Difference Between Ansible and Chef

Ansible is also used in the management and deployment of applications. It is an open-source software which was founded by Michael DeHaan. Its stable version was released in 2021 in the month of December. At first, it was developed for Unix like operating systems but now it is available for Linux, Windows, macOS etc. It is developed using different programming languages like Python, Ruby, Shell, PowerShell etc. 

Chef is a management tool that is built by Progress. It is built using Ruby and Erlang programming languages. Its initial release was in 2009 and this software is covered under Apache License 2.0. It is capable of running on different operating systems like Windows, macOS, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD etc. Ruby is used as a domain-centric language in this software.

Below is a table of differentiation between Ansible and Chef:

	Ansible	Chef
1.	Management of Ansible is easy and does not require any programmer for handling its management.	Ruby programming knowledge is needed to handle the management of Chef.
2.	Ansible is used in very small enterprises for management on a temporary basis.	Chef is mostly used by small and medium-sized companies for management.
3.	Ansible is not mature as compared to Chef.	Chef is considered as mature.
4.	Configuration of Ansible can be done easily and does not need expert knowledge.	Configuration implementation is a complex process which requires experts.
5.	The transmission process to establish communication in this software is way faster than compared to Chef.	The transmission process to establish communication in this software is slower as compared to Ansible.
6.	A backup server facility is provided to cope with failures.	No backup server facility to deal with failures.
7.	Master architecture is not provided with Ansible so it does not require an extra server.	Master architecture is available and due to this, it needed an extra server.
8.	It does not require high maintenance.	Chef requires timely maintenance which is costly.