ActiveBatch vs Canonical MAAS
ActiveBatch
advsyscon.com
Canonical MAAS
canonical.comSide by side
| Figure | ActiveBatch | Canonical MAAS |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $2.50/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 8 |
| Spec score · IT Automation Software | 9.3 (#1) | 9.3 (#2) |
| API | The Web Services API supports SOAP 1.1–1.2 and REST and is included in the core license. | MAAS exposes a REST API with GET, POST, PUT and DELETE methods; version 2.0 is the documented supported API version. |
| High availability | ActiveBatch provides dynamic or manual non-cluster failover between schedulers. | Region-controller high availability is database-based, and rack controllers can provide local service redundancy. |
| Integrations | Published integrations include ServiceNow, Azure Data Factory, Snowflake, SAP, Oracle PeopleSoft, SharePoint, Informatica, Microsoft System Center, CyberArk and many others. | Canonical documentation names Juju, Chef, Puppet, Ansible, Terraform, OpenStack and Kubernetes as MAAS automation or orchestration integrations. |
| License | The EULA restricts copying, reverse engineering, rental and component separation, indicating proprietary commercial licensing rather than open source. | The MAAS source repository is distributed under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3. |
| Purpose | ActiveBatch is a workload automation and enterprise job scheduling platform for orchestrating end-to-end IT and business processes. | MAAS is an open source platform for centrally managing and provisioning physical servers as cloud resources. |
| What it does | ActiveBatch is workload-automation and enterprise job-scheduling software for developing, optimizing and monitoring IT operations, infrastructure and applications. | MAAS is Canonical's private-cloud infrastructure manager that turns physical servers into cloud-like, repeatably deployable resources. |
Plans
Canonical MAAS
- FreeFree
- Self-supportFree
- Essential$30 a year
- Essential$30 a year
- Standard$50 a year
- Standard$50 a year
- Advanced$100 a year
- Advanced$100 a year
In their own words
ActiveBatch
ActiveBatch is a workload automation and enterprise job scheduling platform for coordinating IT and business processes. Its low-code/no-code visual designer combines drag-and-drop workflow creation with hundreds of pre-built job steps. Jobs can start when external events occur or follow date and time schedules. Customizable monitoring, alerts, reporting and SLA monitoring help track execution; dependency controls, retries, recovery and execution observability are also listed. Integrations include PowerShell, SQL Server, ServiceNow and Microsoft Azure Data Factory. The Web Services API supports SOAP 1.1–1.2 and REST and is included in the core license. ActiveBatch supports on-premises, public-cloud, private-cloud and hybrid deployments, with execution agents for several operating systems. Its browser-based Web Console and Self-Service Portal provide interfaces for approved processes, with the portal intended for business and help desk users under IT control. Multi-factor authentication, audited object changes and revision rollback are supported. Pricing is on request; there is no free plan, and a free trial is available.
Canonical MAAS
Canonical MAAS is an open source platform for provisioning physical servers as centrally managed cloud resources. It automates server discovery, inventory, commissioning, deployment, and decommissioning, and lets operators manage nodes through a web interface, command line, or API. Hardware discovery uses PXE boot and supports IPMI-enabled machines, as well as subnets, VLANs, and switch fabrics. MAAS integrates with Terraform, Juju, and Ansible for infrastructure automation. It can configure networking and storage, run hardware tests, and manage LXD and KVM virtual machines. Listed images include Ubuntu, CentOS, Windows, and RHEL; images can be synchronized or served from an onsite mirror for offline use. Canonical describes MAAS for private cloud with OpenStack, server automation, and bare-metal Kubernetes. A free self-support plan covers all machines but excludes HA support, RBAC, Knowledge Base, a Sev 1 response SLA, phone support, and ticket support. Paid plans start at $30 a year per managed machine. Ubuntu Pro is required for MAAS controllers; Canonical says it provides security patching and enterprise support for controllers and Ubuntu machines.