AWS CodeBuild vs Chef comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Progress Software are both solutions in the Build Automation category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.3, while Progress Software is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.3. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 2.2% mindshare in BA, compared to Progress Software’s 1.9% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Progress Software users who would recommend it.

AWS CodeBuild

Read 13 AWS CodeBuild reviews

814 Views
798 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Chef

Read 25 Chef reviews

2,068 Views
579 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

AWS CodeBuild

Chef

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

Chef and AWS CodeBuild serve as competitive products within the domain of software automation and CI/CD pipelines. AWS CodeBuild seems to have the upper hand due to its seamless integration with AWS services and scalability benefits.

Features: Chef provides robust configuration management, advanced automation capabilities, and support for various platforms. AWS CodeBuild offers seamless integration with AWS services, automatic scaling, and full CI/CD integration.

Room for Improvement: Chef can improve by simplifying the deployment process, reducing the need for manual scripting, and enhancing support for AWS environments. AWS CodeBuild could enhance its feature set with more support for non-AWS environments, increase visibility in logging, and improve the flexibility of customization.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Chef’s deployment process may require more manual configuration and scripting expertise. In contrast, AWS CodeBuild provides an easy deployment experience with smooth integration into AWS environments. Chef offers comprehensive documentation and community support, whereas AWS CodeBuild benefits from AWS’s extensive customer service infrastructure.

Pricing and ROI: Chef involves upfront costs and may require specialized training, yet it can offer cost efficiencies in large-scale automation projects. AWS CodeBuild operates on a pay-as-you-go pricing model, providing immediate scalability and a higher ROI, especially for projects integrated within the AWS infrastructure.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS CodeBuild vs. Chef Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

AWS CodeBuild vs. Chef

February 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 881,733 peers since 2012

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

AWS CodeBuild

Ranking in Build Automation

9th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Chef

Ranking in Build Automation

12th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Release Automation (5th), Configuration Management (12th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of AWS CodeBuild is 2.2%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Chef is 1.9%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Build Automation Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
AWS CodeBuild	2.2%
Chef	1.9%
Other	95.9%

Build Automation

Featured Reviews

SomdipRoy

Solution Architect at Skillnetinc

Has enabled automated deployments through continuous integration and supports multi-environment delivery

My recommendation for AWS CodeBuild to make it better for the next release would be something within AWS CodeBuild which can support the repository functions as well. It may not be as powerful as GitHub Actions, but it provides a very competitive price compared to GitHub Actions. GitHub Actions, if you want to use the YML CI/CD pipeline, gives a free tier of around three thousand hours per month. AWS CodeBuild is a little more expensive than that. However, if it supports the repository function as well along with it, then it will be a complete package. Everything would be in AWS, including the code versioning, code commit to the code infrastructure, to the code database, to the networking, and how the applications are accessed. Everything would be in one place, which would be very helpful. I believe AWS CodeBuild is a bit expensive because GitHub provides around three thousand minutes free, plus it has the free repository function as well. At the enterprise level, it charges maybe around nineteen dollars per user, though I do not remember exactly. In terms of AWS CodeBuild, I believe it is a bit expensive because it is providing only the deployment features. It is not providing the repository. In that comparison, I would say it is a little bit expensive.

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Walter Ochieng Odhiambo

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.

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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

"AWS CodeBuild's support for popular languages and tools has enhanced my productivity; it supports the three most popular stacks that are in the world: the Python stack, the Node.js stack or framework, and the Java framework, along with other technology stacks such as Ruby on Rails."

"A valuable feature is the support for third-party repositories such as Bitbucket, GitLab, or GitHub."

"The integration with other AWS services has streamlined our workflow."

"AWS CodeBuild reduces wait time and optimizes workflows."

"The most important thing is that it's self-contained in an AWS account, and it's all linked to the customer's AWS account."

"The integration is a good feature."

"One of the main features I value in CodeBuild compared to previous experiences, like using Jenkins, is its ability to handle tasks automatically with AWS, requiring only proper setup of the check file."

"It works seamlessly with AWS Elastic Container Registry (ECR)."

More AWS CodeBuild pros

"The most valuable feature is the language that it uses: Ruby."

"The most valuable feature is automation."

"All the use cases—configurations, deployment, compliance, and other common situations—demonstrate how helpful Chef is, and we found it very beneficial, which is why both my past organization and my current organization are using it."

"Chef has impacted my organization positively by ensuring that consistent deployments across production and test environments help more effective testing and faster deployments mean that more work can be done in one release cycle."

"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."

"It streamlined our deployments and system configurations across the board rather than have us use multiple configurations or tools, basically a one stop shop."

"Chef recipes are easy to write and move across different servers and environments."

"It has been very easy to tie it into our build and deploy automation for production release work, etc. All the Chef pieces more or less run themselves."

More Chef pros

Cons

"One of the main challenges is that if the environment is not set up properly, it will result in issues such as image errors."

"There is no persistent storage or preservation of workspace between the builds."

"Multiple clients have faced issues with pricing. After migrating from Azure to EC2, they were unexpectedly charged 100,000 rupees because the pricing details were not clearly visible."

"We had integration issues with a tool called Octopus Deploy while using CodeBuild. AWS support helped us resolve it, however, it could be better."

"There have been times when CodeBuild has shown some instability, like bugs or breakdowns."

"For improvement, I'd suggest more build instance-type options. There's a big jump from 15 gigabytes of RAM to 150, and I'd like something in between as the larger option is too expensive for our needs."

"While working on building images for multiple applications within a single script, I encountered an issue where looping functionality was not supported as expected."

"Notifications could be added, or SNS integration could be included so that notifications can be received on every build, whether the build fails or succeeds."

More AWS CodeBuild cons

"The time that it takes in terms of integration. Cloud integration is comparatively easy, but when it comes to two-link based integrations - like trying to integrate it with any monitoring tools, or maybe some other ticketing tools - it takes longer. That is because most of the out-of-the-box integration of the APIs needs some revisiting."

"The AWS monitoring, AWS X-Ray, and some other features could be improved."

"I would like them to add database specific items, configuration items, and migration tools. Not necessarily on the builder side or the actual setup of the system, but more of a migration package for your different database sets, such as MongoDB, your extenders, etc. I want to see how that would function with a transition out to AWS for Aurora services and any of the RDBMS packages."

"If they can improve their software to support Docker containers, it would be for the best."

"The agent on the server sometimes acts finicky."

"Another area needing attention is better error messages, as we have found that Chef errors can sometimes be vague or too low-level to understand."

"I would like to see more security features for Chef and more automation."

"The solution could improve in managing role-based access. This would be helpful."

More Chef cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"AWS CodeBuild is free. We only pay for our code's compute resources during the build process. For example, if our code takes ten minutes to build, we only pay for those ten minutes of computing time. CodeDeploy and CodePipeline are free because they're serverless and don't require computing resources. CodeCommit has minimal costs for storing code."

"We pay a monthly licensing fee."

"Despite the cost, it is worth the investment."

"The price per node is a little weird. It doesn't scale along with your organization. If you're truly utilizing Chef to its fullest, then the number of nodes which are being utilized in any particular day might scale or change based on your Auto Scaling groups. How do you keep track of that or audit it? Then, how do you appropriately license it? It's difficult."

"We are able to save in development time, deployment time, and it makes it easier to manage the environments."

"We are using the free, open source version of the software, which we are happy with at this time."

"Pricing for Chef is high."

"I wasn't involved in the purchasing, but I am pretty sure that we are happy with the current pricing and licensing since it never comes up."

"When we're rolling out a new server, we're not using the AWS Marketplace AMI, we're using our own AMI, but we are paying them a licensing fee."

"Chef is priced based on the number of nodes."

"The price is always a problem. It is high. There is room for improvement. I do like purchasing on the AWS Marketplace, but I would like the ability to negotiate and have some flexibility in the pricing on it."

More Chef pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Media Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	2

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	19

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AWS CodeBuild?

It works seamlessly with AWS Elastic Container Registry (ECR).

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS CodeBuild?

The cost structure is affordable for most builds except macOS servers. Standard builds can utilize AWS EC2 servers for background operations. However, macOS or iOS builds require physical servers m...

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What needs improvement with AWS CodeBuild?

See all answers

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 functionality that is exclusive to the paid version was actually in use in the orga...

See all answers

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 Terraform and so is Ansible. The only feedback would be if they could come up with an i...

See all answers

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 application or appliance servers. A quick specific example of how I use Chef to...

See all answers

Comparisons

GitHub Actions vs AWS CodeBuild

Compared 18% of the time

AWS CodePipeline vs AWS CodeBuild

Compared 14% of the time

GitLab vs AWS CodeBuild

Compared 11% of the time

TeamCity vs AWS CodeBuild

Compared 9% of the time

Harness vs AWS CodeBuild

Compared 9% of the time

More AWS CodeBuild Competitors

BigFix vs Chef

Compared 13% of the time

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs Chef

Compared 8% of the time

AWS CloudFormation vs Chef

Compared 6% of the time

GitHub Actions vs Chef

Compared 6% of the time

Jenkins vs Chef

Compared 6% of the time

More Chef Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

AWS CodeBuild

February 2026

Download AWS CodeBuild product report

Buyer's Guide

Chef

February 2026

Download Chef product report

Also Known As

CodeBuild

No data available

Overview

AWS CodeBuild is a fully managed continuous integration service that compiles source code, runs tests, and produces software packages that are ready to deploy. With CodeBuild, you don’t need to provision, manage, and scale your own build servers. CodeBuild scales continuously and processes multiple builds concurrently, so your builds are not left waiting in a queue. You can get started quickly by using prepackaged build environments, or you can create custom build environments that use your own build tools. With CodeBuild, you are charged by the minute for the compute resources you use.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Chef, is the leader in DevOps, driving collaboration through code to automate infrastructure, security, compliance and applications. Chef provides a single path to production making it faster and safer to add value to applications and meet the demands of the customer. Deployed broadly in production by the Global 5000 and used by more than half of the Fortune 500, Chef develops 100 percent of its software as open source under the Apache 2.0 license with no restrictions on its use. Chef Enterprise Automation Stack™, a commercial distribution, is developed solely from that open source code and unifies security, compliance, infrastructure and application automation with observability. Chef provides an unequaled developer experience for the Coded Enterprise by enabling users to express infrastructure, security policies and the application lifecycle as code, modernizing development, packaging and delivery of any application to any platform. For more information, visit http://chef.io and follow @chef.

Progress Software

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

Facebook, Standard Bank, GE Capital, Nordstrom, Optum, Barclays, IGN, General Motors, Scholastic, Riot Games, NCR, Gap

Buyer's Guide

AWS CodeBuild vs. Chef

February 2026

Free Report: AWS CodeBuild vs. Chef

Find out what your peers are saying about AWS CodeBuild vs. Chef and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.

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