Pick CircleCI if
teams who will stay on Free at $0 (30k credits, 5 users) while they open a first pipelines dashboard, then Performance when a sixth committer is $15/month or they buy another 25,000 credits for $15.
Read the CircleCI pageCircleCI vs Terraform
Our take
Pick CircleCI if teams who will stay on Free at $0 (30k credits, 5 users) while they open a first pipelines dashboard, then Performance when a sixth committer is $15/month or they buy another 25,000 credits for $15. Pick Terraform if individuals / small teams who will stay on Free at $0 (500 managed resources) while they open a first Workspace Overview, then Essentials at $0.00013 per RUM-hour when they outgrow the
Best for
CircleCI A CI pipeline you start at $0
Terraform A workspace you start at a public $
Free plan
CircleCI $0 · 30,000 credits / month (expire; no rollover). 5 active users. Up to 6,000 small-Docker minutes. 30× concurrency. 1 GB runner network. 2 GB storage
Terraform $0 · up to 500 managed resources. Remote execution, VCS, private module registry, SSO, policy, run tasks. No charge for those 500
Lowest paid
CircleCI Performance $15/mo
Terraform Not published by the vendor
Next step up
CircleCI Prepaid credits $600
Terraform
Runs where
CircleCI Hosted
Terraform Hosted
Watch out
CircleCI Free credits expire monthly
Terraform Free hard-caps at 500 managed resources
Last checked
CircleCI 2026-10-23 · circleci.com/pricing
Terraform 2026-10-23 · ibm.com/products/hashicorp/pricing
Which one, then?
Pick Terraform if
individuals / small teams who will stay on Free at $0 (500 managed resources) while they open a first Workspace Overview, then Essentials at $0.00013 per RUM-hour when they outgrow the 500-resource cap.
Read the Terraform page