# Chef Habitat vs PowerShell DSC

| Attribute | Chef Habitat | PowerShell DSC |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 63.7 (18% (low)) | 40.3 (35% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | - | 1 |
| adoption.github_stars | - | 57 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | - |
| description.long | 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. | A declarative configuration platform where you describe desired system state in JSON or YAML, then validate and enforce it across machines. Resources handle the actual configuration work and can be written in any language. |
| features.capabilities | `{"model":"push","hosting":"both","language":"PowerShell, Bash","idempotent":true,"architecture":"agent","desired_state":true,"masterless_mode":true,"windows_support":true,"content_registry":true,"open_source_core":true,"policy_compliance":true,"cloud_provisioning":true}` | `{"model":"push","language":"JSON, YAML","idempotent":true,"architecture":"agentless","desired_state":true,"windows_support":true,"open_source_core":true,"policy_compliance":true}` |
| integrations.count | 4 | - |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Docker"},{"name":"Azure Container Registry"},{"name":"Amazon Elastic Container Registry"},{"name":"Docker Hub"}]` | - |
| language.primary | - | PowerShell |
| license.spdx | - | CC-BY-4.0 |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Open source and free","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.habitat.sh","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T22:39:22.643Z"}` | - |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | - |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | - |
| pricing.transparent | yes | - |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |

## Capabilities (Configuration Management Tools)

| Capability | Chef Habitat | PowerShell DSC |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Architecture | Agent-based | Agentless / SSH-push |
| Push / pull model | Push | Push |
| Config language | PowerShell, Bash | JSON, YAML |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Masterless mode | ✓ | - |
| Hosting | Cloud + self-hosted | - |
| **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: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T14:59:42.622Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*