Puppet vs Salt
Puppet
puppet.com
Salt
saltproject.ioSide by side
| Figure | Puppet | Salt |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $120/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 1 |
| Spec score · Configuration Management Tools | 8.9 (#2) | 8.3 (#9) |
| Spec score · IT Configuration Management Software | 8.8 (#3) | 8.3 (#12) |
| Spec score · IT Automation Software | 8.9 (#9) | 8.4 (#20) |
| Spec score · Orchestration / Provisioning Software | 8.8 (#4) | 8.3 (#8) |
| Spec score · Infrastructure Automation | 8.9 (#4) | 8.4 (#8) |
| API | Puppet and Puppet Enterprise expose HTTP APIs for application integrations, including inventory and orchestration services. | Salt netapi modules provide network API access over REST through HTTP and WSGI and through WebSockets. |
| Configuration management | The platform continuously enforces declared configuration state and records audit and correction information. | Salt states are described as simple, extensible, deterministic, and layerable. |
| Integrations | Official integration listings include ServiceNow, VMware, Argo CD, Jenkins, Dynatrace, Datadog, New Relic, Splunk, Tenable Nessus and CIS Benchmarks. | SaltStack Config integrates with LDAP, SAML, OIDC, and Active Directory. |
| License | Open-source Puppet is released under Apache-2.0, while Puppet Enterprise adds proprietary commercial components, orchestration, console and support. | Salt is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. |
| Purpose | Puppet Enterprise provides policy-driven configuration management and infrastructure automation for enterprise-scale environments. | Salt is a Python-based, open-source framework for remote execution, configuration management, automation, provisioning, and orchestration. |
| Scale | Puppet says its free trial runs Puppet Enterprise on up to 10 nodes with no commitment or time limit. | Salt can execute multiple commands across thousands of systems in seconds with a single execution. |
| Security | Puppet describes Security Compliance Enforcement as applying policy as code aligned to CIS Benchmarks and DISA STIGs to identify and remediate configuration drift. | Salt uses RSA keys for authentication, AES keys for encryption, and rotates the AES key every 24 hours by default or when a minion is deleted. |
| Support | Enterprise plans include standard or premium technical support, CVE service-level commitments and optional technical account management. | The project directs users to GitHub issues for bugs and problems and to Discord for community technical support and discussions. |
Plans
Puppet
- Puppet CoreFree
- Puppet Enterprise free trialFree
- Puppet Enterprise listing price$120 a month
- Puppet EnterprisePriced on request
- Puppet Enterprise AdvancedPriced on request
In their own words
Puppet
Puppet Enterprise provides policy-driven configuration management and infrastructure automation for complex cloud and hybrid environments. It uses policy as code to continuously enforce desired state, helping organizations identify and remediate configuration drift. Both agent-based and agentless management are supported, with a web interface and role-based access control. Puppet Enterprise Advanced adds continuous enforcement of CIS Benchmarks and DISA STIGs, self-service automation, AI features, observability integrations, and advanced patching. It also integrates with third-party vulnerability scanners, including Nessus, for remediation. Listed integrations include GitHub, AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, HashiCorp Vault, and ServiceNow. Agents are listed for Linux, Windows, and macOS. Puppet describes the product as suited to medium and large organizations managing complex environments that require security, compliance, and centralized automation. Pricing is custom; a free trial runs on up to 10 nodes with no commitment or time limit. Network and edge device management is optional, and licensing for those devices requires contacting sales.
Salt
Salt is a free, open-source framework for remote execution, configuration management, provisioning and infrastructure orchestration. A single execution can run commands across thousands of systems in seconds. A typical setup has a master managing minions, but Salt also supports agentless operation through salt-ssh or salt-proxy and stand-alone use. Salt states define configurations that can be extended and layered, while orchestration can order work by dependency, such as preparing a load balancer before a web-server cluster. Salt Cloud provisions systems on cloud hosts and hypervisors and can connect new virtual machines to a master. Its documented providers include Amazon EC2, Google Compute Engine, Azure, OpenStack, DigitalOcean, Linode, VMware and Proxmox. SaltStack Config adds a web interface, role-based access control, multi-master support, reporting and an enterprise API, along with LDAP, SAML, OIDC and Active Directory integrations. Salt uses RSA key authentication and encrypted master-minion communication. It is self-hosted and licensed under Apache 2.0.