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APIs · head to head

Formance vs Terragrunt

Formance logo

Formance

APIs

Open source double-entry ledger and payment orchestration for money-moving software

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Terragrunt logo

Terragrunt

Cloud

The Open Source IaC Orchestrator Platform Teams Trust

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Formance formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.; Terragrunt additional complexity layer on top of Terraform
  • They diverge on capability: Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Terragrunt covers Infrastructure orchestration.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Formance and Terragrunt actually diverge.

Attributes where Formance and Terragrunt differ
AttributeFormanceTerragrunt
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feeUnknown
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, APIAWS, Azure, GCP
CategoryAPIsCloud

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Formance

  • Double-entry ledger
  • Numscript transaction DSL
  • Multi-currency
  • Payments connectivity
  • Reconciliation
  • Self-hosted deployment
  • Cloud offering
  • API and SDKs

Only in Terragrunt

  • Infrastructure orchestration
  • Run Queue
  • DRY configuration
  • Automated hooks
  • Infrastructure catalog
  • Least-privilege access

What people use each for

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

Formance

  • A marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditablenot Terragrunt
  • A fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an auditnot Terragrunt
  • A payments team that wants one normalised model across several PSPs so reconciliation is not written separately for eachnot Terragrunt
  • A company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappearsnot Terragrunt

Terragrunt

  • Organizing Terraform code across multiple environmentsnot Formance
  • Automating infrastructure deployment workflowsnot Formance
  • Implementing infrastructure as code templates for developer self-servicenot Formance

Where each one falls short

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

Formance

  • Formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.
  • Numscript is a domain-specific language your team must learn, and while it makes complex splits expressible it also means transaction logic sits outside the languages your engineers already debug well.
  • Self-hosting a ledger that must never lose or duplicate a transaction is a serious operational commitment covering backups, upgrades and Postgres tuning, which is real cost the zero licence fee hides.
  • Enterprise pricing is not published, so the difference between the free path and the supported path cannot be evaluated without a sales conversation.
  • The company is much smaller than the incumbent alternatives, and while the MIT licence protects the code it does not protect the roadmap, so features on the hosted side may arrive slowly or change direction.

Terragrunt

  • Additional complexity layer on top of Terraform
  • Requires understanding of Terraform concepts
  • Paid tier pricing not clearly published

Pricing, plan by plan

Formance

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • MIT licensed core ledger
    • Numscript transaction DSL
    • Multi-currency tracking
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Managed or private deployment
    • Payments connectivity and reconciliation
    • Support with response commitments

Terragrunt

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • Terragrunt CLI - completely free
    • Community support
  • Terragrunt Scale FreeFree
    • Free CI/CD pipeline
    • Unlimited runs and resources
    • For up to 25 infrastructure units
  • Terragrunt Scale Paid$undefined/custom
    • Volume pricing for more than 25 infrastructure units
    • Enterprise support

Which should you pick?

Choose Formance if

  • You need double-entry ledger.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API.
  • You also want numscript transaction dsl.
Formance review

Choose Terragrunt if

  • You need infrastructure orchestration.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on AWS, Azure, GCP.
  • You also want run queue.
Terragrunt review

Questions people ask

Is Formance or Terragrunt better?
Neither clearly leads. Formance starts at Free and Terragrunt at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Formance or Terragrunt?
Formance starts at Free and Terragrunt at Free.
Does Formance or Terragrunt run on more platforms?
Formance runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API. Terragrunt runs on AWS, Azure, GCP.
Can I use Formance for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Formance best used for?
Formance is most often used for a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable, a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit, a payments team that wants one normalised model across several psps so reconciliation is not written separately for each, a company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappears. Of those, a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable and a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit are not what Terragrunt is typically brought in for.
What can Formance do that Terragrunt cannot?
Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Numscript transaction DSL, Multi-currency, Payments connectivity. Terragrunt covers Infrastructure orchestration, Run Queue, DRY configuration, Automated hooks.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Formance: Is Formance really open source?

Yes. The core ledger is MIT licensed with full source access and no deployment restrictions.

Terragrunt: Is Terragrunt free?

Yes, the Terragrunt CLI is completely free and open source. Terragrunt Scale offers a free tier for up to 25 infrastructure units.

Source
Formance: Does Formance move money?

No. It records and orchestrates movements; the actual payments happen at a PSP or bank you connect.

Terragrunt: What is the difference between Terragrunt and Terraform?

Terragrunt is an orchestration layer on top of Terraform that handles state management, DRY principles, and deployment automation without replacing Terraform itself.

Source
Formance: What does the enterprise version cost?

Not published. It is an annual subscription quoted per customer.

Formance: Do I have to use Numscript?

Yes for anything beyond the simplest transfers. It is how multi-party transactions are expressed atomically.

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