Terraform vs OpenTofu: What Changed and Which to Use

If you're learning Terraform in 2025+, you'll keep seeing OpenTofu mentioned alongside it. The good news: this is not two tools to learn. OpenTofu is a drop-in fork of Terraform — the same language, the same workflow, the same commands. Knowing one is knowing the other.

Why OpenTofu exists

In 2023, HashiCorp changed Terraform's licence from the open-source MPL to the Business Source License (BSL), a source-available licence with commercial restrictions. In response, the community forked the last MPL version and created OpenTofu, now stewarded by the Linux Foundation, to keep a fully open-source implementation going.

What's actually the same

Almost everything:

• The language: HCL, identical syntax.
• The workflow: init → plan → apply → destroy.
• State, variables, outputs, modules, backends — all the same concepts.
• Most providers and modules work with both.

You literally swap the binary — tofu plan instead of terraform plan — and your configuration runs unchanged:

terraform init && terraform apply    # Terraform
tofu init && tofu apply              # OpenTofu — same files, same result

What differs

• Licence & governance: OpenTofu is MPL open-source under the Linux Foundation; Terraform is BSL under HashiCorp.
• New features may diverge over time — each project ships its own releases, so specific newer features can differ.
• Ecosystem defaults: some CI tools, registries, and companies have picked one as their default.

Which should you use?

For learning, it genuinely doesn't matter — everything you learn transfers directly. Terraform is still the name you'll see most in job postings, so it's a fine default to learn against. Choose OpenTofu when you specifically want a fully open-source licence or your organisation has standardised on it. Either way, the skill is the same.

The mental model to keep

OpenTofu is Terraform's open-source twin, not a rival you have to choose against. Learn the Terraform workflow once and you can drive either binary — the fork changed the licence and governance, not how you write or run infrastructure as code.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is OpenTofu the same as Terraform? Nearly — OpenTofu is a fork of Terraform with the same HCL language and the same init/plan/apply/destroy workflow. Most configurations run unchanged by swapping the terraform command for tofu.

Why was OpenTofu created? HashiCorp changed Terraform's licence in 2023 from open-source MPL to the source-available Business Source License. The community forked the last open-source version into OpenTofu, now governed by the Linux Foundation, to keep a fully open-source option.

Should I learn Terraform or OpenTofu? For learning it doesn't matter — the skills transfer directly. Terraform is still the more common name in job listings, so it's a sensible default; pick OpenTofu if you specifically need an open-source licence or your team uses it.