Comparison

Chef Infra vs Salt

No clear leader: Salt (56.5) and Chef Infra (51.9) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

Machine formatsJSONMarkdownGraphQLor send Accept: application/json
Chef Infra52
Salt57
Score
Vioscale score
Chef Infra52 / 100medium · 74%
Salt57 / 100high · 78%
Pricing
Free tier
Chef Infra
Salt
Model
Chef Infracommercial
Price level
Chef Inframid
Saltfree
Transparent
Chef Infra
Salt
Integrations
Count
Chef Infra6
Salt1
Security
Disclosure policy
Chef Infra
Salt
Gdpr
Chef Infra
Salt
Scorecard
Chef Infra3.2
Salt4.8
Reliability
Sla pct
Chef Infra99.9
Salt
Status page
Chef Infra
Salt
Adoption
Dependent repos
Chef Infra
Salt428
Github stars
Chef Infra8,231
Salt15,637
Package downloads weekly
Chef Infra
Salt23,765
Activity
Commits last 30d
Chef Infra73
Salt47
Release
Cadence days
Chef Infra233
Salt5
History
Chef Infra4 items
License
Spdx
Chef InfraApache-2.0
Language
Primary
Chef InfraRuby
SaltPython
Market
Availability

Capabilities

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

Core
Architecture
Chef InfraAgent-based
SaltAgent-based
Push / pull model
Chef Infra-
SaltPull
Config language
Chef InfraRuby
Salt-
Deployment
Masterless mode
Chef Infra-
Salt-
Hosting
Chef InfraCloud + self-hosted
SaltSelf-hosted only
Correctness
Idempotent
Chef Infra
Salt-
Model
Desired-state declarative
Chef Infra
Salt
Ecosystem
Content registry
Chef Infra
Salt-
Platform
Windows support
Chef Infra
Salt
Scope
Cloud provisioning
Chef Infra
Salt
Governance
Policy / compliance
Chef Infra
Salt-
Commercial
Enterprise edition
Chef Infra
Salt
Licensing
Open-source core
Chef Infra
Salt

What each one is

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

Chef Infra

A DevOps automation solution for defining and managing infrastructure configurations, enforcing compliance standards, and automating remediation across cloud, on-premises, hybrid, and air-gapped environments. Provides continuous compliance auditing, policy enforcement, and workflow orchestration.

Independently observed

Salt

An open-source framework that allows teams to automate and manage thousands of systems from a central control plane. It provides remote command execution, configuration management, and infrastructure orchestration capabilities through a master-minion agent architecture.

Independently observed

Pricing

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

Chef Infra

from $59/moUsage-based

From $59/node/year annual billing. No free tier.

  • Business$59/node/year
    • Node Management
    • Job Orchestration
    • Configuration Management
    • Desktop Management
    • Compliance Audit
    • +5 more
  • Enterprise$189/node/year
    • Node Management
    • Job Orchestration
    • Configuration Management
    • Desktop Management
    • Compliance Audit
    • +8 more
  • Enterprise PlusContact sales
    • Node Management
    • Job Orchestration
    • Configuration Management
    • Desktop Management
    • Compliance Audit
    • +9 more
as of verify ↗

Salt

Open sourceFree tier
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

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

Platforms
Web
Chef Infra
Salt
macOS
Chef Infra
Salt
Windows
Chef Infra
Salt
Linux
Chef Infra
Salt
CLI
Chef Infra
Salt
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Chef Infra
Salt
Self-hosted
Chef Infra
Salt
On-premise
Chef Infra
Salt
Hybrid
Chef Infra
Salt
Air-gapped
Chef Infra
Salt

Integrations

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

Chef Infra

6 total
  • Google Compute Engine
  • GitHub
  • Jenkins
  • AWS
  • Azure
  • GCP
Independently observed

Salt

1 total
  • Bitnami
Independently observed

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