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Tech riderRev. 30 Sept 2026

Test Kitchen

Ch 047.2of 27 Infrastructure Testing Tools
  1. 1Runs onLinux, Mac, Windows
  2. 2CostsFree plan
  3. 3IaC supportChef Infra cookbooks, Ansible, PowerShell DSC, Puppet, Salt
  4. 4Config complianceYes
  5. 5Provisioning testsYes
  6. 6Deployed checksYes
  7. 7Execution modellocal
  8. 8Cloud supportAmazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine, DigitalOcean, OpenStack, Rackspace Cloud
8 lines stated Written from the maker's own pages: kitchen.ci
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The Test Kitchen homepage

Overview

Test Kitchen is ranked #4 of 27 in infrastructure testing tools on Specifiction. It runs on Linux, macOS, Windows. There is a free plan.

Test Kitchen plans and pricing

All plans
Open-source Test Kitchen Free Apache License 2.0 · install from RubyGems, system packages, or Cinc/Chef Workstation kitchen.ci · 30 Sept 2026

Compared on infrastructure testing tools

Free plan
Yeskitchen.ci
IaC support
Chef Infra cookbooks, Ansible, PowerShell DSC, Puppet, Saltkitchen.ci
Config compliance
Yeskitchen.ci
Provisioning tests
Yeskitchen.ci
Deployed checks
Yeskitchen.ci
Execution model
localkitchen.ci
Cloud support
Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine, DigitalOcean, OpenStack, Rackspace Cloudkitchen.ci

Facts

Purpose
Test Kitchen is a test harness for executing infrastructure code on one or more platforms in isolation.kitchen.ci · 30 Sept 2026
Workflow
Its basic workflow uses create, converge, setup, verify, and destroy commands to provision platforms and test infrastructure code.kitchen.ci · 30 Sept 2026
Drivers
Documented drivers target Amazon EC2, Apache CloudStack, DigitalOcean, Docker via Dokken, Google Cloud Platform, Hetzner Cloud, Vagrant, Azure, Hyper-V, OpenStack, VMware vCenter, and VMware vRealize Automation.kitchen.ci · 30 Sept 2026
Driver availability
Driver availability depends on which driver gems are installed in the Ruby environment running Kitchen.kitchen.ci · 30 Sept 2026
Provisioners
Documented provisioners configure instances using Chef Infra, Cinc Client, Habitat, PowerShell DSC, or shell scripts.kitchen.ci · 30 Sept 2026
Verifier integrations
The home page lists Cinc Auditor, Chef InSpec, and Serverspec as supported testing frameworks.kitchen.ci · 30 Sept 2026
Additional provisioners
The documentation lists community-maintained kitchen-ansible, kitchen-puppet, and kitchen-salt plugins.kitchen.ci · 30 Sept 2026
Installation
Test Kitchen can be installed from RubyGems, system packages, or Cinc Workstation; the documented RubyGems command is gem install test-kitchen.kitchen.ci · 30 Sept 2026
Workstation dependencies
Test Kitchen itself does not bundle Cinc or Chef tooling, and Workstation packages provide the drivers, provisioners, verifiers, and commands bundled in that package.kitchen.ci · 30 Sept 2026
Prerequisites
The getting-started guide lists a 64-bit operating system and enabled CPU virtualization as prerequisites.kitchen.ci · 30 Sept 2026
License
The site identifies Test Kitchen as Apache License, Version 2.0.kitchen.ci · 30 Sept 2026
Support
The documentation directs users to the #test-kitchen channel on Chef Community Slack for assistance from community members.kitchen.ci · 30 Sept 2026
Limitations
The documentation says the kitchen-docker driver is currently without a maintainer and has known issues, and recommends kitchen-dokken instead.kitchen.ci · 30 Sept 2026
Audience
The getting-started guide demonstrates using Test Kitchen to create and test a Chef Infra cookbook and describes a test-driven development workflow.kitchen.ci · 30 Sept 2026

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Where it ranks on Specifiction

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