Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups
Register | Login

CapRover VS Terraform

Compare CapRover VS Terraform and see what are their differences

Flagsmith
Flagsmith lets you manage feature flags and remote config across web, mobile and server side applications. Deliver true Continuous Integration. Get builds out faster. Control who has access to new features. We're Open Source. featured
Contents:
  1. » Base Details
  2. » Videos
  3. » Reviews
  4. » Alternatives

CapRover logo CapRover

Build your own PaaS in a few minutes!

Terraform logo Terraform

Tool for building, changing, and versioning infrastructure safely and efficiently.
  • CapRover Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-24
  • Terraform Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-24

CapRover features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    CapRover provides a simple UI/UX, making it easy to deploy and manage applications even for users with minimal technical skills.
  • Docker Integration
    CapRover leverages Docker and Docker Compose, allowing seamless container management and deployment.
  • One-Click App Deployment
    It supports one-click deployment of popular applications, reducing the complexity involved in setting up standard tools and frameworks.
  • Scalability
    CapRover allows easy scaling of applications horizontally and vertically, facilitating better resource management and performance.
  • Platform Agnostic
    CapRover can be installed on any Linux server, providing flexibility in terms of hosting options.
  • Cost-Effective
    As an open-source solution, CapRover can be a more cost-effective option compared to proprietary PaaS services.
  • Custom Domains and SSL
    CapRover supports custom domains and can automatically manage SSL certificates using Let's Encrypt.
  • Extendability
    Developers can extend CapRover functionalities through plugins and community contributions.

Possible disadvantages of CapRover

  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While basic usage is straightforward, utilizing more advanced features and customizations can have a steeper learning curve.
  • Limited Language Support
    CapRover has limited built-in support for languages and frameworks compared to some proprietary PaaS options, requiring additional configuration.
  • Community Support
    Being an open-source project, it relies on community support, which may not be as reliable or fast as commercial support.
  • Resource Usage
    Running CapRover and Docker containers adds overhead, potentially requiring more powerful hardware compared to more lightweight solutions.
  • Lack of Advanced Monitoring
    CapRover’s built-in monitoring and logging capabilities are basic. Advanced monitoring typically requires integration with third-party tools.
  • Manual Server Management
    Unlike fully managed services, using CapRover requires users to handle underlying server maintenance, including updates and security patches.

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.

Analysis of CapRover

Overall verdict

  • CapRover is a solid choice for developers and small to medium-sized teams looking for an easy-to-use platform-as-a-service tool. It balances simplicity with powerful features, making app deployment and management straightforward.

Why this product is good

  • CapRover is considered good because it offers a simple and efficient way to deploy applications. It provides a user-friendly interface and supports multiple programming languages and databases. Additionally, it offers features like SSL management, one-click apps, and scalability without the overhead of managing complex configurations.

Recommended for

  • Developers who want to avoid the complexity of traditional DevOps setups.
  • Small to medium teams needing an easy-to-use deployment platform.
  • Projects that require rapid iteration and deployment of applications.
  • Teams looking for a cost-effective alternative to more expensive PaaS solutions.

Analysis of Terraform

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Terraform is considered a robust and effective tool for infrastructure automation. It’s ideal for organizations seeking to streamline their deployment processes, ensure consistency across environments, and automate the lifecycle of their resources. Its flexibility and provider ecosystem make it a valuable asset for teams working in multi-cloud or hybrid environments.

Why this product is good

  • Terraform, developed by HashiCorp, is widely regarded as an excellent tool for infrastructure as code (IaC) due to its ability to provision and manage infrastructure across multiple cloud providers. It offers a consistent CLI workflow, and its HCL (HashiCorp Configuration Language) is powerful yet simple, allowing users to define complex infrastructure configurations in a human-readable format. Terraform’s state management, modules, and community support further contribute to its strengths, enabling efficient resource management and scalability.

Recommended for

    Terraform is particularly recommended for DevOps teams, infrastructure engineers, and IT professionals looking to implement infrastructure as code practices. It's also suitable for organizations aiming to adopt DevOps methodologies, enhance their cloud infrastructure management, or manage complex infrastructure at scale. Additionally, teams operating in multi-cloud environments or those looking to automate infrastructure changes can greatly benefit from using Terraform.

CapRover videos

+ Add

#AWS #Lightsail for Beginners - Setup #CapRover Web Host Manager, your own #PaaS

More videos:

  • Review - #AWS #Lightsail for Beginners - Host Static Sites and Deploy #Docker Container Apps on #CapRover

Terraform videos

+ Add

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 CapRover and Terraform)

CapRover

Terraform

Cloud Computing
68 68%
Cloud Computing
32% 32
DevOps Tools
17 17%
DevOps Tools
83% 83
PaaS
100 100%
PaaS
0% 0
Developer Tools
30 30%
Developer Tools
70% 70

User comments

Share your experience with using CapRover and Terraform. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

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

CapRover Reviews

Heroku vs self-hosted PaaS
CapRover is in many ways similar to Dokku. It uses Docker for deployment just like Dokku but CapRover does not support buildpack deployments as it uses Dockerfiles only. This is not necessarily a bad thing since Dockerfile deployments are great in Dokku as well. You don’t have to write your own dockerfiles however for simple deployments as there are multiple defaults for...
Source: www.mskog.com

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.
Source: gswallow.medium.com
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.
Source: www.servertribe.com
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.
Source: www.cloudzero.com
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...
Source: blog.gruntwork.io
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%.
Source: www.techrepublic.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, CapRover should be more popular than Terraform. It has been mentiond 109 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.

CapRover mentions (109)

  • Self-Hosting like it's 2025
    There's caprover too: https://caprover.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • The definitive guide to using Django with SQLite in production 💡
    I have been running Django sites in production under heavy load for over 10 years at my day job. We started with a MySQL database backend but, after running into a few issues, switched to PostgreSQL which has been rock-solid. I tend to use the same stack for side projects. Especially because, initially, most of my projects were hosted on Heroku and they had stellar support for PostgreSQL. Now, having bounced from... - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Does Your Startup Need Complex Cloud Infrastructure?
    Docker Compose Anywhere looks cool. Looks similar, on principle, to [CapRover](https://caprover.com/) which I highly appreciate. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Coolify The self-hosting revolution for the 99%
    I was using https://caprover.com but I'm slowly migrating all services to Coolify. CapRover still has a few things that it does better (better custom-domain support, more 1-click apps, integrated NetData monitoring, etc.), but overall Coolify is a lot more beginner-friendly and simpler to use. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Open-source alternative to Heroku, Vercel, and Netlify
    Would be great to see a comparison to some better known alternatives like - Dokku [0] - CapRover [1] [0] https://dokku.com/ [1] https://caprover.com/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
View more

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 / 11 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 / almost 2 years 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
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

Heroku - Agile deployment platform for Ruby, Node.js, Clojure, Java, Python, and Scala. Setup takes only minutes and deploys are instant through git. Leave tedious server maintenance to Heroku and focus on your code.

Rancher - Open Source Platform for Running a Private Container Service

Dokku - Docker powered mini-Heroku in around 100 lines of Bash

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

Coolify - An open-source, hassle-free, self-hostable Heroku & Netlify alternative.

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

Loading...