BlueCat Gateway vs Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform comparison

BlueCat and Red Hat are both solutions in the Network Automation category. BlueCat is ranked #18, while Red Hat is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.9. BlueCat holds a 2.0% mindshare in NA, compared to Red Hat’s 14.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of BlueCat users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Red Hat users who would recommend it.

BlueCat Gateway

Read 2 BlueCat Gateway reviews

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289 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Red Hat Ansible Automation ...

Read 72 Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform reviews

9,486 Views
2,087 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

BlueCat Gateway

Red Hat Ansible Automation ...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 28, 2025

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and BlueCat Gateway are competitive products in IT automation and network management. Ansible Automation Platform has the edge in automation capabilities and extensive community support. BlueCat Gateway leads in network reliability and DNS management.

Features: Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers automation capabilities, integration with diverse environments, and simplified IT tasks. BlueCat Gateway provides DNS management, network security, and control over configurations. Ansible focuses on broad IT automation, while BlueCat emphasizes network integrity and efficiency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform benefits from a larger support community and accessible resources. BlueCat Gateway offers streamlined deployment and specialized customer service focused on networking needs. Ansible has a broader support base, while BlueCat provides network-specific assistance.

Pricing and ROI: Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers competitive pricing, providing strong ROI for comprehensive automation. BlueCat Gateway, with higher setup costs, justifies expenses through specialized network features and ROI in performance improvements. The significant difference lies in initial costs versus long-term benefits, catering to distinct organizational priorities.

To learn more, read our detailed BlueCat Gateway vs. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

BlueCat Gateway vs. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

January 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

BlueCat Gateway

Ranking in Network Automation

18th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Red Hat Ansible Automation ...

Ranking in Network Automation

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Release Automation (3rd), Configuration Management (1st), AWS Pro Service Providers (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Network Automation category, the mindshare of BlueCat Gateway is 2.0%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is 14.6%, down from 21.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Automation Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform	14.6%
BlueCat Gateway	2.0%
Other	83.4%

Network Automation

Featured Reviews

Frederic Girard

Developer for DDI Team at Cgi Deutschland KG

Simple to use, straightforward to deploy, and provides good support and documentation

One area for improvement in BlueCat Gateway is the time it takes to fill in the dropdown in the UI of the solution because the speed with which the data loads isn't that fast. It would be better if you didn't have to wait for old items to load before seeing the first data. Another area for improvement in BlueCat Gateway is the discovery probe, as it doesn't allow you to see all the setup parameters after you've set it up. This may not be a big issue, but it's something my team noticed that may not be good in the solution.

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Manas Kashyap

Senior DevOps engineer at Elevenxcapital

Automation has transformed server patching and has reduced months of work to minutes

The best features that Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers is that it does not require any additional resources inside the servers. Python is the only requirement, and since Python is already present inside the servers, we can run it from our location and it automatically deploys things and does the work for us. The minimal requirements and easy deployment have definitely impacted my daily work and my team's efficiency. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is one of the best features that we depend on. We have evaluated other options, but Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform was the best choice because it has saved us a tremendous amount of time. We do not need to manually intervene in the servers or install third-party software to maintain these things. It is very easy to write playbooks for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. Ansible Galaxy contains many playbooks that are readily available and ready to be used. It is highly configurable with Jinja templating, making it easy to maintain. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has positively impacted my organization. Previously, we needed to go into the servers and maintain them manually, which used to take a lot of time. For 200 to 300 servers, the maintenance took about one to two months. New patches would arrive and we would have to repeat the process. Now, it is a one-night work or a 10 to 15 minutes task. We write a playbook, maintain an inventory, and roll out the updates and it starts working for us. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform uses conditional clauses and has rollback options, functioning like a standard coding language that is simple to use. There is definitely a reduction in errors with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform because we have playbooks written with all the necessary clauses and rollback options. Manual work automatically creates more errors, whereas in automation, we have written sets that we do not forget every time we run it. We have protected written sets that we execute consistently.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We found IP and Network Discovery the most valuable features of BlueCat Gateway. Our team found it very easy to build, verify, and validate APIs in BlueCat Gateway, mainly if the users have a background in development and APIs. Our team found that BlueCat Gateway answers our needs well."

"The ability to develop a kiosk-like solution for in-person assistance is crucial."

"The most valuable feature of Ansible is repeatability because when you're working at the DoD, you want things to be cookie-cutter and replicable."

"Having the Dashboard from an admin point of view, and seeing how all the projects and all the jobs lay out, is helpful."

"The most valuable feature is that Ansible is agentless."

"Role-based access control and agentless architecture are the main features which may attract users."

"Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is very helpful due to passwordless integration and the ability to interact with multiple servers at once, which is especially advantageous when dealing with thousands of servers."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"The automation capabilities streamline deployment processes, providing reliability and reducing manual intervention and errors."

"The Organizations feature, where I can give clear silos and hand them over to different teams, that's amazing; everybody says that it's their own Tower. It's like they have their own Tower out there."

More Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform pros

Cons

"One area for improvement in BlueCat Gateway is the time it takes to fill in the dropdown in the UI of the solution because the speed with which the data loads isn't that fast. It would be better if you didn't have to wait for old items to load before seeing the first data."

"My most significant concern is that the documentation has problems."

"The solution should add a nice self-service portal."

"The solution requires some Linux knowledge."

"The solution must be made easier to configure."

"There are challenges in using the graphical interface, particularly in open-source versions."

"One problem that I'm facing right now is the mismatch between the new version of Python and Ansible. Sometimes it's Python 2, and sometimes it's Python 3. When things get a bit dicey, I wish that Ansible would solve this issue by itself. I don't want to have to specify if it is Python 3 or version 2."

"Performance has been an issue on larger environments, but it has gotten a lot better over the past two years."

"It should support more integration with different products."

"In modern infrastructure, there are more than just servers. The initial server-centric approach in Ansible is a bit strange."

More Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is actually quite favorable based on our negotiations."

"Ansible Tower is free. Until they lower the cost, we are holding off on purchasing the product."

"We have to be mindful of how we use Ansible because of the licensing model. I am not saying that it is unfair or we do not find value in it. Because we are trying to automate so many different things, we have to be mindful of what we are doing and how we are doing it because we are trying to stay in compliance with it."

"The cost is high, but it still works well."

"I don't see the pricing or licensing features, but from what I understand, it is fairly reasonable."

"Red Hat's open source approach was a factor when choosing Ansible, since the solution is free as of right now."

"Customers need to pay yearly for the license."

"The pricing is okay."

"Everything is generally fair. No one ever likes to pay a lot of money, but we are getting the value. We also get support with it. It has been fair and worthwhile."

More Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform pricing and cost advice

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Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	24
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	48

Questions from the Community

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What is the difference between Red Hat Satellite and Ansible?

Red Hat Satellite has proven to be a worthwhile investment for me. Both its patch management and license management have been outstanding. If you have a large environment, patching systems is much ...

See all answers

How does Ansible compare to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (SCCM)?

Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager takes knowledge and research to properly configure. The length of time that the set up will take depends on the kind of technical architecture that your org...

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What do you like most about Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform?

The most valuable features of the solution are automation and patching.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Network Automation

January 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

January 2026

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform report

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Also Known As

BlueCat Network Automation

Ansible, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Subscription on AWS

Overview

BlueCat Gateway allows you to automate and transform mission-critical business requirements into DNS, DDI, DHCP, and IPAM workflows, plugins, and applications and enables the rapid development of turn-key integrations with existing technology investments. Using zero-touch automation frees IT teams from time-consuming, error-prone, and repetitive network configuration and provisioning tasks so they can focus on the innovation business needs. BlueCat’s automation platform automates the DNS services necessary to provision and deallocates cloud and on-premises resources, enabling IT to respond faster to user requests.

BlueCat

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform streamlines IT operations with features like a simplified GUI and extensive module support. Its agentless architecture and YAML ease make it an adaptable choice for managing diverse infrastructures efficiently.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers a robust automation framework that supports multiple environments and integrates well with various applications. Its agentless Python-based architecture facilitates efficient server management and rapid update deployment. Users benefit from centralized management through Ansible Tower, role-based access control, and dynamic inventory. However, improvement areas include documentation, API integration, network support, and UI scaling. Enhanced community contributions could address module availability and compatibility gaps.

What are the most important features of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform?

Agentless Architecture: Leverages Python for seamless management without needing local agents.
Extensive Module Support: Provides modules for managing multiple environments effectively.
Ansible Tower GUI: Offers a centralized interface for easy automation management.
Role-Based Access Control: Ensures user-specific permissions for improved security.
Integration Capabilities: Connects with a variety of applications to enhance functionality.
Dynamic Inventory: Automatically updates inventory, simplifying large infrastructure management.

What benefits and ROI should one consider?

Automation Efficiency: Significantly reduces manual intervention, saving time and resources.
Adaptability: Easily integrates with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, and Azure.
Security Compliance: Automates compliance checks, ensuring up-to-date security protocols.
Cost Management: Lower operational costs through streamlined processes.
Scalability: Supports infrastructure growth without requiring major adjustments.

In industries like finance, healthcare, and technology, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is used for network management, security compliance, and configuration tasks. Organizations utilize its capabilities for cloud and on-premises deployment, infrastructure provisioning, and workflow orchestration. Many integrate it with tools such as Puppet or Terraform to enhance CI/CD processes, benefiting from its agentless design in adapting to cloud environments.

Red Hat

Sample Customers

US Department of Energy, Swisslos, DXC, Edeka SouthWest

HootSuite Media, Inc., Cloud Physics, Narrative, BinckBank

Buyer's Guide

BlueCat Gateway vs. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

January 2026

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