We performed a comparison between Chef and SaltStack based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Configuration Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The most valuable feature is probably mobile device management. Small businesses are coming under greater scrutiny and requirements for compliance as time goes on. We don't have to worry about a VPN because we can manage these devices, control company data, and lock users out. If needed, we can remotely wipe devices and deadman-switch them."
"We are using the mobile feature, and we are also using MDM to lock the devices, to push restrictions, et cetera"
"The tool's most valuable feature is Autopilot."
"It is a very stable and scalable cloud-only solution."
"It is a helpful tool to manage BYOD policies."
"The most valuable includes managing everything from a single console."
"The Microsoft Windows Autopilot and Defender policies are the most valuable features of this solution."
"I can reach devices or computers over the internet. I don't need to worry about the network connectivity between the offices. I can manage any device. That is the most important part."
"Chef recipes are easy to write and move across different servers and environments."
"It streamlined our deployments and system configurations across the board rather than have us use multiple configurations or tools, basically a one stop shop."
"We have had less production issues since using Chef to automate our provisioning."
"Manual deployments came to a halt completely. Server provisioning became lightning fast. Chef-docker enabled us to have fewer sets of source code for different purposes. Configuration management was a breeze and all the servers were as good as immutable servers."
"Stable and scalable configuration management and automation tool. Installing it is easy. Its most valuable feature is its compliance, e.g. it's very good."
"You set it and forget it. You don't have to worry about the reliability or the deviations from any of the other configurations."
"Chef can be scaled as needed. The Chef server itself can scale but it depends on the available resources. You can upgrade specific resources to meet the demand. Similarly, with clients, you can add as many clients as you need. Again, this depends on the server resources. If the server has enough resources, it can handle the number of servers required to manage the infrastructure. Chef can be scaled to meet the needs of the infrastructure being managed."
"The product is useful for automating processes."
"The product’s most valuable feature is its ability to provide environmental security."
"The automation functionality has been most valuable. With a click of a button, we are able to automate provisioning, the build of new hardware and apply patches. These are all extremely important and differentiated tasks that can be automated in SaltStack."
"It is a highly stable solution."
"We monitor the configurations against CIS standards. We run CIS benchmarks and maintain configurations with higher CIS values for each server."
"I want to build automation that is intelligent, part of the fabric of our environment, and is somewhat self-sustaining. I think SaltStack can help me do this."
"The ability to programmatically describe the desired state of a single, or an entire fleet of servers, on-premises, and in a cloud environment."
"SaltStack has given us the ability to deal with systems at scale and rectify issues at scale."
"While Intune works perfectly well, the only potential downside is that the deployment could be a bit complex for some users."
"I would like some integration with the Microsoft reporting platform Power BI."
"I know that their AI pieces are at the infancy stage, but allowing users to do more tagging for information would be an interesting thing because Intune also directly integrates with Azure. Because a lot of the devices are hosted with that, you also get a lot of tagging of user data and other things like that."
"Integration with Mac devices requires some improvement."
"It needs incorporation of Knox, ZeroTouch, etc."
"When Microsoft Intune is used with different android devices it does not always work as it is supposed to."
"In future releases, I would like to see better integration with Apple products."
"We would like to see support for Chrome and/or devices for Chromebooks."
"If only Chef were easier to use and code, it would be used much more widely by the community."
"The solution could improve in managing role-based access. This would be helpful."
"Chef could get better by being more widely available, adapting to different needs, and providing better documentation."
"I would like to see more security features for Chef and more automation."
"There is a slight barrier to entry if you are used to using Ansible, since it is Ruby-based."
"I would rate this solution a nine because our use case and whatever we need is there. Ten out of ten is perfect. We have to go to IOD and stuff so they should consider things like this to make it a ten."
"It is an old technology."
"I would also like to see more analytics and reporting features. Currently, the analytics and reporting features are limited. I'll have to start building my own custom solution with Power BI or Tableau or something like that. If it came with built-in analytics and reporting features that would be great."
"SaltStack's features are minimal."
"A hardened set of tests would be much appreciated."
"Web UI."
"This solution could be integrated with more hardware for an improved offering."
"It is difficult to set up."
"Its configuration process could be better."
"There is a little bit of pain when it comes to libraries and what is needed to run the product."
Chef is ranked 16th in Configuration Management with 18 reviews while SaltStack is ranked 14th in Configuration Management with 33 reviews. Chef is rated 8.0, while SaltStack is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Chef writes "Easy configuration management, optimization abilities, and complete infrastructure and application automation". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SaltStack writes "Orchestration tool that powers automation of processes with the click of a button". Chef is most compared with Jenkins, AWS Systems Manager, Microsoft Azure DevOps, BigFix and Microsoft Configuration Manager, whereas SaltStack is most compared with Microsoft Configuration Manager, VMware Aria Automation, HashiCorp Terraform, Red Hat Satellite and ServiceNow. See our Chef vs. SaltStack report.
See our list of best Configuration Management vendors.
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