Terraform Cloud (HCP Terraform) and Spacelift both manage infrastructure as code (IaC) through remote runs, state storage, and policy enforcement, but they take different approaches. Terraform Cloud is HashiCorp’s managed service built around the Terraform workflow. Spacelift is a VCS-driven orchestration platform that works across multiple IaC tools, including Terraform, OpenTofu, Pulumi, CloudFormation, Kubernetes, and Ansible.
In this article, we compare the two on workflows, execution, governance, integrations, and pricing so you can choose the right fit for your team.
TL;DR
Terraform Cloud (HCP Terraform) is HashiCorp’s managed service for the Terraform workflow, whereas Spacelift orchestrates multiple IaC tools.
- Terraform Cloud offers remote runs, state, and governance via Sentinel and Open Policy Agent (OPA). It suits teams standardized on Terraform that want a native, low-setup experience.
- Spacelift works across Terraform, OpenTofu, Pulumi, CloudFormation, Kubernetes, and Ansible, with managed or self-hosted workers, deeper workflow customization, and AI-powered provisioning through Spacelift Intelligence. Its pricing is based on plan and worker capacity, not per managed resource like Terraform Cloud’s Resources Under Management (RUM) model.
Choose Terraform Cloud for Terraform-only work. Choose Spacelift for multi-tool environments, self-hosted execution, or heavier customization.
What is Terraform Cloud (HCP Terraform)?
Terraform Cloud, now officially branded as HCP Terraform as part of the HashiCorp Cloud Platform, is a managed service for running Terraform in a centralized, collaborative environment. It provides remote state storage, VCS-driven runs, and policy enforcement without requiring local CLI execution.
Terraform Cloud enables teams to automate infrastructure provisioning with built-in access controls, auditing, and compliance through Sentinel and Open Policy Agent (OPA) policies. By offloading execution and state management, it simplifies workflows compared to self-managed setups, making it well-suited for organizations that standardize on Terraform and need a secure, scalable IaC solution.
What is Spacelift?
Spacelift is an infrastructure orchestration platform built for the AI-accelerated software era. It manages the full lifecycle for both traditional infrastructure as code and AI-provisioned infrastructure, supporting tools like Terraform, OpenTofu, Pulumi, CloudFormation, Kubernetes, and Ansible. Spacelift functions as a CI/CD layer purpose-built for infrastructure, combining GitOps workflows, drift detection, and policy as code through Open Policy Agent (OPA).
Spacelift includes features such as role-based access control, dependency handling, secrets management, and context-aware policies. Infrastructure changes can be triggered directly from Git events, and teams can manage approvals and workflows through a visual interface.
Spacelift Intelligence adds an AI-powered layer for natural language provisioning, diagnostics, and operational insight across both traditional and AI-driven workflows.
Unlike general-purpose CI/CD systems, Spacelift is designed specifically for infrastructure orchestration, making it easier to enforce security and governance while maintaining developer velocity.
How we compared these platforms
This comparison is based on publicly available documentation, product materials, and hands-on experience with both platforms. Spacelift is the publisher of this article and is one of the platforms being compared, so treat the Spacelift entries as a vendor’s own description and confirm current Terraform Cloud capabilities against HashiCorp’s documentation. Capabilities on both platforms change often.
Key differences between Terraform Cloud and Spacelift
The main difference between Spacelift and Terraform Cloud is that Spacelift offers a more flexible, multi-tool infrastructure orchestration platform with AI-powered capabilities, while Terraform Cloud is a managed service focused exclusively on the Terraform workflow.
1. Workflows & IaC support
Terraform Cloud and Spacelift both manage infrastructure through code, but they approach workflows and core abstractions very differently.
Terraform Cloud organizes work into Workspaces, each tied to a specific Terraform configuration. Workspaces keep projects separate, but coordinating them can be difficult. HCP Terraform also offers Stacks and run triggers to model dependencies and automatically trigger downstream runs.
Spacelift uses Stacks, which can represent a project or an entire environment. Stacks support dependencies, policies, and integrations, and they can be connected to flow changes across your setup. This makes managing complex infrastructure more seamless.
Read more here: Terraform Cloud / Enterprise Workspaces vs. Spacelift Stacks or watch the video below:
On the workflow side, Terraform Cloud is built around Terraform. It provides a straightforward path for plans, applies, and state management, but only within HashiCorp’s ecosystem. Terragrunt is not supported natively by HCP Terraform runners (they run Terraform CLI only). If you rely on Pulumi, CloudFormation, or Kubernetes, you may find it limiting.
Spacelift supports multiple IaC tools through a single platform. These include Terraform, OpenTofu, Pulumi, CloudFormation, Kubernetes, and Ansible. Teams can run consistent workflows across tools, with flexible triggers, policies, and approvals that adapt to the way they work.
With Spacelift Intelligence, teams can also provision non-critical infrastructure using natural language, without writing IaC configuration, while the same policies and guardrails apply.
2. Execution
In Terraform Cloud, runs are executed in HashiCorp’s managed environment. You can also run in your own network using HCP Terraform Agents (self-hosted execution). This removes the need to provision or manage your own workers, which can simplify operations. At the same time, it means execution happens outside of your own infrastructure, which may be a factor for teams with strict security or compliance requirements.
Spacelift provides two options. You can use managed workers, similar to Terraform Cloud, or set up self-hosted workers that run inside your own cloud account. The managed model reduces overhead, while the self-hosted model allows greater control over networking, secrets, and compliance. (Self-hosted worker pools are part of Spacelift’s architecture.)
Spacelift also makes it possible to extend execution with additional steps, such as security checks or tests, directly in the pipeline.
Both platforms also offer drift detection, though Terraform Cloud’s scope is limited to Terraform, while Spacelift applies it across multiple IaC tools with more flexible remediation options.
3. Governance
As infrastructure scales, governance becomes a key consideration. Both Terraform Cloud and Spacelift provide core enterprise features such as RBAC, SSO, SCIM, and audit trails to ensure identity, access, and compliance requirements are met.
The main distinction is in policy frameworks. Terraform Cloud uses Sentinel, HashiCorp’s policy-as-code system, and OPA policies. Sentinel and OPA policies can be scoped and attached as policy sets.
OPA policies can be applied to infrastructure workflows in Spacelift and may also be reused in other contexts where OPA is already in place. Spacelift also includes a policy library with templates you can import and adapt.
In addition to policies, Spacelift supports approvals, dependencies, and workflow controls that can be adapted to organizational needs.
In practice, Terraform Cloud provides a governance model designed for teams fully centered on Terraform. Spacelift offers governance based on open standards that can extend across multi-tool and AI-driven environments.
4. Integrations & ecosystem
For most teams, an IaC management platform is only as useful as the systems it connects with. Both Terraform Cloud and Spacelift integrate with common version control providers like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket, so changes to infrastructure code can trigger runs automatically.
Beyond version control, their approaches begin to differ. Terraform Cloud focuses on integrations that fit tightly within the HashiCorp ecosystem, with support for run tasks, Splunk, and ServiceNow (including Service Catalog), plus private VCS via Agents to extend workflows. This works well for teams who primarily operate within Terraform’s boundaries.
Spacelift is designed to act as a central hub in a broader DevOps stack. In addition to VCS integration, it connects with CI/CD systems, secrets managers, cloud providers, and collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams. Its Resources view provides inventory-style visualization and lifecycle tracking across tools.
Governance is also tied into its integrations, with OPA and policy checks that can be applied across workflows. This makes it easier for teams to align infrastructure automation with the tools they already use daily.
5. Pricing
Terraform Cloud (HCP Terraform) uses a Resources Under Management (RUM) model, billing per managed resource based on hourly peak usage. Run concurrency is set by your tier, from a few parallel runs on the entry tier up to higher limits on Premium.
Because cost scales with the number of resources you manage rather than the size of your team, bills can grow non-linearly and become harder to forecast as your infrastructure grows.
The legacy free tier ended in March 2026 and was replaced by a usage-based plan with a capped free allowance.
Spacelift uses a plan-based model that centers on your tier and worker capacity rather than the number of resources you manage. It is not RUM-based and does not charge per resource, and users are unlimited on every paid plan, so you are not paying per seat.
Parallelism scales with the workers in your plan rather than a separate per-tier concurrency cap, so teams can run more stacks at once as their worker capacity grows.
For organizations with large resource footprints, pricing that does not climb with every managed resource can be easier to forecast.
Terraform Cloud (HCP Terraform) vs. Spacelift: Table comparison
The table below summarizes the comparison between Terraform Cloud and Spacelift:
| Capability | Spacelift | Terraform Cloud (HCP Terraform) |
| IaC tools supported | Terraform, OpenTofu, Terragrunt, Pulumi, CloudFormation, Kubernetes, Ansible | Terraform only (CLI-based runners) |
| Pricing model | Plan and worker capacity based, no per-resource charge, unlimited users | Resources Under Management (RUM), billed per resource on hourly peak; concurrency tied to plan tier |
| Execution | Managed or self-hosted workers in your own cloud account | Managed, with self-hosted execution via HCP Terraform Agents |
| Dependencies | Native, across stacks | Supported via Stacks and run triggers |
| Workflow customization | Custom images, hooks, and custom run phases | Defined by the platform’s run model |
| Policy as code | OPA across many decision points, plus an importable policy library | Sentinel and OPA, scoped as policy sets at plan and apply |
| Resource visibility | Inventory view with visualization, lifecycle tracking, search, and filtering | Resource view per workspace |
| Integrations | VCS, CI/CD, secrets managers, cloud providers, Slack, and Microsoft Teams | VCS, run tasks, Splunk, and ServiceNow (including Service Catalog) |
| Drift detection | Across all supported IaC tools | Terraform workflows (higher tiers) |
| State management | Managed, with the option to use other backends | Managed |
| AI-powered provisioning | Natural language provisioning and diagnostics via Spacelift Intelligence | No native equivalent |
This comparison reflects platform capabilities as of June 2026, based on publicly available documentation and vendor materials. Terraform Cloud features vary by plan tier, so verify current capabilities against HashiCorp’s documentation before deciding.
This comparison reflects platform capabilities as of April 2026, based on publicly available documentation and vendor materials. Terraform Cloud features and limitations may vary by plan tier.
Supply chain management platform Logixboard was a Terraform Cloud customer seeking a more reliable Terraform experience. By migrating from Terraform Cloud to Spacelift, they have slashed the time they spend troubleshooting deployments, freeing them for more productive work.
Key points
TFC is built for Terraform-first shops, with workspaces, fixed concurrency, and Sentinel and OPA-based governance. Spacelift takes a broader approach, supporting multiple IaC tools, self-hosted or managed workers, open standards like OPA, AI-powered provisioning and diagnostics via Spacelift Intelligence, and deep integrations across the DevOps stack.
Spacelift offers more flexibility for teams using multi-IaC tools or requiring advanced automation and policy customization. For Terraform-centric workflows, Terraform Cloud offers a simpler native experience.
If you want to learn more about Spacelift, create a free account or book a demo with one of your engineers.
If you are already using Terraform Cloud and want to switch to Spacelift, check out this migration tutorial to see how easy it is. To learn more about the advantages of migrating from Terraform Cloud to Spacelift, check out our Terraform Cloud alternative page.
The best Terraform Cloud alternative
Spacelift is a Terraform Cloud alternative that works with Terraform, OpenTofu, Terragrunt, and many other infrastructure as code frameworks. It offers predictable pricing and supports self-hosted on-prem workers, workflow customization, drift detection, and much more.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Terraform Enterprise and Spacelift?
Terraform Enterprise is designed to manage and scale Terraform workflows within HashiCorp’s ecosystem, while Spacelift provides a flexible platform for managing multi-IaC workflows across diverse tools and environments.
What is the difference between HCP Terraform and Spacelift?
HCP Terraform is HashiCorp’s managed service for running Terraform within its own ecosystem, while Spacelift is a platform that supports Terraform alongside other IaC tools and gives teams more flexibility in workflows, execution, and integrations.
How do Terraform Cloud and Spacelift pricing differ?
Terraform Cloud uses a Resources Under Management (RUM) model, and concurrency is tied to your plan tier. Spacelift uses a usage-based model with concurrency included and no per-resource charge, which tends to be more predictable for teams with many engineers or frequent automated runs.
How hard is it to migrate from Terraform Cloud to Spacelift?
Migration centers on moving state and reconnecting your VCS, then recreating workspaces as Spacelift stacks. Spacelift publishes a step-by-step migration tutorial that walks through the process.
