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Developer Tools · head to head

Earthly vs Encore

Earthly logo

Earthly

Developer Tools

Engineering guardrails for the AI era

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Encore logo

Encore

Cloud

Automated infrastructure for humans and agents

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Earthly pricing model not published; requires sales contact; Encore limited language support (TypeScript and Go only)
  • They diverge on capability: Earthly covers Policy as code, Encore covers Local development environment.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 29 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Earthly and Encore actually diverge.

Attributes where Earthly and Encore differ
AttributeEarthlyEncore
Pricing modelNo pricing published on websiteUnknown
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCloud
Founded2020Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), platforms (Web, CLI), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Earthly

  • Policy as code
  • Multi-stage enforcement
  • AI agent governance
  • Repository-wide policies
  • Incident response automation
  • Compliance management
  • Earthfiles build tool
  • Satellites

Only in Encore

  • Local development environment
  • Preview environments
  • Infrastructure automation
  • Cloud deployment
  • Self-service operations
  • Distributed tracing

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Earthly

  • Enforcing engineering standards across AI and human developersnot Encore
  • Automating incident response procedures across all repositoriesnot Encore
  • Embedding compliance requirements into development workflowsnot Encore
  • Standardizing build processes with Earthfilesnot Encore

Encore

  • Building microservices with database provisioningnot Earthly
  • Creating feature branch preview environmentsnot Earthly
  • Deploying TypeScript and Go backends to AWS/GCPnot Earthly

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Earthly

  • Pricing model not published; requires sales contact
  • Earthly Lunar is a recent launch (2025) with limited track record
  • Primarily GitHub-focused; limited integration with other platforms
  • No public documentation on pricing or feature tiers

Encore

  • Limited language support (TypeScript and Go only)
  • Pro tier requires per-member subscription pricing
  • Additional resource costs beyond subscription for AWS/GCP provisioning

Pricing, plan by plan

Earthly

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Earthly review.

Encore

Free
  • StarterFree
    • 2 free dev environments
    • 1M distributed tracing events/month
    • 7-day log retention
  • Pro$49/month
    • Unlimited free dev environments
    • 20M tracing events/month
    • 30-day log retention
  • Enterprise$undefined/custom
    • Enterprise security and compliance
    • SSO/SAML
    • Custom RBAC

Which should you pick?

Choose Earthly if

  • You need policy as code.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, CLI.
  • You also want multi-stage enforcement.
Earthly review

Choose Encore if

  • You need local development environment.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, CLI.
  • You also want preview environments.
Encore review

Questions people ask

Is Earthly or Encore better?
Neither clearly leads. Earthly starts at Free and Encore at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Earthly or Encore?
Earthly starts at Free and Encore at Free.
Does Earthly or Encore run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, CLI, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use Earthly for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Earthly best used for?
Earthly is most often used for enforcing engineering standards across ai and human developers, automating incident response procedures across all repositories, embedding compliance requirements into development workflows, standardizing build processes with earthfiles. Of those, enforcing engineering standards across ai and human developers and automating incident response procedures across all repositories are not what Encore is typically brought in for.
What can Earthly do that Encore cannot?
Earthly covers Policy as code, Multi-stage enforcement, AI agent governance, Repository-wide policies. Encore covers Local development environment, Preview environments, Infrastructure automation, Cloud deployment.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Earthly: What is the difference between Earthfiles and Earthly Lunar?

Earthfiles is an open-source build tool that reached 12,000 GitHub stars and is used by companies like NVIDIA, Intel, and Databricks. Earthly Lunar is a separate governance platform launched in 2025 for enforcing standards across development workflows.

Source
Encore: What happens after the free tier?

The Pro plan costs $49/member/month plus usage charges of $2.50 per resource and $99 per AWS/GCP environment.

Source
Earthly: How does Earthly Lunar enforce standards?

Lunar converts engineering standards, compliance requirements, and processes documented in AGENTS.md files, wikis, and incident postmortems into enforceable guardrails that apply consistently across repositories and development stages.

Source
Encore: Do I own my infrastructure?

Yes, Encore deploys infrastructure in your own AWS or GCP cloud account, so you maintain complete control and avoid vendor lock-in.

Source
Earthly: What is the pricing for Earthly Lunar?

Pricing is not published on the website. Interested customers should contact Earthly's sales team for current pricing and feature tiers.

Source
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