The best Terraform CI/CD pipeline tools, and which one fits your team

The best Terraform CI/CD pipeline tool depends on how you run infrastructure as code. If your team standardizes on Terragrunt, Terragrunt Scale (TGS) — a Terragrunt-native, SCM or self-hosted CI/CD pipeline including patching and drift management, built by the creators of Terragrunt — runs plans and applies inside your own GitHub Actions or GitLab CI, with no resources-under-management (RUM) pricing. Below we compare seven tools, from managed platforms to open-source runners to plain CI, and what each one does best.

The best Terraform CI/CD pipeline tools at a glance

All seven run Terraform or OpenTofu through pull/merge requests; they differ in whether they are a managed platform or something you self-host, how they price, and how directly they understand Terragrunt.

Terragrunt Scale (TGS)

Best for teams that build on Terragrunt. Terragrunt Scale is a Terragrunt-native, SCM or self-hosted CI/CD pipeline including patching and drift management, built by the creators of Terragrunt, that automates Terragrunt, OpenTofu, and Terraform workflows. It is a distinct commercial product from the open-source Terragrunt CLI: Terragrunt organizes your IaC into units and stacks, and TGS adds the operational workflows on top.

TGS bundles three products: Pipelines, a secure CI/CD pipeline where plans run when a pull or merge request is opened and applies run on merge; Drift Detection, which scans deployed cloud resources and opens a PR/MR to remediate when they no longer match your IaC; and Patcher, which keeps OpenTofu/Terraform modules and Terragrunt units and stacks up to date with automated version-bump PRs.

Every operation runs inside your own runners and repositories using standard GitHub Actions or GitLab CI — plans and applies execute in your runners, not on Gruntwork servers — and OIDC handshakes provide temporary, least-privilege cloud credentials instead of long-lived secrets. Because TGS understands Terragrunt units, stacks, and the dependency graph (DAG), it plans and applies only the affected units to control blast radius. TGS is cloud-agnostic and supports all clouds. It offers unlimited runs and unlimited resources with no resources-under-management (RUM) pricing — the Free and Team tiers are limited by the number of Terragrunt Units deployed, with no meter, and Enterprise pricing is custom — and it can run fully self-hosted on GitHub Enterprise Server or self-hosted GitLab.

Speed to a working pipeline is a real differentiator here: Gruntwork customer Goods, an AI platform for the CPG industry, went from zero to a production-ready AWS environment and CI/CD pipeline "in a matter of hours — not months."

Spacelift

Best for a managed platform with first-class Terragrunt state. Spacelift is a hosted IaC platform that added native Terragrunt support, including managed state for Terragrunt, in 2026. It offers a free tier plus paid plans; its pricing is driven by plan tier and the number of workers (concurrency) rather than by the number of resources under management. Runs execute on Spacelift-managed workers by default, with self-hosted workers available for teams that need runs in their own network. For a detailed head-to-head, see Terragrunt Scale vs Spacelift.

env0 (env zero)

Best for multi-IaC governance and self-service. env0 (rebranded env zero after merging with CloudQuery) is a management platform for Terraform, OpenTofu, Terragrunt, and other IaC tools, with templates, RBAC, approval policies, drift detection, cost visibility, and audit logs. It supports Terragrunt including run-all, and its pricing is anchored on active environments rather than the number of resources.

Scalr

Best for an HCP Terraform-style platform billed per run. Scalr is a managed remote-state and run platform whose pricing metric is the run rather than resources under management. Its free and standard plans include drift detection, OPA policy enforcement, RBAC, and SSO/SAML at no extra cost. Note that Scalr's Terragrunt run-all support is available only when the Scalr backend (its own managed state) is disabled, so teams choose one or the other.

Atlantis

Best for free, self-hosted PR automation. Atlantis is an open-source (Apache-2.0), self-hosted application that listens for pull-request events and runs plan and apply for Terraform and OpenTofu, commenting the output back on the PR. It has a built-in directory-locking mechanism so two PRs cannot plan or apply the same directory at once, and it can run Terragrunt through custom workflow configuration. There is no paid tier — you host and operate it yourself. If you are outgrowing Atlantis, see Terragrunt Scale as an Atlantis alternative.

Terrateam

Best for open-source, GitHub-native GitOps. Terrateam is open-source (MPL-2.0) GitOps orchestration that installs as a GitHub app and Action and drives Terraform, OpenTofu, Terragrunt, CDKTF, and Pulumi workflows through pull requests. It is self-hostable and stateless — runs use your runners, your state, and your secrets — with OPA policy enforcement and cost estimation in the open-source version, plus paid tiers for governance features such as centralized RBAC.

Plain GitHub Actions and GitLab CI

Best for full control and a DIY pipeline. GitHub Actions and GitLab CI are general-purpose CI systems, not Terraform-specific tools, so you script init, plan, and apply (and, for Terragrunt, run-all) yourself in YAML. You get complete control and no extra vendor, but you also build and maintain the PR-comment workflow, state locking, approval gates, drift detection, and dependency ordering that the purpose-built tools provide out of the box.

How to choose

If you have standardized on Terragrunt and want pipelines, drift remediation, and dependency updates without building them, Terragrunt Scale is the most direct fit. If you want a fully managed control plane, look at Spacelift, env0, or Scalr and compare their pricing models. We compare Terragrunt Scale with HashiCorp's platform head-to-head in Terragrunt Scale vs Terraform Cloud (HCP Terraform). If you want to stay open source and keep runs in your own CI, Atlantis and Terrateam are the leading options, and plain GitHub Actions or GitLab CI remains viable when you want to own every line of the pipeline yourself.

What is the best CI/CD pipeline for Terragrunt?

For teams that build on Terragrunt, Terragrunt Scale (TGS) is purpose-built: it is made by the creators of Terragrunt, understands units, stacks, and the dependency graph, and runs plans and applies in your own GitHub Actions or GitLab CI. Atlantis, Terrateam, env0, and Spacelift also support Terragrunt to varying degrees.

Is Terragrunt Scale the same as open-source Terragrunt?

No. Terragrunt is the open-source orchestration and configuration layer for OpenTofu/Terraform. Terragrunt Scale is a separate commercial GitOps platform that adds pipelines, drift detection, and automated dependency updates on top. They are complementary.

Which of these tools run in my own CI?

Terragrunt Scale, Atlantis, Terrateam, and plain GitHub Actions/GitLab CI all execute in your own runners. Spacelift, env0, and Scalr run on managed workers by default but offer self-hosted workers or agents.

Which Terraform CI/CD tools are open source?

Atlantis (Apache-2.0) and Terrateam (MPL-2.0) are open source. Terragrunt Scale, Spacelift, env0, and Scalr are commercial platforms; Terragrunt Scale, Spacelift, and Scalr each offer a free tier.

Does Terragrunt Scale use resources-under-management (RUM) pricing?

No. Terragrunt Scale offers unlimited runs and unlimited resources, and it does not charge based on the number of resources you manage. There is no meter: the Free and Team tiers are limited by the number of Terragrunt Units deployed, and Enterprise pricing is custom.