Foreman vs MetalSoft Bare Metal Orchestrator
Foreman
theforeman.org
MetalSoft Bare Metal Orchestrator
metalsoft.ioSide by side
| Figure | Foreman | MetalSoft Bare Metal Orchestrator |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Bare Metal as a Service (BMaaS) Software | 8.8 (#2) | 7.9 (#4) |
| Spec score · Bare Metal Provisioning Software | 8.7 (#5) | 7.7 (#15) |
| Spec score · Data Center Automation | 8.6 (#6) | 7.8 (#10) |
| Automation | Foreman helps system administrators automate repetitive tasks, deploy applications, and manage servers on-premise or in the cloud. | The product supports automatic enrollment, console proxying, custom ISOs, GPU detection, an AI troubleshooting assistant, and an MCP control plane for automation. |
| Provisioning | Foreman provisions bare-metal systems and instances across virtualization environments and public or private clouds. | Features include automatic inventory, virtual media-based OS deployment, multi-vendor firmware management, cabling detection, and secure cleanup and decommissioning. |
| Purpose | Foreman is an open-source tool for managing servers through provisioning, configuration, orchestration, and monitoring. | Bare Metal Orchestrator provisions, re-provisions, and manages general-purpose and specialized servers across generations and vendors. |
| Support | Community support is available through the Discourse support board and a public Matrix room; the project says its support room is not an official support channel. | The product page lists professional services, integration services, custom hardware drivers, and 24/7 technical support. |
Plans
MetalSoft Bare Metal Orchestrator
- MetalSoft Bare Metal OrchestratorPriced on request
In their own words
Foreman
Foreman is a free, open-source lifecycle management tool for physical and virtual servers. System administrators can use it to automate repetitive tasks, deploy applications, and manage on-premise or cloud systems. It provisions bare-metal machines and resources from providers including Amazon EC2, Google Compute Engine, OpenStack, Libvirt, oVirt, and VMware. Configuration integrations include Puppet, Ansible, Chef, and Salt; Foreman also collects Ansible reports and facts. Administrators can work through a web frontend, REST API, or Linux CLI, including Hammer CLI access to API calls. Role-based access control and integrations such as LDAP, FreeIPA, and Microsoft Active Directory support access management. Host groups, bulk management, health reports, and audits help organize systems and review changes. A typical deployment has a Foreman server, Smart Proxy servers, and managed hosts. The quickstart lists Enterprise Linux 9, Debian 12 and 13, and Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04, and requires 4 GB of memory. Installation configures multiple system components, and setup requires Linux system administration knowledge.
MetalSoft Bare Metal Orchestrator
MetalSoft Bare Metal Orchestrator has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.