Terravs
Databricks
Databricks: Choose it if your analytics are general data engineering and machine learning rather than genomic workflows on controlled-access data
Terra
Open biomedical research platform for genomic analysis, priced only by the cloud you consume
As of 31 August 2026, Terra is free to use. A workspace for running genomic workflows and notebooks on Google Cloud or Azure, built by the Broad Institute with Verily and Microsoft. Softwr lists it under Research. Terra is made by Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, with Verily and Microsoft, available on Web, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure.
Overview
What Terra does
Terra provides shared workspaces containing data, WDL workflows, Jupyter and RStudio environments, and access controls, running directly on Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure. It is the platform behind a large number of controlled-access biomedical datasets, and it is how many researchers reach All of Us, the Genomic Data Commons and similar resources without moving petabytes to a local cluster. The pricing model is the thing to understand. Terra charges nothing for the platform, its administration, its security controls or frontline support. Every cost on your invoice is Google Cloud or Azure charge, passed through a Terra billing project at cost. A running virtual machine costs roughly 0.22 dollars an hour and about 0.027 dollars an hour when paused, and storage accrues continuously whether anyone is analysing anything or not. The failure mode is not licence cost, it is a forgotten running notebook and intermediate workflow outputs nobody deleted. Buyers are academic labs, consortium projects, health systems and biotech computational teams, particularly those working with controlled-access human genomic data. Terra can sign HIPAA business associate agreements and GDPR data processing agreements, and its Azure deployment carries FedRAMP Moderate authorisation. The trade off is that you are responsible for cloud cost governance, and the platform expects real bioinformatics competence.
What people use it for
- A genomics lab running whole-genome alignment and variant calling pipelines without provisioning or maintaining a local cluster
- A consortium sharing controlled-access human data across institutions where the data cannot be copied to each site
- A health system analysing patient genomic data under a HIPAA business associate agreement
- A federal or federally funded project needing FedRAMP Moderate authorisation for its analysis environment
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Terra.
- The absence of a licence fee hides the real cost driver: an idle notebook virtual machine left running overnight, or a workspace bucket full of intermediate workflow outputs, quietly consumes grant money with no vendor invoice to prompt a review.
- Cost governance is entirely the customer responsibility, and grant-funded groups without a cloud engineer routinely overspend before anyone reads the Google or Azure bill in enough detail to find the cause.
- It assumes genuine bioinformatics competence: writing or adapting WDL workflows, managing data tables and debugging failed tasks are all on you, so a wet lab without computational staff cannot use it productively.
- Feature parity between the Google Cloud and Azure deployments is not identical, so a decision on cloud provider constrains which capabilities and datasets you can reach and is expensive to reverse later.
- It is a research platform rather than a regulated clinical system: it is not a validated GxP environment and does not carry the qualification package a diagnostic or submission workflow would require, so clinical use needs additional infrastructure and validation you provide yourself.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Terra
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- TerravsSnowflake
Snowflake: A better fit when the requirement is governed data warehousing and sharing rather than running bioinformatics pipelines
- TerravsBenchling
Benchling: Different layer: it manages R&D experiment and sample data rather than executing large-scale genomic computation
Pricing
What Terra costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Terra platform
Free
- No charge for the platform, administration, security controls or frontline support
- Workspaces, workflow execution and notebook environments included
- Available on Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure
- New users can start with cloud provider trial credits
Cloud consumption
On request
- Google Cloud or Azure charges passed through at cost with no markup
- Running notebook virtual machines around 0.22 USD per hour, roughly 0.027 USD per hour when paused
- Storage billed continuously on workspace buckets and intermediate workflow outputs
- Egress charged when data leaves the cloud region
- Billed to your own cloud billing account through a Terra billing project
Capabilities
Features
No platform licence fee
Terra charges nothing for infrastructure, administration, security or frontline support
Cloud pass-through billing
Google Cloud and Azure charges billed through a Terra billing project at cost with no markup
WDL workflow execution
Runs Cromwell workflows at scale against workspace data
Notebook environments
Jupyter and RStudio virtual machines that can be paused to cut cost
Controlled-access data
Access to consortium and controlled-access biomedical datasets without local download
Workspace sharing
Data, code and results shared across institutions with granular access control
Compliance posture
HIPAA business associate agreements, GDPR data processing agreements and FedRAMP Moderate on Azure
Multi-cloud
Available on both Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is Terra really free?
The platform is. There is no licence fee. Everything you pay is Google Cloud or Azure compute, storage and egress, passed through at cost.
What actually drives the bill?
Running virtual machines and stored data. Pausing notebooks drops a virtual machine from about 0.22 to about 0.027 dollars an hour, and deleting intermediate workflow outputs is the other main saving.
Can I use it with protected health information?
Yes. Terra signs HIPAA business associate agreements and GDPR data processing agreements, and the Azure deployment holds FedRAMP Moderate authorisation.
Is it validated for clinical or GxP use?
No. It is a research platform. Regulated clinical or submission workflows need validation and controls you build yourself.
Keep looking
Where to go from Terra
- Terra alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Terra pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Terra badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Research softwareThe full category
- Best Research softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Research software for
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- Castor EDC
- Reduct
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- NVivo
- GWI
- Aurelius
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Terra, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Terra
Terra alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Terra pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Terra
Put it head to head with anything we hold
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