YAML","paradigm":"declarative_dsl","multicloud":true,"policy_as_code":true,"drift_detection":true,"state_management":"vendor_managed","open_source_engine":true,"provider_ecosystem":true,"gitops_reconciliation":true,"managed_saas_offering":false}` | `{"hosting":"both","language":"HCL","paradigm":"declarative_dsl","multicloud":true,"policy_as_code":true,"import_existing":true,"state_management":"vendor_managed","open_source_engine":true,"provider_ecosystem":true,"managed_saas_offering":true}` |
| integrations.count | - | 10 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"name":"AWS"},{"name":"Azure"},{"name":"Google Cloud Platform"},{"name":"Oracle Cloud"},{"name":"Docker"},{"name":"Consul"},{"name":"Packer"},{"name":"Vault"},{"name":"Boundary"},{"name":"GitHub"}]` |
| language.primary | Go | Go |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true}` | `{"cli":true,"windows":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.crossplane.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T21:31:56.894Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.terraform.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T09:37:57.093Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | yes | - |
| release.cadence_days | - | 6 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v2.4.2","date":"2026-09-22T19:11:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.4.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v2.4.1","date":"2026-09-15T17:16:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.4.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v2.3.6","date":"2026-09-15T17:16:09Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.3.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v2.2.6","date":"2026-09-15T17:16:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.2.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v1.20.13","date":"2026-09-15T17:16:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.20.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v2.3.5","date":"2026-08-21T17:17:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.3.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v2.2.5","date":"2026-08-21T17:21:51Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.2.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v1.20.12","date":"2026-08-21T17:24:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.20.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v2.4.0","date":"2026-08-20T14:42:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v2.4.0-rc.1","date":"2026-08-14T16:06:42Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.4.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v2.3.4","date":"2026-07-23T14:12:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.3.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v2.2.4","date":"2026-07-23T14:12:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.2.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v2.1.8","date":"2026-07-23T14:11:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.1.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v1.20.11","date":"2026-07-23T14:11:46Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.20.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v2.3.3","date":"2026-06-22T17:32:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.3.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v2.2.3","date":"2026-06-22T16:58:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.2.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v2.1.7","date":"2026-06-22T16:40:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.1.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v1.20.10","date":"2026-06-22T16:39:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.20.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v2.3.2","date":"2026-06-09T16:51:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.3.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/crossplane/crossplane/releases/tag/v1.20.9","date":"2026-06-05T22:07:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.20.9"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.16.5","date":"2026-10-02T13:04:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.17.0-beta2","date":"2026-09-23T15:48:24Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.17.0-beta2"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.16.4","date":"2026-09-23T12:44:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.16.3","date":"2026-09-16T14:33:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.17.0-beta1","date":"2026-09-09T17:13:24Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.17.0-beta1"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.16.2","date":"2026-09-09T13:22:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.16.1","date":"2026-09-02T14:49:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.17.0-alpha20260827","date":"2026-08-27T10:30:11Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.17.0-alpha20260827"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.16.0","date":"2026-08-26T13:05:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.16.0-rc2","date":"2026-08-19T12:08:45Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.16.0-rc2"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.15.9","date":"2026-08-19T14:29:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.15.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.17.0-alpha20260812","date":"2026-08-12T12:01:24Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.17.0-alpha20260812"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.16.0-rc1","date":"2026-08-12T15:22:32Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.16.0-rc1"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.16.0-beta2","date":"2026-08-05T18:07:50Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.16.0-beta2"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.17.0-alpha20260729","date":"2026-07-29T19:38:27Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.17.0-alpha20260729"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.16.0-beta1","date":"2026-07-23T16:51:01Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.16.0-beta1"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.16.0-alpha20260715","date":"2026-07-15T12:44:36Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.16.0-alpha20260715"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.16.0-alpha20260708","date":"2026-07-08T09:19:38Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.16.0-alpha20260708"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.15.8","date":"2026-07-08T17:45:09Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.15.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/releases/tag/v1.16.0-alpha20260706","date":"2026-07-06T14:49:07Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.16.0-alpha20260706"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.iso27001 | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 9.6 | 6.6 |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":4,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fcrossplane%2Fcrossplane&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":"CRITICAL"}` | `{"count":2,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fhashicorp%2Fterraform&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` |

## Capabilities (Infrastructure as Code Tools)

| Capability | Crossplane | Terraform |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Paradigm | Declarative DSL | Declarative DSL |
| Language | YAML | HCL |
| **Portability** |  |  |
| Multicloud / cloud-agnostic | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Architecture** |  |  |
| State management | Vendor-managed | Vendor-managed |
| **Extensibility** |  |  |
| Pluggable provider ecosystem | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Governance** |  |  |
| Policy as code | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Ops** |  |  |
| Drift detection | ✓ | - |
| GitOps continuous reconciliation | ✓ | - |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Managed SaaS offering | ✗ | ✓ |
| Hosting | Self-hosted only | Cloud + self-hosted |
| **Adoption** |  |  |
| Import existing resources | - | ✓ |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Open-source engine | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Ecosystem** |  |  |
| CNCF maturity | - | - |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T19:18:17.205Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*