For example, consider GitHub stars. Yes, Terraform still leads comfortably (around 45,000 to OpenTofu’s 23,000), but that gap hides the real action: community engagement. Since its stable launch in January 2024, OpenTofu nearly tripled its contributor base to more than 160. Each release draws a vibrant crowd. Version 1.9 saw 49 contributors submit over 200 pull requests (PRs). Terraform, by contrast, entered 2024 with a massive historical contributor base (more than 1,800 total) but far less new blood. After HashiCorp’s shift to the Business Source License (BSL), community contributions to Terraform plummeted: only ~9% of pull requests came from the community in the month of the license change, down from 21% prior. A year later, Terraform’s GitHub activity remains robust in sheer volume (over 34,000 commits total versus OpenTofu’s ~32,500), but those commits are largely from HashiCorp’s own engineers rather than a committed, buzzing community that builds OpenTofu.
OpenTofu’s issue tracker exemplifies open source at its collaborative best. In one four-month period in late 2024, users opened over 150 issues and submitted more than 200 pull requests. Nor have issues lingered—the community has quickly rallied with solutions. Terraform, meanwhile, still sees plenty of issues opened, but the dialogue is muted, largely managed internally by HashiCorp staff (and soon, those same staff inside IBM). The vibrant collaboration that once marked Terraform now thrives within OpenTofu.
Vibrant community engagement
Stars on GitHub indicate popularity, but real community strength shows up in day-to-day interactions. OpenTofu’s Slack workspace and GitHub Discussions have become hubs of enthusiastic dialogue and rapid feedback. It’s reminiscent of classic open source projects: inclusive, lively, and genuinely responsive. Terraform’s forums, in contrast, feel quiet since the fork.
