We have seen two ways to automate Terraform: a generic pipeline (GitHub Actions) and a specialized tool that you host yourself (Atlantis). There is a third way: using a managed service that takes care of everything, offered by the very company that created Terraform. It's called Terraform Cloud (recently renamed HCP Terraform). In this subchapter, you'll see what it offers and when it's appropriate.

Terraform Cloud (now HCP Terraform, where HCP stands for "HashiCorp Cloud Platform") is HashiCorp's managed platform—the company that created Terraform—for running and managing Terraform. It's like having everything we've set up manually (remote state, locking, pipelines, plan review) but offered as a ready-to-use service, without you having to build or maintain anything.

Analogy: if setting up your own backend and pipeline is like cooking at home (total control, but you buy, cook, and clean), HCP Terraform is like going to a restaurant: you get the complete and ready service, for a price. You don't maintain the kitchen, you just enjoy the result.

HCP Terraform brings together in a single platform many of the things that in previous chapters we configured piece by piece:

It stores and manages your state (Chapter 11) for you, with locking (subchapter 20.2), versioning, and encryption included. You don't need to set up the S3 + DynamoDB backend from subchapter 20.1: it's already solved.

It runs plan and apply on their servers, not on your laptop or in your pipeline. This provides consistency (always the same environment) and security (credentials live on the platform, not on scattered machines).

Integrated with Git, it runs the plan automatically on every change and displays it for review and approval (the flow from subchapter 12.5), just like Atlantis but as a managed service.

It securely stores the variables and secrets (subchapter 19.4) that your configurations need, without you having to set up your own system.

It offers a private registry for your organization's modules (remember the Registry from subchapter 18.3), with versioning, to share them among teams.

It allows you to define policies (with Sentinel or OPA) that automatically check that the infrastructure complies with company rules before being applied—similar to the security analysis in subchapter 21.2, but as mandatory policies.

Note: HCP Terraform has a free tier for small teams and paid plans for organizations. It's worth checking the current prices according to your size.

It makes sense when:

• You want to start quickly without setting up backend, pipeline, or maintenance. It's the most "turnkey" option.
• You don't want to maintain your own CI/CD infrastructure for Terraform (neither a complex pipeline nor a self-hosted Atlantis).
• You value integrated governance and collaboration features (policies, module registry, team management).
• Your team prefers to pay for a service in exchange for saving operational time.

• If you want total control over where everything runs and where your credentials live (some companies, by policy, prefer everything in their own cloud).
• If your case is simple and a basic GitHub Actions pipeline (subchapter 22.1) is enough for you at no additional cost.
• If you prefer not to depend on an external platform.

In summary, to automate Terraform you have three paths, and none is the universal "right one":

Choose according to your team size, how much maintenance you want to take on, your control/privacy needs, and your budget. Many teams start with a simple pipeline and evolve as they grow.

• Terraform Cloud / HCP Terraform is HashiCorp's managed platform for running and managing Terraform: it offers as a service everything you would set up manually. Like going to a restaurant instead of cooking at home.
• It includes: managed remote state with locking, remote execution, workflow with plan review, management of variables and secrets, private module registry, and governance controls.
• Compared to the other options: less maintenance (managed by HashiCorp) in exchange for depending on the service and its cost (has a free tier and paid plans).
• Choose it if you want to start quickly and not maintain your own CI/CD infrastructure; avoid it if you need total control/privacy or your case is simple and a basic pipeline is enough.
• The three ways to automate Terraform: own pipeline, Atlantis (self-hosted), or HCP Terraform (managed). Choose according to team, maintenance, control, and budget.

In the last subchapter of the chapter (and of Part V) we will see an important problem that automation helps solve: drift detection and automatic reconciliation.