# Foreman vs Salt

| Attribute | Foreman | Salt |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 51 (10% (low)) | 53.3 (76% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | - | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | - | 0 |
| adoption.github_stars | - | 15,714 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | - | 29,742 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"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. It is indexed under Configuration Management Tools.","source":"https://theforeman.org/","question":"What is Foreman?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Foreman is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://theforeman.org/","question":"Is Foreman free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Foreman supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://theforeman.org/","question":"What platforms does Foreman support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Foreman can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://theforeman.org/","question":"Can Foreman be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 15 integrations for Foreman, including Puppet, Salt, Ansible, MaaS, Amazon EC2, Google Compute Engine, OpenStack and Libvirt, plus 7 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://theforeman.org/","question":"What does Foreman integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed GDPR for Foreman. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Foreman not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://theforeman.org/security.html","question":"What security certifications does Foreman have?","confidence":0.7}]` | `[{"answer":"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. It is indexed under Configuration Management Tools.","source":"https://saltproject.io","question":"What is Salt?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Salt is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://saltproject.io","question":"Is Salt free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Salt supports Windows, macOS, Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://saltproject.io","question":"What platforms does Salt support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Salt can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://saltproject.io","question":"Can Salt be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Salt is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt","question":"Is Salt open source?","confidence":0.95}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A complete management solution for system administrators to automate server deployment, configuration, and monitoring across on-premise and cloud environments, with built-in support for configuration management tools like Puppet, Salt, and Ansible. | A Python-based automation tool and framework designed to deploy, configure, and manage complex IT infrastructure systems, supporting multiple operating systems and maintaining consistent desired state across infrastructure components. |
| features.capabilities | `{"model":"both","hosting":"self","desired_state":true,"open_source_core":true,"policy_compliance":true,"cloud_provisioning":true}` | `{"model":"pull","hosting":"self","architecture":"agent","desired_state":true,"windows_support":true,"open_source_core":true,"cloud_provisioning":true,"enterprise_edition":false}` |
| integrations.count | 12 | 1 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Puppet"},{"name":"Salt"},{"name":"Ansible"},{"name":"MaaS"},{"name":"Amazon EC2"},{"name":"Google Compute Engine"},{"name":"OpenStack"},{"name":"Libvirt"},{"name":"oVirt"},{"name":"VMware"},{"name":"LDAP"},{"name":"FreeIPA"},{"name":"Redmine"},{"name":"Discourse"},{"name":"GitHub"},{"name":"Bare Metal (MaaS)","native":true}]` | `[{"name":"Bitnami"}]` |
| language.primary | - | Python |
| license.spdx | - | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://theforeman.org/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T22:23:01.243Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://saltproject.io","retrievedAt":"2026-10-13T15:11:26.897Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | - | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | - | yes |
| release.cadence_days | - | 6 |
| release.history | - | `[{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3008.3","date":"2026-09-30T21:19:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v3008.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3007.15","date":"2026-09-30T21:12:34Z","type":"stable","version":"v3007.15"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3006.28","date":"2026-09-30T20:55:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v3006.28"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3008.1-2","date":"2026-07-26T01:32:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v3008.1-2"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3008.1-1","date":"2026-07-23T19:43:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v3008.1-1"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3008.2","date":"2026-07-01T19:37:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v3008.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3006.27","date":"2026-07-01T18:54:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v3006.27"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3006.26","date":"2026-06-24T17:16:34Z","type":"stable","version":"v3006.26"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3008.1","date":"2026-06-11T14:41:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v3008.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3008.0","date":"2026-05-27T10:36:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v3008.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3008.0rc4","date":"2026-05-15T17:27:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v3008.0rc4"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3008.0rc3","date":"2026-05-13T16:48:46Z","type":"stable","version":"v3008.0rc3"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3006.25","date":"2026-05-13T16:42:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v3006.25"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3008.0rc2","date":"2026-05-06T18:22:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v3008.0rc2"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3007.14","date":"2026-04-29T18:00:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v3007.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3008.0rc1","date":"2026-04-23T23:59:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v3008.0rc1"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3006.24","date":"2026-04-23T22:26:43Z","type":"stable","version":"v3006.24"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3006.23","date":"2026-02-23T21:17:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v3006.23"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3006.22","date":"2026-02-22T02:37:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v3006.22"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases/tag/v3007.13","date":"2026-02-12T23:09:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v3007.13"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | - | 4.8 |
| security.trust_center | https://theforeman.org/security.html | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | - | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=alpine&package_name=salt-syndic&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Configuration Management Tools)

| Capability | Foreman | Salt |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Architecture | - | Agent-based |
| Push / pull model | Both | Pull |
| Config language | - | - |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Masterless mode | - | - |
| Hosting | Self-hosted only | Self-hosted only |
| **Correctness** |  |  |
| Idempotent | - | - |
| **Model** |  |  |
| Desired-state declarative | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Ecosystem** |  |  |
| Content registry | - | - |
| **Platform** |  |  |
| Windows support | - | ✓ |
| **Scope** |  |  |
| Cloud provisioning | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Governance** |  |  |
| Policy / compliance | ✓ | - |
| **Commercial** |  |  |
| Enterprise edition | - | ✗ |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Open-source core | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T19:03:34.244Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*