Ansible vs Terraform: Which Tool Should You Use in 2025?

Overview

The question "Ansible vs Terraform" comes up frequently in DevOps discussions. While both tools automate infrastructure, they approach the problem differently.

Key Differences

When to Use Ansible

• Configuration Management - Installing packages, managing services
• Application Deployment - Deploying applications to existing infrastructure
• Multi-Step Workflows - Complex orchestration tasks
• Agentless Management - Managing systems via SSH without agents

When to Use Terraform

• Cloud Infrastructure - Provisioning VMs, networks, storage on AWS/Azure/GCP
• Immutable Infrastructure - Destroy and recreate rather than modify
• Multi-Cloud - Managing resources across multiple cloud providers
• State Tracking - Need to track infrastructure state and dependencies

Using Both Together

The best approach is often to use both tools together:

1. Terraform provisions the infrastructure (VMs, networks, load balancers)
2. Ansible configures the provisioned resources (installs software, deploys apps)

# Example: Using Terraform output with Ansible
- name: Configure servers provisioned by Terraform
  hosts: "{{ terraform_output.web_servers }}"
  tasks:
    - name: Install nginx
      apt:
        name: nginx
        state: present

Conclusion

Choose Ansible for configuration management and application deployment. Choose Terraform for infrastructure provisioning. Better yet, use both together for a complete infrastructure automation solution.

Learn more about cloud automation with Ansible →