vioscaleAI
Comparison

Ansible vs Chef Habitat

On the evidence we track, Ansible leads this comparison with a composite score of 64/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Ansible full profile →Chef Habitat full profile →
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★Ansible64
Chef Habitat54
Score
vioscaleAI score
Ansible64 / 100medium · 65%
Chef Habitat54 / 100low · 11%
Pricing
Free tier
Ansible✓
Chef Habitat✓
Model
Ansiblecommercial
Chef Habitatopen_source
Price level
Ansiblelow
Chef Habitatfree
Transparent
Ansible–
Chef Habitat✓
Integrations
Count
Ansible22
Chef Habitat4
Security
Scorecard
Ansible7.5
Chef Habitat–
Vulnerabilities
Reliability
Status page
Ansible–
Chef Habitat✓
Adoption
Dependent repos
Ansible2,140
Chef Habitat–
Github stars
Ansible70,980
Chef Habitat–
Package downloads weekly
Ansible1,964,190
Chef Habitat–
Activity
Commits last 30d
Ansible35
Chef Habitat–
Release
History
Ansible20 items
Chef Habitat–
License
Spdx
AnsibleGPL-3.0
Chef Habitat–
Language
Primary
AnsiblePython
Chef Habitat–
Market
Availability
Ansible–
Chef HabitatAvailable worldwide · HQ US
Content
Faq
Ansible6 items
Chef Habitat6 items

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for configuration management tools. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Core
Architecture
AnsibleAgentless / SSH-push
Chef HabitatAgent-based
Push / pull model
Ansible-
Chef HabitatPush
Config language
Ansible-
Chef HabitatPowerShell, Bash
Deployment
Masterless mode
Ansible✓
Chef Habitat✓
Hosting
AnsibleSelf-hosted only
Chef HabitatCloud + self-hosted
Correctness
Idempotent
Ansible-
Chef Habitat✓
Model
Desired-state declarative
Ansible✓
Chef Habitat✓
Ecosystem
Content registry
Ansible-
Chef Habitat✓
Platform
Windows support
Ansible-
Chef Habitat✓
Scope
Cloud provisioning
Ansible✓
Chef Habitat✓
Governance
Policy / compliance
Ansible-
Chef Habitat✓
Commercial
Enterprise edition
Ansible-
Chef Habitat-
Licensing
Open-source core
Ansible✓
Chef Habitat✓

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Ansible

Leader

A system for automating infrastructure provisioning, configuration management, and application deployment across multiple machines via standard SSH without requiring agent installation on remote systems.

Independently observed

Chef Habitat

Chef Habitat automates the process of building, packaging, and deploying applications in isolated artifacts that can run anywhere. It provides a development studio for defining deployment instructions, packages applications into immutable artifacts, and includes a lightweight supervisor agent to manage deployments across servers, VMs, and containers.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Ansible

Leader
HybridFree tier

Free open-source version or paid enterprise platform

  • Ansible (Open Source)Free
  • Red Hat Ansible Automation PlatformContact sales
as of verify ↗

Chef Habitat

Open sourceFree tier

Open source and free

as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
Ansible✗
Chef Habitat✓
Windows
Ansible✗
Chef Habitat✓
Linux
Ansible✗
Chef Habitat✓
CLI
Ansible✓
Chef Habitat✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Ansible✗
Chef Habitat✓
Self-hosted
Ansible✓
Chef Habitat✓
On-premise
Ansible✗
Chef Habitat✓
Hybrid
Ansible✗
Chef Habitat✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

Ansible

Leader
22 total
  • Terraform
  • VMware
  • ServiceNow
  • AWS
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Google Cloud Platform
  • Cisco
  • Juniper
  • F5
  • HPE
  • Dell Technologies
  • NetApp
  • SAP
  • Pure
  • Palo Alto Networks
  • CyberArk
  • HashiCorp Vault
  • Splunk
  • Dynatrace
  • Infoblox
  • Aruba
  • Windows
Independently observed

Chef Habitat

4 total
  • Docker
  • Azure Container Registry
  • Amazon Elastic Container Registry
  • Docker Hub
Independently observed
Still deciding?

Ansible or Chef Habitat: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.