Here, is a curated list of top 8 tools that can easily replace Ansible. This list includes commercial as well as open-source tools with popular features and latest download link.

Alternatives to Ansible: Top Picks

1) Rudder

Rudder is a DevOps solution for continuous configuration and auditing. It is easy to use web-driven solution for IT automation. Key Features:

Workflow offers various user options like non-expert users, expert users, and managers Automate common system administration tasks such as installation and configuration Enforce configuration over time Provide Inventory of all managed nodes Web interface for configuring and managing nodes Compliance reporting by configuration or by node

Download link: https://www.rudder-project.org/site/get-rudder/downloads/

2) SaltStack

SaltStack is configuration management and orchestration tool. It is one of the best Ansible alternatives that enables system administrators to automate server provisioning and management tasks. Features:

This alternative to Ansible offers a simple programming interface Prebuilt modules to support 100s of applications Powerful API interacts easily with other systems SaltStack is designed to handle ten thousand minions per master

Download link: https://www.saltstack.com/

3) Puppet Enterprise

Puppet enterprise tool eliminates manual work for software delivery process. This Ansible alternative helps developer to deliver great software rapidly Features:

Puppet enterprise tool eliminates manual work for software delivery process. This Ansible equivalent software helps developer to deliver great software rapidly Model and manage your entire environment Intelligent orchestration and visual workflows Real-time context-aware reporting Define and continually enforce infrastructure It inspects and reports on packages running across infrastructure Desired state conflict detection and remediation

Download link: https://puppet.com/try-puppet/puppet-enterprise/

4) Chef

Chef is a useful DevOps tool for achieving speed, scale, and consistency. It is a Cloud based system. It can be used to ease out complex tasks and perform automation. Features:

Accelerate cloud adoption Effectively manage data centers It can manage multiple cloud environments It maintains high availability

Download link: https://downloads.chef.io/

5) CFEngine

CFEngine is a DevOps tool for IT automation. It is an ideal tool for configuration management. It is one of the best Ansible competitors that helps teams to automate large-scale complex infrastructure. Key Features:

Provides rapid solution with the execution time less than one second An open source configuration solution with an unmatched security record It conducted billions of compliance checks in large-scale production environments This Ansible software alternative tool allows deploying a model-based configuration change across 50,000 servers in very few minutes

Download link: https://cfengine.com/product/free-download/

6) Gitlab CI

GitLab CI is a part of GitLab. It is a web application with an API that stores its state in a database. It is one of the best Ansible analogs that manages projects and provides a friendly user interface, besides offering the advantage of all the features of GitLab. Features:

GitLab Container Registry is a secure registry for Docker images
GitLab offers a convenient way to change metadata of an issue or merge request without adding slash commands in the comment field
It provides APIs for most features, so it allows developers to create deeper integrations with the product
Helps developers to put their idea into production by finding areas of improvement in their development process
It helps you to keep your information secure with Confidential Issues
Internal projects in GitLab allow promoting inner sourcing of internal repositories.

Download link: https://about.gitlab.com/installation/

7) Jenkins

Jenkins is an open-source continuous integration tool. It is written using the Java programming language. It facilitates real-time testing and reporting on isolated changes in a larger code base. This software similar to Ansible helps developers to quickly find and solve defects in their code base & automate testing of their builds. Features:

Provide support to scale out to a large number of nodes and distribute the workload equally among them

Easily updated with all OS and versions of Linux, Mac OS or Windows It offers easy installation as Jenkins comes as a WAR file all you need to drop into your JEE container and your setup up ready to run. Jenkins can be easily set up and configured with the help of its web interface It’s can easily distribute work across several machines,

Download link: https://www.jenkins.io/download/

8) Codenvy

Codenvy automates applications or micro services to any number of servers. It fully automates deployments of text and binary files from any number of target servers. Features:

It allows managing environment-specific configuration parameters for your application It allows generating command-line installers to be used for deployments on any environment This software development tool eliminates the need for installation & configuration. It takes out many operational risks in the software development process The friendly web interface lets configure deployments efficiently and painlessly It supports a broad range operating systems including Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris, etc.

Download link: https://codenvy.com/

FAQs

❓ What is Ansible?

⚡ How Ansible works?

💻 How Ansible is used in DevOps?

🏅 What are the drawbacks of Ansible?

🚀 What are the best alternatives available for Ansible?

Ansible is OS-dependent tool that means code written in one OS will not work for other operating systems. It has a lack of user interface. Enterprise support is not good. This tool is not providing descriptive error messages.

Rudder SaltStack Puppet Enterprise Chef CFEngine Gitlab CI Jenkins