Comparison

Foreman vs Salt

On the evidence we track, Salt leads this comparison with a composite score of 57/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Machine formatsJSONMarkdownGraphQLor send Accept: application/json
Foreman49
Salt57
Score
Vioscale score
Foreman49 / 100low · 17%
Salt57 / 100high · 78%
Pricing
Free tier
Foreman
Salt
Model
Price level
Foremanfree
Saltfree
Transparent
Foreman
Salt
Integrations
Count
Foreman15
Salt1
Reliability
Status page
Foreman
Salt
Adoption
Dependent repos
Foreman
Salt428
Github stars
Foreman
Salt15,637
Package downloads weekly
Foreman
Salt23,765
Activity
Commits last 30d
Foreman
Salt47
Release
Cadence days
Foreman
Salt5
History
Foreman
License
Spdx
Foreman
Language
Primary
Foreman
SaltPython

Capabilities

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

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

What each one is

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

Foreman

A server lifecycle management tool that orchestrates provisioning, configuration management, and monitoring for both on-premise and cloud infrastructure. It provisions bare-metal and virtual servers from multiple cloud providers and integrates with configuration management tools to deploy and monitor server configurations.

Independently observed

Salt

Leader

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.

Foreman

Open source
as of verify ↗

Salt

Leader
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
Foreman
Salt
macOS
Foreman
Salt
Windows
Foreman
Salt
Linux
Foreman
Salt
CLI
Foreman
Salt
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Foreman
Salt
Self-hosted
Foreman
Salt
Hybrid
Foreman
Salt

Integrations

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

Foreman

15 total
  • Puppet
  • Salt
  • Ansible
  • MaaS
  • Amazon EC2
  • Google Compute Engine
  • OpenStack
  • Libvirt
  • oVirt
  • VMware
  • LDAP
  • FreeIPA
  • Redmine
  • Discourse
  • GitHub
Independently observed

Salt

Leader
1 total
  • Bitnami
Independently observed

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