# Chef Habitat vs Rex

| Attribute | Chef Habitat | Rex |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 63.7 (18% (low)) | 43.1 (57% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | - | 0 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | - | 8 |
| adoption.github_stars | - | 734 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":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. | Rex is an open-source framework that lets you automate infrastructure management and task execution using Perl code. It supports both local and remote execution via SSH, push and pull management styles, and both imperative and declarative approaches, giving you flexibility in how you build your automation. |
| 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":"both","hosting":"self","language":"Perl","idempotent":true,"architecture":"agentless","desired_state":true,"masterless_mode":true,"windows_support":false,"open_source_core":true}` |
| integrations.count | 4 | - |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Docker"},{"name":"Azure Container Registry"},{"name":"Amazon Elastic Container Registry"},{"name":"Docker Hub"}]` | - |
| language.primary | - | Perl |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"cli":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Open source and free","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.habitat.sh","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T22:39:22.643Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.rexify.org/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T22:42:22.675Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.vulnerabilities | - | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=cpan&package_name=Rex&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Configuration Management Tools)

| Capability | Chef Habitat | Rex |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Architecture | Agent-based | Agentless / SSH-push |
| Push / pull model | Push | Both |
| Config language | PowerShell, Bash | Perl |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Masterless mode | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hosting | Cloud + self-hosted | 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: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T16:30:36.917Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*