CFEngine vs Chef Infra
CFEngine
cfengine.com
Chef Infra
chef.ioSide by side
| Figure | CFEngine | Chef Infra |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $4.92/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 3 |
| Spec score · Configuration Management Tools | 9.0 (#1) | 8.5 (#7) |
| Spec score · IT Configuration Management Software | 8.9 (#2) | 8.5 (#10) |
| Spec score · IT Automation Software | 9.0 (#6) | 8.5 (#16) |
| Spec score · Enterprise IT Management Software | 9.1 (#3) | 8.6 (#8) |
| Spec score · Orchestration / Provisioning Software | 9.0 (#3) | 8.5 (#7) |
| Spec score · Infrastructure Automation | 8.9 (#3) | 8.5 (#7) |
| Spec score · Data Center Automation | 9.0 (#3) | 8.5 (#7) |
| Founded | 2008 | 1981 |
| Headquarters | Oslo, Norway | Burlington, Massachusetts, United States |
| Purpose | CFEngine automates infrastructure, security and compliance by continuously keeping infrastructure secure, compliant and up to date. | Chef Infra configuration management software automates infrastructure configuration and aims to keep it consistent and compliant over its lifetime. |
| Support | Enterprise provides a dedicated support team that answers questions, recommends best practices and can prioritize development of requested features. | The pricing page lists standard support for Business and Enterprise and premium support for Enterprise Plus. |
Plans
CFEngine
- Community EditionFree
- Enterprise free trialFree
- Enterprise EditionPriced on request
Chef Infra
- Business$59 a year
- Enterprise$189 a year
- Enterprise PlusPriced on request
In their own words
CFEngine
CFEngine automates infrastructure, security, and compliance by moving managed systems toward a state defined in policy. Users describe desired infrastructure states in CFEngine’s domain-specific language, and lightweight agents work to bring each device into compliance. By default, an agent contacts the CFEngine hub every five minutes. The system runs on embedded devices, servers, cloud systems, and mainframes, and is designed for tens or hundreds of thousands of nodes. Enterprise adds the Mission Portal web interface, reporting backed by an SQL database, REST APIs, compliance reports, policy analysis, alerts, inventory and change reporting, file-integrity monitoring, and performance monitoring. Dashboards provide compliance and performance views, alerts, and customizable sharing. Secure bootstrap uses mutual authentication, key exchange, and encrypted TLS communication. Community Edition is free under GNU GPL, supports Linux, and includes community support. Enterprise is free for up to 25 hosts; pricing beyond that is available on request. The supported operating systems listed include Linux distributions and Windows.
Chef Infra
Chef Infra automates infrastructure configuration and helps keep systems aligned with a defined desired state. Teams express configurations and policies as code, test them, and deliver them through automated pipelines; Chef Infra can correct configuration drift when systems diverge. It supports Windows and Linux systems, cloud ARM systems, and Mac laptops across on-premises, cloud, and edge environments. Chef Infra Client includes more than 150 resources, while the community provides thousands of configuration templates. Chef Workstation bundles the client with Chef InSpec, Chef Habitat, Test Kitchen, Cookstyle, and Chef Upgrade Lab. The policy language is Ruby DSL, and listed capabilities include policy testing, reporting, and CI/CD integration. The free community version is non-commercial. Business costs $59 a year per node, and Enterprise costs $189 a year per node; Enterprise Plus requires a customized quote. Chef Infra Client 19.x is listed as the current LTS release, while 18.x is deprecated and earlier versions are end of life.