asdf vs tenv
asdf
asdf-vm.comtenv
tofuutils.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | asdf | tenv |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Runtime Version Managers | 8.1 (#6) | 6.8 (#27) |
| Spec score · Development Environment Managers | 8.0 (#15) | 6.8 (#48) |
| Installation | The getting-started guide describes installation through Homebrew, Zypper, Pacman, precompiled binaries, Go, or a source build. | Installation options include package managers, manual packaged binaries, and a Docker image; the documentation says Docker is not intended for CI pipelines. |
| Intended users | The documentation describes using a shared `.tool-versions` file to help project teams use the same tool versions. | The project describes the tool as helping developers and DevOps professionals manage versions of supported infrastructure tools. |
| Purpose | asdf is a tool version manager that uses one `.tool-versions` file to share exact tool versions with a project team. | tenv is a Go version manager for OpenTofu, Terraform, Terragrunt, Terramate, and Atmos. |
| Version selection | asdf selects a tool version from `.tool-versions` files starting in the current directory and searching up toward the home directory. | It supports exact versions, semantic version constraints, latest or prerelease versions, and versions detected from infrastructure-as-code files. |
Plans
In their own words
asdf
asdf is a free, open-source version manager for Linux and macOS. It gives project teams one command interface and a shared `.tool-versions` file for selecting exact versions of multiple tools and runtimes. Plugins support tools such as Node.js, Ruby, and Elixir, while the plugin API allows additional tools. When a command runs, asdf searches for configuration from the current directory upward toward the home directory, then uses shims to launch the selected executable. Existing `.ruby-version`, `.nvmrc`, and `.node-version` files can be supported per plugin. Listed shell support includes Bash, ZSH, Fish, and Elvish, with completions. A GitHub Action uses `.tool-versions` in CI/CD workflows. Installation options include Homebrew, Zypper, Pacman, precompiled binaries, Go, and source builds. asdf manages tool versions rather than system packages or upstream dependencies. If no version is set, execution errors unless the tool is configured as `system`.