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AWS CodeDeploy VS Terraform

Compare AWS CodeDeploy VS Terraform and see what are their differences

AWS CodeDeploy logo AWS CodeDeploy

AWS CodeDeploy is a service that automates code deployments to any instance.

Terraform logo Terraform

Tool for building, changing, and versioning infrastructure safely and efficiently.
  • AWS CodeDeploy Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-28
  • Terraform Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-24

AWS CodeDeploy features and specs

  • Automation
    AWS CodeDeploy automates the application deployment process, enabling faster and more consistent releases. This reduces manual intervention and the risk of human error.
  • Supports Multiple Platforms
    CodeDeploy allows deployments to Amazon EC2 instances, on-premises servers, Lambda functions, and ECS services, providing flexibility in deployment targets.
  • Scalability
    CodeDeploy is designed to handle deployments at scale, making it suitable for both small projects and large enterprises.
  • Rollback Capabilities
    If a deployment fails, CodeDeploy can automatically roll back to the previous version, minimizing downtime and maintaining application stability.
  • Integration with CI/CD Tools
    AWS CodeDeploy integrates seamlessly with other AWS services and popular CI/CD tools like Jenkins, GitHub Actions, and Bitbucket Pipelines, facilitating a smooth CI/CD pipeline.
  • Monitoring and Logging
    CodeDeploy provides detailed logs and monitoring through Amazon CloudWatch, making it easier to track deployments and troubleshoot issues.

Possible disadvantages of AWS CodeDeploy

  • Complexity for Beginners
    AWS CodeDeploy can be complex for beginners, requiring a good understanding of AWS services and deployment strategies.
  • Cost
    While CodeDeploy itself is free, other associated AWS resources (e.g., EC2 instances, data transfer) can incur costs, which might add up depending on usage.
  • Learning Curve
    The service involves a learning curve, especially for teams new to AWS or DevOps practices, which can delay implementation and require additional training.
  • Limited Non-AWS Integrations
    While CodeDeploy integrates well with AWS services and popular CI/CD tools, its integration capabilities with non-AWS ecosystems might be more limited.
  • Configuration Overhead
    Setting up and configuring AWS CodeDeploy can be time-consuming, requiring detailed setup of deployment configurations and application specifications.
  • Service Dependency
    As a managed AWS service, CodeDeploy's availability and performance are dependent on AWS infrastructure, which may be a concern for some critical applications.

Terraform features and specs

  • Infrastructure as Code
    Terraform allows you to define your infrastructure in configuration files that can be versioned and stored in a version control system. This makes it easy to track changes, roll back if necessary, and collaborate with team members.
  • Multi-Cloud Support
    Terraform supports various cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and others. This allows you to manage your entire infrastructure using a single tool, regardless of the underlying provider.
  • Immutability
    Terraform promotes immutable infrastructure, meaning once a component is created, it is not modified in place but replaced if changes are needed. This leads to more predictable and stable deployments.
  • State Management
    Terraform maintains the state of your infrastructure, which helps in tracking resource changes over time and making incremental updates. This is crucial for applying changes in a controlled manner.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    Terraform has a large and active community, along with a rich ecosystem of providers and modules. This makes it easier to find support, share solutions, and leverage pre-built components.

Possible disadvantages of Terraform

  • Complex State Management
    While state management is a significant feature, managing state files can become complex and risky. Issues like state file corruption or sharing between team members can lead to challenges.
  • Learning Curve
    Terraform has a steep learning curve for beginners, especially those who are not familiar with infrastructure as code concepts or the HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL).
  • Partial Updates
    Terraform's plan and apply operations are not atomic, meaning that partial updates can sometimes leave your infrastructure in an inconsistent state if an error occurs during execution.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing dependencies between resources can be challenging in Terraform. Misconfigured dependencies can lead to issues during resource creation, deletion, or updates.
  • Cost Management
    While Terraform is excellent for provisioning resources, it does not have built-in cost management or optimization features. Users need to rely on third-party tools to manage and optimize costs.

AWS CodeDeploy videos

Deploying AWS CodeDeploy - Automated Software Deployment on AWS

More videos:

  • Review - AWS CodeDeploy | Pipeline | Setup | Deploy application on EC2 using GitHub as source

Terraform videos

Wampler Terraform | Reverb Tone Report Demo

More videos:

  • Review - MOD PEDAL POWERHOUSE! Wampler TERRAFORM
  • Demo - IT'S FINALLY HERE! | Wampler Terraform Demo | It's as good as you hoped!!!

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to AWS CodeDeploy and Terraform)
DevOps Tools
16 16%
84% 84
Continuous Deployment
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Continuous Integration
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare AWS CodeDeploy and Terraform

AWS CodeDeploy Reviews

We have no reviews of AWS CodeDeploy yet.
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Terraform Reviews

Do not use AWS CloudFormation
Terraform, on the other hand, will occupy your shell until the directly-involved AWS service coughs up an error. No additional tooling is required. Terraform will just relay the error message from the affected service indicating what you’ve done wrong.
Top 5 Ansible Alternatives in 2022: Server Automation Solutions by Alexander Fashakin on the 19th Aug 2021 facebook Linked In Twitter
Although Terraform and Ansible are both server automation tools, there are still a few significant differences between the two. For example, Terraform is declarative while Ansible allows for both procedural configurations and declarative configurations. Also, Ansible works best as a configuration management tool while Terraform leans towards cloud orchestration.
35+ Of The Best CI/CD Tools: Organized By Category
Terraform is compatible with a wide range of Cloud providers, including Azure, VMWare, and AWS. If you’re subscribed to multiple cloud providers, Terraform is a great way to ensure that they have consistent configurations.
Why we use Terraform and not Chef, Puppet, Ansible, SaltStack, or CloudFormation
Example: Terraform and Ansible. You use Terraform to deploy all the underlying infrastructure, including the network topology (i.e., VPCs, subnets, route tables), data stores (e.g., MySQL, Redis), load balancers, and servers. You then use Ansible to deploy your apps on top of those servers.This is an easy approach to start with, as there is no extra infrastructure to run...
Ansible overtakes Chef and Puppet as the top cloud configuration management tool
Breaking these results down year-over-year, use of Ansible grew from 36% in 2018 to 41% in 2019--surpassing Chef, which grew from 36% to 37%, as well as Puppet, which grew from 34% to 37%. Rounding out the list is Terraform, which experienced a jump from 20% to 31%, and Salt, which increased in usage from 13% to 18%.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Terraform should be more popular than AWS CodeDeploy. It has been mentiond 32 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

AWS CodeDeploy mentions (13)

  • Passing the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional exam
    AWS CodeDeploy is a deployment service that automates application deployments to Amazon EC2 instances, on-premises instances, serverless Lambda functions, or Amazon ECS services. A compute platform is a platform on which CodeDeploy deploys an application. There are three compute platforms:. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • CLI tools at Aha!
    When we deploy code at Aha! We kick off a number of AWS CodeDeploy tasks running in parallel. Here's some code to simulate deployment:. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • The best approach to deploy an Application to EC2 on Windows?
    AWS has a service named CodeDeploy for this. It does exactly what you describe. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Continuous Integration and Deployment on AWS - and a wishlist for CI/CD Tools on AWS
    AWS CodeDeploy is a fully managed deployment service that automates software deployments to various compute services, such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), AWS Lambda, and your on-premises servers. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Automatic AWS CloudFormation rollbacks upon a test failure in your CI pipelines
    AWS's developer suite of products includes the AWS CodeDeploy offering, which can help developers deploy AWS Lambda functions and other compute-related services. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
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Terraform mentions (32)

  • Scaffolding Serverless Web Application on AWS
    Terraform is an infrastructure as code tool that lets you build, change, and version infrastructure safely and efficiently. Terraform code is in the terraform directory. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Integrating Terraform with CI/CD Pipelines
    In recent years, there has been a significant shift towards automation of infrastructure deployment processes. One popular tool that has emerged as a key player in this space is Terraform, an open-source infrastructure as code (IaC) software tool developed by HashiCorp. This article will explore how Terraform can be integrated into continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipelines using GitHub Actions as an... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Deploying Your Outdoor Activities Map with Terraform
    Terraform is an open-source infrastructure-as-code software tool created by HashiCorp. It allows you to define and manage your infrastructure as code, making it easy to provision and manage resources across multiple cloud providers. With Terraform, you can ensure consistent and repeatable deployments, making it an ideal choice for automating your cloud infrastructure. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Trigger CI using Terraform Cloud
    Continuous Integration(CI) pipelines needs a target infrastructure to which the CI artifacts are deployed. The deployments are handled by CI or we can leverage Continuous Deployment pipelines. Modern day architecture uses automation tools like terraform, ansible to provision the target infrastructure, this type of provisioning is called IaaC. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Using Let's Encrypt with the Puppet Enterprise console
    Had an itch I've been meaning to scratch for a while. I build my Puppet environment using Terraform, which makes it nice and easy to tear things down and rebuild them. That is great, but it does leave me with an issue when it comes to the console SSL certificates. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing AWS CodeDeploy and Terraform, you can also consider the following products

Jenkins - Jenkins is an open-source continuous integration server with 300+ plugins to support all kinds of software development

Rancher - Open Source Platform for Running a Private Container Service

Ansible - Radically simple configuration-management, application deployment, task-execution, and multi-node orchestration engine

Puppet Enterprise - Get started with Puppet Enterprise, or upgrade or expand.

Codeship - Codeship is a fast and secure hosted Continuous Delivery platform that scales with your needs.

Packer - Packer is an open-source software for creating identical machine images from a single source configuration.