Terraform Cloud vs. Firefly

Considering a Terraform Cloud alternative?

Here’s a walkthrough for DevOps pros who just want to know what else is out there.

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Firefly is an alternative to Terraform Cloud that lets you:

Provision IaC pipelines and adopt GitOps automations

Continuously scan your entire cloud footprint

Inventory and filter your cloud assets, in and out of Terraform

Understand your IaC coverage and status

Detect and fix configuration drift in real time

Automatically codify assets, including dependencies and modules

View comprehensive asset history for roll back errors

See how Firefly stacks up against Terraform Cloud

Firefly

Terraform Cloud

Cloud scanning & inventory

Firefly

Discovers and inventories all cloud metadata and configurations; maps any IaC and detects unmanaged resources

Terraform Cloud

No visibility into cloud resources, relying solely on IaC for visibility; can only show what was deployed for TF, and can’t detect unmanaged assets (ClickOps)

Asset history

Firefly

Complete change log, with ability to revert to previous versions

Terraform Cloud

No asset history

Codification

Firefly

Generates IaC code in any language, creates modules, uses module call, and nested modules

Terraform Cloud

Only works for Terraform (not supporting modules), can’t identify unmanaged resources, doesn’t scale, code with explicit values only (not best practice)

Drift detection

Firefly

Near real-time detection at scale, does not require plan/apply to engage, maps cloud events against cloud resources against ideal state configurations for full fidelity context of who, what, when, and configuration history

Terraform Cloud

Inconsistent, time lapsed scanning at large scale, because function is based only at plan/apply; does not provide context or historical configurations to revert to previous configs, and won’t be able to provide user data

Drift fix (remediation)

Firefly

Firefly uniquely calls modules/repos, allowing non-expert IaC engineers to automate IaC fixes by opening a PR

Terraform Cloud

Offer reconciliation remediation only, can only revert to desired state.

Governance-as-Code

Firefly

Unified governance engine across code, CI/CD, and cloud deployed resources, including unmanaged resources; built-in FinOps cost estimation; natural language translator into Open Policy Agent (OPA) so more engineers can use it without the need for OPA expertise; AI-remediation for policy violations

Terraform Cloud

Only supported at plan/apply for new infrastructure. It won’t apply on manual changes and unmanaged resources. InfraCost - need additional license. Requires knowledge of OPA, no policy packs

CI/CD

Firefly

Provision and orchestrate IaC seamlessly within your existing CI/CD for any IaC; available during downtime

Terraform Cloud

CI exclusively for Terraform; vendor lock - doesn’t integrate with your existing CI/CD

Disaster recovery & business resilience

Firefly

Rollback to previous configurations; independent backup for all cloud configurations and IaC code

Terraform Cloud

Backup and recovery not a core function; cannot store historical configurations

Why you shouldn’t use Firefly as a Terraform Cloud alternative

If you’re the kind of DevOps pro who *prefers* to keep things unmanaged and full of surprises, you’re all set to embrace the chaos with Terraform Cloud. (You should leave this page now. But we’ll be here if you change your mind).

If you are certain that you have full visibility of your assets, even across multi-cloud environments

Your cloud is constantly scanned for issues, and you already know what percentage of your cloud is codified in IaC and unmanaged, plus what has drifted from Terraform. Everything is well-documented in case of disaster.

If you love adding yet another tool to your existing tech stack, or relying on an additional CI/CD platform that doesn't integrate into your current workflow

For organizations where Firefly isn’t a fit, IaC automation is simply not a priority.

If naive codification without support for dependencies or modules is “good enough”

You also may need to be a fan of doing unnecessary manual work instead of using templates (or modules), or enjoy using crappy code that doesn't follow best practices.

If not having any asset history or change log makes you feel like a daredevil, and you enjoy the challenge of solving problems when you can't see what changes were made, or who made them

Your team doesn’t care to be able to roll back to previous versions, and already feels confident in their ability to pass auditing and do troubleshooting as is.

If, for your team, ensuring that deployments and configurations are within policy is more effective when handled manually

In this scenario, your DevOps engineers are uncharacteristically impervious to human error.

If, in the event of an incident, your engineers would rather re-create your configurations than keep them centrally documented

Chaos is the spice of life, and you believe that redoing work is the cornerstone of positive morale.

Weighing your options?
Book a demo to see Firefly at work

Without Firefly, you're left with Terraform Cloud's limited visibility, delayed drift detection, single-language support, and potential vendor lock-in. But hey, some people enjoy living on the edge — and if that sounds familiar, we applaud your courage.

Why Firefly?

Comprehensive asset visibility & inventory

Simplified IaC provisioning

Use your preferred CI/CD

Real-time drift detection & remediation

Multi-language IaC support & codification

Unified governance across cloud resources

Self-hosted options for true control