Chef InSpec vs kubeconform

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.

Kubeconform is a command-line tool for validating Kubernetes manifests before deployment. It checks files against Kubernetes OpenAPI specifications, helping catch configuration problems before they reach a cluster. Validation and schema downloads run concurrently, and downloaded files are cached in memory. By default, it uses a self-updating fork of the Kubernetes JSON schema registry to supply schemas for recent Kubernetes versions. For custom resources, users can point it to local or remote schemas; local schemas also make offline validation possible. Results can be produced as JSON, JUnit, TAP, or plain text. Documentation describes using its Docker images in GitHub Actions and GitLab CI, and the images are published to GitHub Container Registry. It is free, with a listed plan of free. Installation instructions cover Linux, macOS through Homebrew, and Windows. Its checks do not cover additional server-side validation, and its Go module interface is still work in progress and unstable.