Encore vs
Terraform requires writing HCL configuration files. Encore infers infrastructure from your application code. Both deploy to your cloud account, but with very different approaches.
“What used to take days or weeks of back-and-forth between developers and infra teams is now automated and completed in minutes.”
Josef Sima, Engineering Director at Groupon
How they work
Terraform describes infrastructure in separate HCL files you write and keep in sync. Encore infers it from the application code, then provisions the managed service, its networking, IAM, and secrets.
Encore
3 lines of TypeScriptimport { SQLDatabase } from "encore.dev/storage/sqldb";
const db = new SQLDatabase("users", {
migrations: "./migrations",
});Terraform
50+ lines of HCLresource "aws_db_instance" "users" {
identifier = "users-db"
engine = "postgres"
instance_class = "db.t3.micro"
allocated_storage = 20
db_name = "users"
username = var.db_username
password = var.db_password
vpc_security_group_ids = [
aws_security_group.rds.id
]
# ... plus networking, IAM, secrets
}Feature Comparison
See how Encore and Terraform differ across key capabilities.
 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | Infrastructure-from-code | Infrastructure as Code (HCL) |
| Configuration | Zero config needed | Extensive .tf files |
| Cloud Support | AWS and GCP | All major clouds |
| State Management | Handled automatically | Manual state files |
| Local Development | Automatic (DBs, queues included) | Not applicable |
| Observability | Built-in tracing & metrics | Manual setup required |
| Preview Environments | Automatic per PR | Manual configuration |
| Learning Curve | TypeScript/Go only | HCL + cloud knowledge |
| Time to Deploy | Minutes | Days to weeks |
Same Cloud, Different Approach
Both Encore and Terraform deploy to your own AWS or GCP account. The difference is how you define infrastructure.
With Terraform, you write HCL that maps directly to cloud provider APIs. You need to understand VPCs, security groups, IAM policies, and cloud-specific configurations.
With Encore, you write application code. Encore provisions the cloud-specific details like networking, IAM, and security using sensible defaults for each provider. When you need more control, those defaults are yours to configure.
Learn more about infrastructure ownership →Local Development
Terraform is for provisioning cloud resources and doesn't help with local development. You'd need to set up Docker containers, local databases, and manage your development environment separately.
Encore runs encore run and automatically provisions local PostgreSQL, Pub/Sub emulation, and cron scheduling. A local dashboard shows distributed tracing and architecture diagrams.
Your local and production environments use the same code, eliminating "works on my machine" problems.
Learn more about local development →Least-privilege access, without writing IAM
With Terraform, every IAM role, policy document, and trust relationship is something you write and maintain by hand, and over-broad permissions are easy to ship by accident.
Encore knows which services touch each database, queue, bucket, and secret, and generates per-service IAM policies with only those permissions. Secrets are referenced by name and stay encrypted and environment-scoped, so credentials never enter the repository.
- Per-service IAM generated from the code
- Policies updated as the application changes
- Encrypted, environment-scoped secrets
- Every infrastructure change tied to a commit
Every other combination stays denied — you never write the policy.
AI-Assisted Development
With Terraform, infrastructure lives in separate HCL files. AI agents like Cursor and Claude Code lack context about how these relate to your application code, leading to drift, hallucinations, and configs that are hard to review.
Encore defines infrastructure as TypeScript objects alongside your application code. AI agents see everything in one context: your APIs, databases, queues, and how they connect. This makes AI-generated code accurate, reviewable, and safe to deploy.
Because the infrastructure comes from Encore's defaults rather than hand-written HCL, you can let an AI agent build features and trust the result is provisioned correctly. Guardrails, auto-generated docs, and built-in observability keep what it produces readable and maintainable as it grows.
Learn about AI-assisted development →
Loved by teams
who refuse to slow down
"Encore is our foundation for all new development. Since adopting it, we've seen a 2-3x increase in development speed and 90% shorter project lead times."
Josef Sima · Engineering Director"Encore lets us go from idea to shipped product at least 3x faster and saves us hours of devops work every week."
Will · Co-founder"We've reduced time spent on DevOps by 95%, and we're now on track to save $60K annually in cloud costs."
Mason Stewart · CTO"Encore is an unfair advantage. At Pave we've moved 2x faster than we did at Monzo."
Simon Vans-Colina · CTO"We're saving $200k+ annually compared to additional hiring. The ROI is outstanding, easily 10x."
Daniel Stocks · CTO"You define infrastructure in your code and it's automatically spun up for you. You can go from zero to a deployed service on GCP in an hour. I don't know how else to do it."
Nilkanth Patel · CTO"Encore's inferred infrastructure has allowed us to move at unprecedented speed. Combined with database branching in Neon, we're able to spin ephemeral environments up and down with incredible ease. Stakeholders love preview app URLs."
Justin Foley · VP of Engineering
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about Encore vs Terraform.
Encore provisions infrastructure in your own AWS or GCP account based on your application code. No separate config files needed. Terraform requires writing HCL configuration files that describe every resource, state management, and manual synchronization between your application and infrastructure.
Encore is purpose-built for backend development with built-in databases, Pub/Sub, cron jobs, and distributed tracing out of the box. Terraform is a general-purpose infrastructure tool that requires you to understand cloud services and write HCL for each resource. For TypeScript or Go backends, Encore provides a significantly better developer experience.
No. Encore abstracts away infrastructure complexity. You define databases and queues as TypeScript or Go objects, and Encore provisions the corresponding AWS or GCP resources. Terraform requires understanding HCL, cloud provider APIs, state management, and infrastructure best practices.
Terraform has no local development solution and is purely for provisioning cloud resources. Encore runs everything locally with a single command: databases, Pub/Sub, cron jobs, and distributed tracing. No cloud connection required.
Encore provides infrastructure-from-code (inferred from your app), built-in observability with distributed tracing, automatic IAM policies, type-safe APIs, and auto-generated documentation. Terraform requires separate HCL files, manual observability setup, and deep cloud expertise.
Yes. Encore provisions application infrastructure (databases, Pub/Sub, compute) in your cloud account. You can use Terraform for other infrastructure concerns like networking, DNS, or resources outside your application scope. They work in the same AWS or GCP account.
Start building with Encore
Deploy to your own AWS or GCP account, with infrastructure provisioned automatically.