# Alternatives to Spacelift Spacelift is a managed CI/CD-style orchestration platform for infrastructure as code: it wraps Terraform, OpenTofu, Pulumi, AWS CloudFormation, Ansible, and Kubernetes manifests in a GitOps workflow with policy enforcement, drift detection, and dynamic cloud credentials. It does not define its own infrastructure language; it runs the vendor CLI/tool for whichever stack you configure. It is offered as a proprietary SaaS product, with self-hosted, on-premises/air-gapped, and FedRAMP-authorized deployment options for larger customers. Spacelift ranks #6 of 8 in Infrastructure as Code, with an Alt Score of 74. It is proprietary, freemium from $20,000/yr and available on the web. 12 of 12 checklist rows are verified against a public source. Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/spacelift/ Category: Infrastructure as Code ## Where Spacelift stands out - **Kubernetes-native** — 2 of 8 apps with a verified answer have this - **Managed SaaS backend** — 4 of 8 apps with a verified answer have this ## Overview - **Who it's for**: DevOps and platform engineering teams who need to run Terraform, OpenTofu, Pulumi, CloudFormation, Ansible, or Kubernetes changes through a governed CI/CD-style pipeline instead of ad hoc CLI runs or a generic CI system. - **What you get**: A hosted control plane (or self-hosted equivalent) that connects to your VCS and cloud accounts, runs plan/apply workflows on public or private workers, evaluates Open Policy Agent/Rego policies at each decision point, detects and optionally reconciles drift, and hosts a private Terraform module and provider registry. - **How it works**: A Git push triggers a run against a Spacelift Stack; the platform provisions a worker, generates short-lived cloud credentials, executes the underlying tool's plan command, evaluates any attached policies against the result, and — once approved — executes the apply, reporting status back to the pull request. ## Profile - **License**: Proprietary (verified 2026-08-03) - **Pricing model**: Freemium (verified 2026-08-03) - **Starts at**: $20,000/yr (verified 2026-08-03) - **Platforms**: Web - **Status**: active (verified 2026-08-03) ## Ranked alternatives | # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms | |---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------| | 1 | [Pulumi](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/pulumi.md) | 93 | Apache License 2.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux | | 2 | [Crossplane](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/crossplane.md) | 81 | Apache License 2.0 | ? | | 3 | [env zero](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/env0.md) | 81 | Proprietary | Web | | 4 | [Terraform](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/terraform.md) | 81 | Business Source License 1.1 (BUSL-1.1) | Windows, macOS, Linux, Web | | 5 | [OpenTofu](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/opentofu.md) | 74 | Mozilla Public License, version 2.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux | | 6 | [AWS CDK](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/aws-cdk.md) | 70 | Apache License 2.0 | ? | | 7 | [Terragrunt](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/terragrunt.md) | 62 | MIT | Windows, macOS, Linux | Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/ ## Feature comparison Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified). | Infrastructure as Code checklist | Spacelift | Pulumi | Crossplane | env zero | Terraform | OpenTofu | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Pricing model | Freemium | OSS + paid hosting | OSS + paid hosting | Freemium | OSS + paid hosting | Free | | Starts at | $20,000/yr | $40/mo base | Free | ? | $0.10/resource/mo | Free | | License | Proprietary | Apache License 2.0 | Apache License 2.0 | Proprietary | Business Source License 1.1 (BUSL-1.1) | Mozilla Public License, version 2.0 | | Platforms | Web | Windows, macOS, Linux | ? | Web | Windows, macOS, Linux, Web | Windows, macOS, Linux | | Open source | No | Yes | Yes | No | Partial | Yes | | Declarative configuration language | Partial | Partial | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | | General-purpose language support | Partial | Yes | Yes | Partial | No | No | | State management | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Drift detection | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | | Policy as code | Partial | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Partial | | Multi-cloud providers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Plan preview before apply | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Module registry | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Managed SaaS backend | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | | Kubernetes-native | Yes | Partial | Yes | Partial | Partial | No | | Free tier | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ## Sources Sources for Spacelift. Each alternative is sourced on its own page. - **License**: Proprietary — (verified 2026-08-03) - **Pricing model**: Freemium — (verified 2026-08-03) - **Starts at**: $20,000/yr — (verified 2026-08-03) - **Platforms**: Web — (verified 2026-08-03) - **Status**: active — (verified 2026-08-03) - **Open source**: No — (verified 2026-08-03) - **Declarative configuration language**: Partial — (verified 2026-08-03) - **General-purpose language support**: Partial — (verified 2026-08-03) - **State management**: Yes — (verified 2026-08-03) - **Drift detection**: Partial — (verified 2026-08-03) - **Policy as code**: Partial — (verified 2026-08-03) - **Multi-cloud providers**: Yes — (verified 2026-08-03) - **Plan preview before apply**: Yes — (verified 2026-08-03) - **Module registry**: Partial — (verified 2026-08-03) - **Managed SaaS backend**: Yes — (verified 2026-08-03) - **Kubernetes-native**: Yes — (verified 2026-08-03) - **Free tier**: Yes — (verified 2026-08-03) --- Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/