Rex vs Rudder
Rex
rexify.orgRudder
rudder.ioSide by side
| Figure | Rex | Rudder |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $3.33/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 8 |
| Spec score · Configuration Management Tools | 7.3 (#20) | 8.7 (#5) |
| Integrations | The guides include managing OpenWrt devices and Amazon EC2 instances. | GetApp lists integrations or API connections involving Slack, Ansible, Rundeck, Zabbix and OpenSCAP. |
Plans
Rudder
- Rudder CoreFree
- Rudder Starter - Essential (Monthly)$4 a month
- Rudder Security Suite - Premium (Monthly)$23 a month
- Rudder Starter - Essential (Yearly)$40 a year
- Rudder Security Suite - Standard (Yearly)$200 a year
- Rudder Security Suite - Premium (Yearly)$225 a year
- Rudder Corporate Security SuitePriced on request
- Rudder EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Rex
Rex is a free, open-source automation framework for managing local computers and remote machines over SSH. It runs self-hosted and agentless on Linux and Windows, with support also listed for RHEL/CentOS, Fedora, OpenWRT, BSDs, and Solaris. Projects keep inventory, environments, authentication details, and tasks in a Rexfile. You can combine local or remote execution, push or pull management, and imperative or declarative styles. Tasks can install packages, upload configuration files, start services, and trigger actions when files change. Rex uses a DSL compatible with Perl syntax and can be extended with Perl modules or custom code. Authentication documentation covers passwords, SSH keys, passphrases, external credential sources, and ssh-agent. The control host needs Perl and dependencies; managed hosts need Perl 5 and a valid SSH account. Installation is recommended through CPAN, with package-manager and source options. Apache 2.0 licensing applies to Rex and its parts.