Scaling Challenges with Atlantis—and When to Look for Alternatives

Terraform has long been a crown jewel of infrastructure as code (IaC). Despite license changes and the rise of OpenTofu, Terraform remains the top choice for infrastructure provisioning.

As adoption scales, many teams hit a ceiling—especially when relying on tools like Atlantis. While Atlantis enables GitOps pipelines for terraform plan and apply, it's not without limits.

In this post, we’ll break down:

• ✅ What Atlantis does well
• ⚠️ Where it struggles at scale
• 🧭 What to look for in an Atlantis alternative

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🛠️ What Atlantis Does Right

Atlantis streamlines Terraform CI/CD by automating plan and apply through pull requests. Here's how it helps:

🔁 GitOps-Based Plan and Apply

• Triggers terraform plan on every pull request
• Appends the plan output to the PR for easy review
• Automates terraform apply post-approval via atlantis apply

🧪 Reduces Human Error

Running Terraform locally is risky—machine drift, secret exposure, and inconsistent environments. Atlantis fixes that by standardizing runs in isolated runners.

🔒 Centralized Secrets

With Atlantis, credentials are managed centrally—no more secrets sitting on a dev’s laptop. That’s a win for security posture.

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⚖️ Where Atlantis Struggles at Scale

As Terraform workloads grow, so do the cracks in Atlantis:

🐢 Single Execution Bottleneck

Atlantis processes one execution at a time—no parallelism. That means:

• Queued deployments
• Slower feedback loops
• Painful mono-repo experiences

⚙️ Operational Overhead

Integrating Atlantis with your existing tooling isn’t trivial. CI plugins, plan restrictions, and secure approvals all require customization and guardrails.

📦 No Native State Management

Atlantis offloads state handling to backends like S3+DynamoDB. That means more moving parts and more things to secure, monitor, and back up.

🤝 Limited Ecosystem Flexibility

Atlantis is GitOps-first. Integrating with broader DevOps ecosystems or non-Git workflows is a headache.

🏢 Missing Enterprise Must-Haves

• ❌ No RBAC
• ❌ No policy enforcement
• ❌ No drift detection
• ❌ No audit trail
• ❌ No vendor support

These are table stakes for large organizations.

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🚨 Signs You’ve Outgrown Atlantis

If you’ve noticed these issues, it might be time to explore alternatives:

• Parallel execution delays
• Complex state configuration
• Missing auditability and controls
• Support challenges during outages

Check out this deep-dive guide on why teams are replacing Atlantis.

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✅ What To Look for in an Atlantis Alternative

Any next-gen Terraform automation platform should offer:

🔍 Drift Detection & Auto-Remediation

Catch and fix config drift before it causes real-world problems.

🧱 Built-in RBAC and Compliance Controls

Enforce least privilege, apply org-wide policies, and prevent unauthorized changes.

⚡ Parallel Terraform Runs

Speed up deployments and fixes—essential for mono-repos and big teams.

🧰 Integrated State Management

No more DIY setups with S3/Dynamo. Look for tools with built-in, versioned, and auditable state storage.

☎️ Enterprise-Grade Support

When infra breaks, you can’t afford to post on GitHub Discussions and wait.

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🦍 Why ControlMonkey is a Top Atlantis Alternative

ControlMonkey addresses all the gaps listed above:

• ✔️ Full RBAC and policy engine
• ✔️ Parallel executions
• ✔️ Drift detection, rollback, and audit logging
• ✔️ Terraform state management built-in
• ✔️ Enterprise support included

Explore the Atlantis Alternative solution page or book a quick intro call to see how we automate Terraform at scale.

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💬 Have you run into any Atlantis bottlenecks in your CI/CD pipelines? Drop your experiences or questions in the comments—let's share solutions!