Quick answer
Terrateam - Terrateam wins for most builders because its free tier is more generous and cardless, while Terramate is the better fit only if you need richer IaC observability and larger resource visibility inside a small team cap.
How the free tiers compare
These two free tiers solve different problems. Terramate is the better observability and governance layer for Terraform-style infrastructure, with dashboards, drift health checks, incident management, policy as code, and resource inventory built in. But its free Community plan is constrained by 2 users, 1000 resources, and 30 days of retention, so it feels like a small-team trial of a larger platform. Terrateam is more execution-focused: it is GitOps-native, built around pull request automation, runs, hooks, policies, and approval flows. Its free plan is unusually broad, with 50 runs per month, 3 users, and 1 private runner, and it does not require a credit card. For most small builders, Terrateam gives more room to actually use the product before paying.
Terramate vs Terrateam free tier, side by side
| TerramateFTV 67 | TerrateamFTV 83 | |
|---|---|---|
| UsersTerrateam allows one more user on free. | up to 2 users | up to 3 users |
| Usage capThese are different limits, so the practical constraint depends on whether you are resource-heavy or run-heavy. | up to 1000 resources | up to 50 runs per month |
| Data retention / audit retentionTerramate is explicit about data retention; Terrateam frames it as audit retention. | 30 days | 30-day audit retention |
| Private runnersOnly Terrateam states a free private runner. | not stated in free tier items | 1 private runner included |
| Credit card requiredTerramate explicitly requires a card; Terrateam does not. | yes | no |
After you outgrow the free tier
Both products use flat paid plans at the first step up, so the cost jump is simple rather than usage-metered. Terramate goes from free Community to Teams at $449/month, then Enterprise with custom pricing. Terrateam goes from free to Pro at $1,000/month billed annually, with unlimited runs, users, and private runners. For typical small-team use, Terramate is cheaper once you outgrow the free cap, but Terrateam gives more free headroom before that transition. Neither product provided usage-based rates, so there are no precise volume scenarios to calculate.
When to pick each one
Pick Terramate when…
- You want infrastructure dashboards, drift detection, incident management, and resource inventory in the free tier.
- Your main workload is small enough to stay under 2 users and 1000 managed resources.
- You care more about visibility and reconciliation than about high run volume.
- You want to evaluate Terramate's stack modeling across Terraform, OpenTofu, and Terragrunt before buying.
- You are okay with a 30-day retention window and are mainly testing the workflow on a small environment.
Pick Terrateam when…
- You need a free plan with 3 users and no credit card requirement.
- You want to run pull-request driven Terraform or OpenTofu automation and stay within 50 runs a month.
- You need GitHub or GitLab integration, custom workflows, hooks, and approval gates.
- You want policy checks, cost estimation on every plan, and support for Pulumi or CDKTF.
- You are setting up a small team that needs one private runner without paying yet.
Bottom line
For the most common builder case, Terrateam is the better free tier because it is cardless and gives a small team enough room to do real work before paying. Choose Terramate if your priority is watching and managing infrastructure state rather than running lots of PR-based automation. Terramate's free plan is strong on observability features, but the 2-user and 1000-resource caps are tighter than Terrateam's free limits. If you expect to grow into a paid plan soon, Terramate is the cheaper next step.
Read the full listings: Terramate and Terrateam. Scores use the FTV methodology at /ftv. Browse more head-to-heads on /compare, or see the top-ranked free tiers on /top.