Terraform vs Ansible — when to use which?

Question

I'm confused about when to use Terraform vs Ansible. Both seem to do infrastructure stuff. What's the difference and when should I use each?

Neeraj Jha · Accepted Answer

**Terraform provisions infrastructure. Ansible configures it.**

Think of it this way:
- **Terraform** creates the servers, networks, databases → "Give me 3 EC2 instances with a VPC"
- **Ansible** configures what's ON the servers → "Install Nginx, deploy my app, set up users"

| | Terraform | Ansible |
|---|-----------|--------|
| Type | Declarative | Procedural |
| State | Manages state file | Stateless |
| Best for | Cloud resources | Server configuration |
| Language | HCL | YAML |
| Agent | Agentless (API-based) | Agentless (SSH-based) |

**Common pattern:** Terraform creates infrastructure → Ansible configures it.

Start with Terraform: [Infrastructure as Code with Terraform](/blog/infrastructure-as-code-terraform)

Terraform vs Ansible — when to use which?

Your Answer

1 Answer

	Terraform	Ansible
Type	Declarative	Procedural
State	Manages state file	Stateless
Best for	Cloud resources	Server configuration
Language	HCL	YAML
Agent	Agentless (API-based)	Agentless (SSH-based)