Chef AlternativesServer Management Tools and other similar apps like Chef

Chef is described as 'Open source systems integration framework built to bring the benefits of configuration management to your entire infrastructure. You write source code to describe how you want each part of your infrastructure to be built, then apply those descriptions to your servers' and is a server management tool in the network & admin category. There are more than 25 alternatives to Chef for a variety of platforms, including Linux, Windows, Mac, Web-based and Self-Hosted apps. The best Chef alternative is Ansible, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Chef are Salt, Puppet, Rudder and pyinfra.

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Alternatives list

  1. Ansible icon

    Ansible

     95 likes

    Ansible is a radically simple IT automation engine that automates cloud provisioning, configuration management, application deployment, intra-service orchestration, and many other IT needs.

    56 Ansible alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Pay once)
    • Open Source (GPL-3.0)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Python
    Architecture
     
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    7

    • Almost everyone thinks Ansible is a great Chef alternative.

    • Ansible is the most popular Windows, Mac & Linux alternative to Chef.

    • Ansible is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to Chef.

    • Ansible is Freemium and Open SourceChef is Free and Open Source
  2. Salt icon

    Salt

     48 likes

    Salt is a powerful remote execution manager that can be used to administer and provision servers in a fast and efficient way.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    Salt screenshot 1
     
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    6
  4. Puppet icon

    Puppet

     53 likes

    Puppet Data Center Automation Solution helps you save time, gain visibility into your server environment, and ensure consistency across your IT infrastructure.

    46 Puppet alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    Puppet screenshot 1
     

    • Most users think Puppet is a great Chef alternative.

    • Puppet is the most popular Web-based alternative to Chef.

    • Puppet is Freemium and Open SourceChef is Free and Open Source
  5. Rudder icon

    Rudder

     27 likes

    Rudder is a solution for automating your IT infrastructure to ensure security, reliability and compliance of your systems, whatever the OS. Gain instant visibility of IT compliance and benefit from continuous remediation to ensure an environment well configured and secured.

    13 Rudder alternatives

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise
    • Self-Hosted
    • CentOS
    • Ubuntu
    • Debian
    • Raspberry Pi OS
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
    • Slackware
    Dashboard
     

    • Rudder is the most popular Self-Hosted alternative to Chef.

    • Rudder is the most popular commercial alternative to Chef.

    • Rudder is Paid and Open SourceChef is Free and Open Source
    • Rudder is LightweightChef is not according to our users
  6. pyinfra icon

    pyinfra

     13 likes

    pyinfra automates infrastructure super fast at massive scale. It can be used for ad-hoc command execution, service deployment, configuration management and more.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    Pyinfra command example.
     
  7. Foreman icon

    Foreman

     11 likes

    Foreman is an open source project that helps system administrators manage servers throughout their lifecycle, from provisioning and configuration to orchestration and monitoring. Using Puppet or Chef and Foreman's smart proxy architecture, you can easily automate repetitive...

    25 Foreman alternatives

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    Foreman screenshot 1
     
  9. Ansible Automation Platform icon

    Ansible Automation Platform

     2 likes

    Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is an end-to-end automation platform to configure systems, deploy software, and orchestrate advanced workflows. It includes resources to create, manage, and scale across the entire enterprise.

    14 Ansible Automation Platform alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Subscription
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
    • Microsoft Azure
    • Amazon Web Services
    • Google Cloud Platform
    Ansible Automation Platform screenshot 1
     

    • Ansible Automation Platform is the most popular SaaS alternative to Chef.

    • Ansible Automation Platform is Paid and ProprietaryChef is Free and Open Source
  10. Landscape icon

    Landscape

     2 likes

    Landscape automates security patching, auditing, access management and compliance tasks across your Ubuntu estate. Use it in well-connected or airgapped environments: at sea, in space and everywhere in between. Landscape is available with an Ubuntu Pro subscription.

    34 Landscape alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free Personal
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
    • Online
    • Ubuntu
    Landscape screenshot 1
     
  11. CTO.ai icon

    CTO.ai

     1 like

    The CTO.ai platform allows you and your software development team to implement DevOps automations in minutes rather than days by runnings "Ops" in Slack and the CLI. Leverage a curated inventory of DevOps workflows to adopt int your development cycles.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Online
    CTO.ai screenshot 1
     
  12. Fabric icon

    Fabric

     21 likes

    Fabric is a Python library and command-line tool for streamlining the use of SSH for application deployment or systems administration tasks.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  13. (R)?ex icon

    (R)?ex

     18 likes

    (R)?ex - manage all your boxes from a central point - Datacenter Automation and Configuration Management

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  14. DoIt icon

    DoIt

     2 likes

    doit comes from the idea of bringing the power of build-tools to execute any kind of task. People often compare doit to tools like make, grunt, rake, scons, snakemake. They appreciate doit strong features, flexibility, simplicity of authoring and ease of use.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
12 of 41 Chef alternatives