Introduction

If you are currently using Terraform Cloud and looking into alternatives, the information below will give you the full picture of how Scalr compares to Terraform Cloud in terms of features and pricing. The guide also covers migration methods ranging from fully automated to a manual process depending on your needs.

Terraform Cloud Feature Comparison

Pipeline

Feature	Scalr	TFC/HCP
IaC Tooling	Terraform, OpenTofu, Terragrunt	Terraform
Workspace Types	Native Terraform CLI, VCS-based (GitOps), No Code, API-Driven	Native Terraform CLI, VCS-based (GitOps), No Code, API-Driven
Support for Atlantis Style Workflows	Yes	No
Remote Backend Options	Scalr, All supported backend types	TFC Only
Drift Detection	Yes	Yes
Run Triggers	Yes	Yes
Ephemeral Workspaces	Yes	Yes
Comments Posted to PR	Yes	No
Run Tasks	Yes, see list here	Yes, see list here

Security

Feature	Scalr	TFC/HCP
State Storage	Scalr, GCP Bucket, S3 Bucket	TFC Only
Audit Logs	Yes	Yes
OIDC Authentication to cloud providers (Dynamic Credentials)	Yes	Yes
RBAC	System + Granular User Defined Roles	System Only
SAML 2.0 Support	Yes	Yes
SCIM Protocol Support	Yes	No
Policy as Code	OPA & Checkov	OPA & Sentinel
Self-Hosted Agents	Yes, for runs and VCS connections	Runs only

Integrations

Feature	Scalr	TFC/HCP
All Major VCS Providers	Yes	Yes
Slack	Yes - Notifications & Approvals
Teams	Yes - Notifications & Approvals
Datadog	Yes - Audit Logs, Events, & Metrics
Splunk	No	Yes
AWS EventBridge	Yes - Audit Logs, Events, & Metrics
Checkov	Yes
OPA	Yes	Yes
Infracost	Yes	Yes
OpenMetrics	Yes
Terragrunt	Yes	No

Registries

Feature	Scalr	TFC/HCP
Module Registry	Yes	Yes
Provider Registry	No - Coming Soon	Yes

Reporting

Feature	Scalr	TFC/HCP
Reporting	Yes	Yes
Cross Account Workspace Dashboard	Yes	No
Cross Account Runs Dashboard	Yes	No

Pricing Comparison

Component	Scalr	TFC
Concurrency	Starts at 5, increased free of charge as customers grow	Standard Tier: 3, Plus Tier: 10
Pricing Unit	Per Run - No other factors in price	Per Resource Under Management
Support	Included in price (24x7x365)	Tiered Options
Feature Gating	All features are included in the business and free plan. Advanced security and compliance on enterprise.	Different feature sets per tier

Scalr Cost Estimation

Interested in migrating to Scalr, but not sure what it will cost you? This script can be used to call the TFC API to get the total number of runs that have ever been executed in your TFC account. Unfortunately, the API doesn't allow for date filters so you will still nee to estimate the per month or year usage.

Scalr does not charge for all runs, see the following as a guideline to understand what runs you will not be charged for:

Runs executed based on the drift detector schedule.
Runs that use local execution mode in the workspace.
Runs that are stopped by an OPA policy in the pre-plan phase.
Runs that Checkov stops due to security violations in the pre-plan phase.
All runs that fail during the Terraform init due to. A couple examples of this, but not limited to are:
- Missing folder or var file
- Terraform code parsing errors
- Connectivity errors (registries, docker, etc)
- Broken provider configs errors
Runs that fail during the cost-estimate phase.
Runs failed due to an internal Scalr error.

Migration Guide

Before you migrate from TFC to Scalr, it's important to understand the terminology of both products so it's easier to understand what a migration would look like:

TFC Term	Scalr Term
Organization	Equivalent to a Scalr environment. Environments are logical groupings of workspaces, teams, users, provider configurations, policies, and more.
Workspaces	Equivalent to a Scalr workspace. This is where end users mainly operate by executing, storing state, and more.
Terraform & Environment Variables	Equivalent to Terraform and shell variables.
State Files	Same as a Scalr state file.

Before Migrating

Regardless of the method that is use, the following steps should be taken before starting the migration:

Stop any runs or processes that might start runs in TFC to avoid runs executing in two places.
Add or amend the remote backend settings in the Terraform configuration files if the Terraform/Tofu CLI will be needed:

terraform {
  backend "remote" {
    hostname = "<account-name>.scalr.io"
    organization = "<scalr-environment-name>"

    workspaces {
      name = "<workspace-name>"
    }
  }
}

Terraform Cloud to Scalr Migration Assistant

If you are currently using Terraform Cloud or Enterprise and planning to migrate to Scalr, the quickest way to do this is by using our TFC migration assistant located here. The assistant will migrate the following objects:

Organizations - Will be migrated into Scalr environments.
Workspaces - Will be migrated into Scalr workspaces. Only VCS-based workspaces will be migrated. CLI-driven workspaces have to be migrated manually.
Workspace variables - Terraform and non-sensitive environment variables will be created as Terraform and shell variables in Scalr.
State files - The current workspace state file will be migrated.

See the full description and instructions in the readme.

Video Tutorial: Migrating from Terraform Cloud

Watch our comprehensive migration guide: Migrating from Terraform Cloud

Migrating with the Terraform CLI

If you would prefer to migrate workspaces one by one, this can be done with the Terraform CLI:

First, pull down the state from Terraform Cloud:

terraform state pull > terraform.state

Next, get the API token from Scalr:

terraform login <account-name>.scalr.io

Update your Terraform code and add Scalr as the new cloud backend. You will need to add the hostname field:

terraform {
  cloud {
    hostname = "<account-name>.scalr.io"
    organization = "<environment-id>"

    workspaces {
      name = "<workspace-name>"
    }
  }
}

To initialize Scalr as the backend by running:

terraform init

Run the following to push the state into Scalr:

terraform state push terraform.state

Free Migration Period

Scalr offers free migration periods to avoid being charged for two products simultaneously. If interested in applying for the migration period, please open a support ticket with the title "Free migration period" and supply the following:

TFC renewal date
Total number of workspaces