Chef InSpec vs TaskCat
Chef InSpec
docs.chef.io
TaskCat
aws-ia.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | Chef InSpec | TaskCat |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $4.92/mo | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 8 | 0 |
| Spec score · Infrastructure Testing Tools | 9.4 (#1) | 6.6 (#26) |
| Installation | Chef documents native installers for Windows and Linux distributions and Habitat packages for macOS, Windows, and Linux distributions. | The guide offers installation through PyPI, a development install from GitHub, or the official Docker image. |
| Integrations | The kitchen-inspec verifier lets users run InSpec profiles through Test Kitchen. | The documentation describes CI/CD integration with GitHub Actions, Jenkins, and AWS CodePipeline. |
| Purpose | Chef InSpec tests and audits applications and infrastructure by comparing their actual state with a desired state expressed in InSpec code. | TaskCat tests AWS CloudFormation templates by deploying them across multiple AWS Regions and reporting pass or fail for each Region. |
| Support | The licensing page lists community Slack support for Free and Trial tiers and contract support for Commercial licenses. | The documentation directs users to its guides, GitHub issues, and community discussions for help. |
Plans
Chef InSpec
- FreeFree
- FreeFree
- TrialFree
- TrialFree
- Business$59 a year
- Enterprise$189 a year
- CommercialPriced on request
- Enterprise PlusPriced on request
In their own words
Chef InSpec
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.