Chef InSpec vs Conftest

Chef InSpec tests and audits applications and infrastructure against a desired state described in InSpec code. Its runtime framework and rule language express compliance, security and policy requirements. Reusable profiles group controls and can include versioning, platform requirements and dependencies. Resources support testing AWS, Azure, AliCloud and GCP infrastructure, and users can create custom resources. Tests can run locally or against cloud services and infrastructure such as Linux in Docker containers. Results can be exported as JSON, HTML or plain text, or sent to Chef Automate. The kitchen-inspec verifier also runs profiles through Test Kitchen. Chef offers premium CIS- and STIG-based profiles for compliance scanning. The free tier is for non-production workloads and personal, non-commercial use; the 30-day trial is for product evaluation under non-production conditions. Commercial licensing covers production and non-production workloads, with entitlements based on purchase order. Chef InSpec 7 requires EULA acceptance, and license-key requirements depend on the distribution source. Telemetry is enabled for free and trial tiers, but not commercial users.

Conftest is a free utility for testing structured configuration data, designed for use in CI environments. It uses the Open Policy Agent Rego language to express policies, then evaluates deny, violation, and warning rules within namespaces. Configuration can be read from individual files, directories, multiple files, or standard input. Supported inputs include Kubernetes-style YAML, JSON, HCL and HCL2, Dockerfiles, Terraform-related data, JSONnet, TOML, and XML. Results can be output as plaintext, JSON, TAP, table, JUnit, GitHub, Azure DevOps, or SARIF; the GitHub outputter can annotate test results in workflows. The `conftest verify` command runs policy unit tests. Policies can be pulled from HTTPS URLs, Git repositories, and OCI registries, or pushed to compatible OCI registries. Plugins extend the CLI, with downloads available from sources including OCI, Git, HTTP/HTTPS, Mercurial, and cloud storage. Pre-commit hooks support policy workflows, and integrations are documented for CircleCI, GitHub Actions, and Tekton. Conftest is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows.