Chef Alternatives

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 BSD apps. The best Chef alternative is Ansible, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Chef are Salt, Puppet, pyinfra and cdist.

Chef alternatives are mainly Server Management Tools but may also be Remote Desktop Tools or Workflow Automation Tools. Filter by these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Chef.

Chef alternatives page was last updated

Chef

Free • Open Source
Server Management Tool

Chef is an open source systems integration framework built to bring the benefits of configuration management to your entire...

More about Chef

Ansible
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Freemium • Open Source
Windows
Linux
BSD
Python
53 Ansible alternatives
Ansible is a radically simple IT automation engine that automates cloud provisioning, configuration management, application deployment, intra-service orchestration, and many other IT needs.
- - Ansible is the most popular Windows & Linux alternative to Chef.
- - Ansible is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to Chef.
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Ansible Features
1. No Coding RequiredAnsible can be used without an coding or programming skills.
SSH
Configuration Management
Configuration
Opinions about Ansible as a Alternative to Chef
Almost everyone thinks Ansible is a great Chef alternative.
Salt
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
39 Salt alternatives
Salt is a powerful remote execution manager that can be used to administer and provision servers in a fast and efficient way.
- - Salt is the most popular Mac alternative to Chef.
Suggest and vote on features
Salt Features
Configuration Management
Opinions about Salt as a Alternative to Chef
Almost everyone thinks Salt is a great Chef alternative.
Puppet
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Freemium • Open Source
Mac
Windows
Linux
Online
47 Puppet alternatives
Puppet Data Center Automation Solution helps you save time, gain visibility into your server environment, and ensure consistency across your IT infrastructure.
- - Puppet is the most popular Web-based alternative to Chef.
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Puppet Features
Ruby
pyinfra
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Virtualization Tool
Linux
BSD
9 pyinfra alternatives
pyinfra automates infrastructure super fast at massive scale. It can be used for ad-hoc command execution, service deployment, configuration management and more.
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pyinfra Features
1. Command line interfacepyinfra either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
Configuration Management
Python-based
Optimal performance
SSH
cdist
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Mac
Linux
BSD
19 cdist alternatives
cdist is an alternative to other configuration management systems like cfengine, bcfg2, chef and puppet. But cdist ticks differently.
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cdist Features
SSH
Fabric
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Server Management Tool
Linux
BSD
26 Fabric alternatives
Fabric is a Python library and command-line tool for streamlining the use of SSH for application deployment or systems administration tasks.
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Fabric Features
Configuration
Configuration Management
SSH
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Rudder
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Freemium • Open Source
Server Management Tool
Windows
Linux
SUSE Linux Enterprise
Self-Hosted
CentOS
Ubuntu
Debian
Raspbian
IBM AIX
Red Hat
Slackware
13 Rudder alternatives
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.
- - Rudder is the most popular Self-Hosted alternative to Chef.
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Rudder Features
1. Ad-freeRudder doesn't contain any form of external advertising.
2. LightweightRudder consumes less device resources compared to similar apps.
3. Extensible by Plugins/ExtensionsRudder can be extended with add-ons, plugins and extensions.
Vulnerability management
Configuration Management
Patch Management
SlickStack
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Server Management Tool
Online
Self-Hosted
36 SlickStack alternatives
Outside of the so-called Application Layer, so much of the way computers and servers now work has been moved away from in-house teams and specialists and onto "the cloud" that terms like DevOps have become standard among recruiters, companies, and developers alike.
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SlickStack Features
WP-CLI
PHP-FPM
Git integration
OpenSSL
Nginx
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RunDeck
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Server Management Tool
Workflow Automation Tool
Linux
28 RunDeck alternatives
RunDeck is an open source automation service with a web console, command line tools and a WebAPI. It lets you easily run automation tasks across a set of nodes.
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RunDeck Features
Task Scheduling
Job scheduling
Configuration
Configuration Management
munki
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Mac
10 munki alternatives
munki is a set of tools that, used together with a webserver-based repository of packages and package metadata, can be used by OS X administrators to manage software installs (and in many cases removals) on OS X client machines.
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munki Features
Batch Uninstaller
Software Management
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PowerShell DSC
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Windows
Linux
5 PowerShell DSC alternatives
PowerShell Desired State Configuration is a management platform in PowerShell that enables you to manage your IT and development infrastructure with configuration as code.
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PowerShell DSC Features
Configuration Management
Configuration
Foreman
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Network Monitor
Linux
Online
Self-Hosted
27 Foreman alternatives
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...
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Foreman Features
Hardware Monitoring
Configuration Management