# OpenTofu

The Linux Foundation fork of Terraform: same language and providers, but genuinely open source.

HTML: https://softbests.com/software/opentofu
Markdown: https://softbests.com/software/opentofu.md
Website: https://opentofu.org

- Category: [Developer utilities](https://softbests.com/category/developer-tools)
- Pricing: Open source
- Platforms: macOS, Windows, Linux, CLI
- Underrated

## Best for

Teams managing cloud infrastructure as code who do not want a BUSL licence or a paid remote state service.

## Why it deserves attention

When HashiCorp moved Terraform to the BUSL licence in 2023, the community forked the last MPL release into OpenTofu, now a Cloud Native Computing Foundation project. It keeps the HCL language and provider ecosystem, so existing configurations and modules usually run unchanged, and adds features Terraform put behind its paid tier or never shipped — state file encryption, registry support and early evaluation of variables. State can live in S3, GCS, Postgres or a local backend without a paid service. MPL-licensed with about 30,000 GitHub stars. The trade-off: a few newer Terraform features arrive later, some enterprise integrations target Terraform first, and the project depends on community funding.

## Can replace

- Terraform

## Related and alternatives

- [Docker Desktop](https://softbests.com/software/docker-desktop)
- [Coolify](https://softbests.com/software/coolify)