Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Chef vs Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform comparison

Sponsored
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 28, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.3
Microsoft Intune enhances efficiency and security while reducing costs, resources, and hardware needs, offering excellent integration and productivity.
Sentiment score
6.7
Chef enhances work efficiency and ROI by streamlining deployment, reducing manual labor, and supporting scalable infrastructure management.
Sentiment score
7.0
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform boosts efficiency, saving time and resources, despite initial costs, by automating server provisioning.
Everything we've gained from it makes my job easier day after day, and I see value in it as an engineer.
IT Systems Engineer at Syracuse University
Microsoft Intune not only saves costs by reducing the number of personnel needed but also offers a comprehensive solution for managing laptops, applications, security, individual access, and enrollment.
Subject Matter Expert at Engage IT Services Pvt Ltd
Importantly, when someone leaves the company, it helps protect document access on their devices.
Channels & Alliances Head at Link Development
The return has been far more hours saved than spent.
Technical Architecture Support at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Chef has provided a return on investment, particularly in needing fewer employees, as the tool significantly reduces the amount of human work required for many tasks.
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
We have seen significant improvement in the time and the way we make changes to the infrastructure.
Principal Engineer at Wipro Limited
The work that previously took two months now takes 10 to 15 minutes.
Senior DevOps engineer at Elevenxcapital
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.7
Microsoft Intune support receives mixed reviews with praise for premium plans but concerns about slow responses and inconsistent quality.
Sentiment score
5.8
Chef's customer support varies, with positive presales support, but challenges lead users to community forums and AWS for help.
Sentiment score
7.2
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers extensive online resources and community support, though response times and support scope need improvement.
When a support ticket is submitted, it directly reaches someone with Intune support expertise.
Collaborations engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
When I contacted Microsoft, they had the same expertise, if not more, which is phenomenal because I felt heard and my problem was solved.
IT Systems Engineer at Syracuse University
Sometimes, the support provided is excellent, and the representative is knowledgeable, while other times, the service needs improvement.
Engineer at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
We usually work with the Chef teams and community support, who are always willing to assist.
Software Engineer and Tester at Safaricom
The Ansible sales and technical support services need significant improvement.
Cognitive Business Operation at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
I have not escalated any questions to the Red Hat support team regarding Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, as their modules are professional and complete.
DevOps Engineer at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has a large community with many written blogs and resources available, making it easy to maintain.
Senior DevOps engineer at Elevenxcapital
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.6
Microsoft Intune offers seamless scalability for various organization sizes, efficiently managing devices with flexible licensing and high user ratings.
Sentiment score
7.3
Chef is praised for managing numerous nodes efficiently in diverse cloud environments despite some challenges with scaling.
Sentiment score
7.2
Red Hat Ansible excels in scalability, handling diverse environments with modular features, though performance tweaks may be needed.
The scalability of Microsoft Intune is ten out of ten.
Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Ideally, we want to automatically segregate devices based on user properties like primary use, but currently, dynamic groups seem limited to device properties.
Engineer, Systems Admin . at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
It supports organizations with 200 endpoints and those with more than 15,000 endpoints.
Director at Provisioned
We leverage both to achieve the best option possible for scaling.
Software Engineer and Tester at Safaricom
Chef's scalability handles a large number of nodes easily, allowing us to manage hundreds of servers consistently using the same set of cookbooks.
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
Chef's scalability is evident as the public sector organization I work at serves a population of 5 million, and we have had no problems with scaling.
Technical Architecture Support at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is easily maintainable and highly scalable.
Senior DevOps engineer at Elevenxcapital
Ansible can face scalability issues, such as limitations when trying to scale up infrastructure.
Associate Software Test Solution Architect at AFour Technologies
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
Microsoft Intune is considered reliable and robust, despite occasional bugs and performance issues, with improvements over earlier versions.
Sentiment score
7.7
Chef offers reliable performance, minimal disruptions, and effective scalability, with high stability ratings and strong community support.
Sentiment score
8.0
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is highly stable, reliable, and suitable for large-scale deployments, meeting enterprise needs effectively.
We have not experienced downtime, bugs, or glitches.
Head of IT at TWM SOLICITORS LLP
It appears Microsoft Intune undergoes changes without informing customers.
Support Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Microsoft Intune has been very stable.
Collaborations engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
It is a good tool to work with, offering a strong developer experience and community support.
Software Engineer and Tester at Safaricom
Chef is stable.
Technical Architecture Support at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
In my experience, Chef is quite stable most of the time.
Principal Engineer at Wipro Limited
The stability of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is excellent, deserving a 10 out of 10 rating.
Cognitive Business Operation at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Intune needs improved reporting, third-party integration, non-Windows management, security policies, navigation, and better pricing and support.
Chef needs improved simplicity, integration, performance, documentation, better error messages, enhanced support, and usability for wider adoption.
Red Hat Ansible requires enhancements in modules, speed, scalability, UI, documentation, integration, credentials, dashboards, and community involvement.
Features like unlocking devices sometimes fail, and the support offered for other operating systems is insufficient.
Strategy & Portfolio Advisor at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now.
Collaborations engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Many third-party companies offer single-pane-of-glass reporting that shows you what your update environment looks like, how your patch is doing, application status, etc., but Intune's reporting is not intuitive.
Engineer at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
On support, I think there should be more focus on how we can achieve AI automations in answering questions for beginners and addressing deep concerns without general manual management.
Software Engineer and Tester at Safaricom
Self-healing infrastructure continuously verifies that the system matches the desired state and can auto-correct configuration changes during the next run.
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
To improve Chef, making an interface with another language such as Python or Java that is well understood, as capable as Ruby, and even more widely adopted would demystify it a bit.
Technical Architecture Support at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is very easy to use with Jinja templating capabilities that make it really straightforward.
Senior DevOps engineer at Elevenxcapital
The dashboarding capabilities should be improved by bringing CMP (Cloud Management Platform) into Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.
Cognitive Business Operation at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform could improve by creating modules for upcoming AI and ML tech stacks.
DevOps Engineer at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Intune provides cost-effective pricing, especially when bundled with Office 365, with average subscriptions at $7 per user.
Enterprise users find Chef's pricing flexible but complex, appreciating AWS Marketplace integration despite preferring cheaper open-source alternatives.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers free and paid pricing options, valued for its open-source model and automation advantages.
Introductory professional services, like a fast-track service, were included with our E5 membership, and there have been no additional costs.
Senior Systems Architect IV at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees
The Intune suite and add-ons, such as batch management and remote help, are costly.
Technical Sales Professional (Microsoft Modern Workplace) at Alnafitha IT
It costs approximately forty euros per user per month.
Cyber Security Officer at Gudu
Licensing looks reasonable compared to the manual work of managing whole data centers with even 10,000 servers.
Software Engineer and Tester at Safaricom
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that we sidestepped it by using Cinc because none of the functionality that is exclusive to the paid version was actually in use in the organization.
Technical Architecture Support at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The pricing is high, and since I'm not using all functionalities, it would be better if the price depended on the functionalities used.
IT Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The cost of combining Red Hat Developer Hub and Ansible is extremely high, which presents a significant challenge with the Red Hat product.
Cognitive Business Operation at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
There is no pricing and no licensing required, as Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is always free to use.
Senior DevOps engineer at Elevenxcapital
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Intune integrates with Microsoft services, simplifying deployment and enhancing security for seamless cloud management and robust resource control.
Chef automates configuration management, supporting scalability, ease of use, and efficiency, ideal for large-scale cloud environments with community support.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers agentless architecture, user-friendly syntax, and scalability, ensuring efficient task automation and management.
Intune excels in configuration and compliance management for Windows 10, ensuring devices receive timely updates and adhere to organizational standards.
Microsoft Practice Lead at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Dynamic groups allow us to set conditions for automatic membership, eliminating the need for user intervention or manual review and ensuring a seamless workflow.
Engineer, Systems Admin . at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Windows Autopatch is the most valuable because it removes the burden of patch management.
Director at Provisioned
Security is a key aspect that Chef can automate, monitor new features that are available, and even do patches without you getting involved.
Software Engineer and Tester at Safaricom
Chef can manage hundreds or thousands of servers effortlessly, allowing for easy rollout of a single cookbook change to all machines.
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
When you have infrastructure as code and you already have everything apart from the environment-specific config, which you can specify in variables, then it is not only more repeatable and reliable, it is faster.
Technical Architecture Support at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The agentless architecture of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, using the SSH key, makes it passwordless and allows us to push configurations with one click, creating a major advantage.
DevOps Engineer at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
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.
Senior DevOps engineer at Elevenxcapital
The automation capabilities streamline deployment processes, providing reliability and reducing manual intervention and errors.
Associate Software Test Solution Architect at AFour Technologies
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Intune
Sponsored
Ranking in Configuration Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
312
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (2nd), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
Chef
Ranking in Configuration Management
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Build Automation (12th), Release Automation (5th)
Red Hat Ansible Automation ...
Ranking in Configuration Management
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
Release Automation (3rd), Network Automation (1st), AWS Pro Service Providers (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 8.2%, down from 10.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Chef is 2.8%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is 13.5%, down from 18.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Configuration Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform13.5%
Microsoft Intune8.2%
Chef2.8%
Other75.5%
Configuration Management
 

Featured Reviews

AkashKamble - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr MacOS specialist engineer at Cyber24
Enables management of multiple operating systems with a single license
The best feature is that it's a Microsoft product, so if anything goes wrong, we get quick support for anything required. Remote system functionality allows us to sit anywhere and take control of any device via remote management. We can enhance security for clients' laptops with built-in Microsoft Defender, which is available with the Microsoft Intune license. We use it for reporting purposes through endpoint analytics. When pushing scripting, there are two types available: remediation script and reservation script. Through endpoint analytics, you can push defender policies to clients. It helps with reporting, inventory updates, and monitoring tenant status health.
Walter Ochieng Odhiambo - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer and Tester at Safaricom
Automation has transformed daily infrastructure work and now frees teams to focus on new challenges
One thing that Chef needs to improve on is making it available in as many languages as possible. There should be a focus on how to make it understandable, not just to infrastructure people, but also to those working in monitoring. How can we ensure that it is part of their daily input? That is something that still has a small missing link. We are almost there, but it can help us achieve outcomes in the future in terms of objectives, not just workflows and visibility. How can we make real-time interactive dashboards more available? Look at what kind of tools can be integrated with them, not just working with the ones like Chef Kitchen and Habitat, but trying to make it even more flexible than what we have right now. On support, I think there should be more focus on how we can achieve AI automations in answering questions for beginners and addressing deep concerns without general manual management.
Manas Kashyap - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Configuration Management solutions are best for your needs.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user185772 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Architect with 5,001-10,000 employees
Oct 27, 2015
Docker v. CFEngine v. Puppet Data Center Automation v. Chef v. Ansible
Originally posted at http://technologyconversations.com/2015/08/26/configuration-management-in-the-docker-world/ Anyone managing more than a few servers can confirm that doing such a task manually is a waste of time and risky. Configuration management (CM) exists for a long time and there is no…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Retailer
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business121
Midsize Enterprise47
Large Enterprise154
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise48
 

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?
Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes ...
What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of...
How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Chef?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that we sidestepped it by using Cinc because none of the fun...
What needs improvement with Chef?
I would add that Ruby is a domain-specific language in the Chef dialect, which is a learning curve, but so is Terrafo...
What is your primary use case for Chef?
My main use case for Chef is configuration and deployments. We receive blank servers and use Chef to build predefined...
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 h...
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 ...
What do you like most about Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform?
The most valuable features of the solution are automation and patching.
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
No data available
Ansible, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Subscription on AWS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Facebook, Standard Bank, GE Capital, Nordstrom, Optum, Barclays, IGN, General Motors, Scholastic, Riot Games, NCR, Gap
HootSuite Media, Inc., Cloud Physics, Narrative, BinckBank
Find out what your peers are saying about Chef vs. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.