"Infrastructure as Code isn’t just about tools — it’s about clarity, control, and collaboration."

🛠️ Terraform vs Bicep: Which One Wins?

As cloud environments grow in complexity, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has become a cornerstone of modern DevOps. But with tools like Terraform and Bicep competing for attention, engineers often ask:

Which one should I use?

In this post, we’ll break down the strengths, weaknesses, and use cases of both — and look at code samples side by side.

⚒️ What Are Terraform and Bicep?

🧪 Example: Create an Azure Storage Account

☁️ Terraform

provider "azurerm" {
  features {}
}

resource "azurerm_resource_group" "rg" {
  name     = "demo-rg"
  location = "westeurope"
}

resource "azurerm_storage_account" "storage" {
  name                     = "tfstorageacc123"
  resource_group_name      = azurerm_resource_group.rg.name
  location                 = azurerm_resource_group.rg.location
  account_tier             = "Standard"
  account_replication_type = "LRS"
}

☁️ Bicep

param storageName string = 'bicepstgacc123'

resource rg 'Microsoft.Resources/resourceGroups@2021-04-01' = {
  name: 'demo-rg'
  location: 'westeurope'
}

resource storage 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts@2021-04-01' = {
  name: storageName
  location: rg.location
  sku: {
    name: 'Standard_LRS'
  }
  kind: 'StorageV2'
  properties: {}
}

✅ Pros and Cons

Terraform

Pros:

• Multi-cloud support (AWS, GCP, Azure, OCI)
• Rich provider ecosystem (Datadog, GitHub, etc.)
• Mature ecosystem and state management
• Great for teams with hybrid or multi-cloud needs

Cons:

• External state management requires planning
• Syntax can be verbose and error-prone for Azure-specific resources

Bicep

Pros:

• Azure-native, no need for a separate state backend
• Clean, readable syntax
• Seamless integration with Azure CLI and templates
• Ideal for ARM veterans or Azure-only shops

Cons:

• Only supports Azure
• Fewer third-party modules (compared to Terraform Registry)

🤔 So… Which One Wins?

The answer is: it depends on your environment and goals.

• Use Terraform if:

  • You operate in a multi-cloud environment
  • You need modular, reusable components across teams
  • You already use Terraform modules or remote backends

• Use Bicep if:

  • You’re 100% Azure-focused
  • You want fast, native deployments using Azure CLI
  • You value readability and want to avoid JSON/YAML ARM templates

🧠 Final Thoughts

In many teams, it’s not about picking one and abandoning the other — it’s about choosing the right tool for the job.

Bicep shines for Azure-native teams wanting to keep things lean and simple.

Terraform excels in complex, cross-platform environments where extensibility matters.

📌 Coming Next

In my next post, I’ll dive into building secure and reusable Terraform modules for production-grade Azure environments.

Follow me for more practical insights into cloud automation, DevOps tooling, and real-world infrastructure.