4 categories · RankedTerraform
Terraform is an infrastructure-as-code tool from HashiCorp for defining and managing infrastructure across multiple cloud environments · hashicorp.com ↗
Leads at enterprise. Ranked 1 of 53 for small business buyers.
The standing depends on who is buying. Every model is asked the same questions for each company size.
Ranked first. Next is OpenTofu at 37%.
Ranked first. Next is OpenTofu at 31%. 12 of 14 models made it the first choice when asked directly.
Ranked first. Next is OpenTofu at 18%.
Why models recommend it
“Preferred starters: Terraform (or OpenTofu, its open-source fork—use if concerned about HashiCorp's licensing shifts post-2023) for declarative multi-cloud.”Grok 4.20 · Negative question · first choice
“For most budget-constrained companies, Terraform offers the best balance of features, flexibility, and cost (free), making it the industry standard.”Claude Haiku 4.5 · Budget-constrained question · first choice
“Terraform (or OpenTofu if licensing matters) remains the safest default due to ecosystem maturity, hiring pool, and governance tooling”DeepSeek V4 Flash · Scale-constrained question · first choice
“Terraform (or its open-source fork, OpenTofu) is generally the best infrastructure-as-code (IaC) tool for a company with a limited budget.”Grok 4.20 · Budget-constrained question · first choice
What gives them pause
“Avoid for tight budgets: Paid platforms like Terraform Enterprise, Pulumi Team, or Spacelift”Grok 4.20 · Budget-constrained question · warning
“Terraform under the BSL license (if your org has restrictions)”GLM 4.7 FlashX · Negative question · warning
“Why be cautious: If you are building a commercial product... the BSL license may restrict your use or introduce legal compliance risks.”Gemini 3.5 Flash · Negative question · warning
“Terraform remains a powerful choice for multi-cloud environments, but be aware of its licensing model and potential scaling costs.”GLM 4.7 FlashX · Budget-constrained question · warning
Also on the shortlist
The products named in the same answers as Terraform, over the 233 answers that named it, and how often each was the first choice instead.
| Product | Named together | Picked instead | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 211 | 5 | Compare → | |
| 159 | 33 | Compare → | |
| 159 | 1 | View → | |
| 118 | 3 | Compare → | |
| 105 | 0 | View → | |
| 94 | 0 | View → | |
| 75 | 0 | View → | |
| 56 | 4 | View → | |
| 43 | 0 | View → | |
| 37 | 0 | View → |
What the models named instead of Terraform →
A side-by-side page exists where both products are among a category's top eight.
How this is measured
Fourteen AI models from 12 labs are asked the same buying questions six ways, for three company sizes. Standings refresh every edition.
Gane sells AI visibility software. No company can pay to change a result.
Read the method →Sources returned with these answers
Fourteen of the fourteen models returned a source list in this edition: five return the pages they cited and nine the search results they consulted. These counts come from 180 of the 233 answers that named Terraform and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
415 of the 479 domain citations in answers naming Terraform came from a third party's page. Thirty-three were to the publisher's own pages (the Gane Index), which the models cite like any other source; they are not counted as a third party.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
By model
| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 8 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Grok 4.20 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| Mistral Small | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| Kimi K2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
What it publishes
| Kind | Pages | Last 90 days | 2025-10 to 2026-09 | Latest | Categories named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blog | 1,988 | undated | IaC, Secrets | ||
| Webinar or virtual event | 675 | undated | Secrets, PAM | ||
| Template or tool | 224 | 0 | 2026-06-19 | APM, Secrets | |
| Conference or event | 203 | undated | |||
| Case study | 44 | undated | |||
| Glossary or explainer | 35 | 0 | 2026-04-15 | IaC | |
| Comparison | 22 | 1 | 2026-07-14 | ||
| Report or ebook | 19 | 0 | 2026-03-05 | ||
| Podcast or video | 3 | undated | |||
| News or press | 1 | undated |
Most recent
- 2026-07-14Compare comparison
- 2026-06-19Instana template or tool
- 2026-04-20Schedule template or tool
- 2026-04-15Migration checklist template or tool
- 2026-04-15Glossary glossary or explainer
- 2026-04-15What is vault glossary or explainer
Events in person
- October 26, 2026 to October 29, 2026HashiConf at IBM TechXchange 2026Atlanta · takes part
As the event pages on hashicorp.com state them, read September 28, 2026.
How it is countedHide how it is counted
Every page hashicorp.com exposes, subdomains included. Kind is read from the address and title. The last 90 days, the latest date and the twelve months count pages by when they were published, from the site's feeds, a date in the address, or the page's own publication date, read from up to a hundred of its most recently changed pages; a page that says only when it last changed is counted in its kind but not in when, so the recent counts are a floor, and a kind none of whose pages gives a publication date reads undated. Of its titles that name a category, most name secrets (25); 22 name its categories the models place it in. An event counts as online when its address or title says so (webinar, on demand, virtual or online summit); a conference, summit, trade show, expo or roadshow that does not say so is counted as a conference or event, which on a vendor's site is mostly in person. Read September 29, 2026.