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AWS CodeDeploy vs Chef comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 7, 2025

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 CodeDeploy
Ranking in Release Automation
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Chef
Ranking in Release Automation
11th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Build Automation (20th), Configuration Management (18th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Release Automation category, the mindshare of AWS CodeDeploy is 2.9%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Chef is 1.1%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Release Automation
 

Featured Reviews

MuhammadBilal7 - PeerSpot reviewer
Effective communication with seamless integration improves deployment but tool diversity raises usability questions
There are many tools in the market that cover different aspects, such as the GitOps methodology of deployment. I have not used CodeDeploy with EKS, although I have used it with ECS. I am not sure if CodeDeploy can be used with EKS, and I see this as a deficiency for end users. Easier implementation would be beneficial.
Aaron  P - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy configuration management, optimization abilities, and complete infrastructure and application automation
In terms of improvement, Chef could get better by being more widely available, adapting to different needs, and providing better documentation. There is also an issue with shared resources like cookbooks lacking context, which could lead to problems when multiple companies use them. Chef should aim for wider availability, better flexibility, clearer documentation, and improved management of shared resources to prevent conflicts. Many companies are now moving to Ansible, so I would recommend better documentation, easier customer use, and simpler integration. I have concerns about the complexity of migrating to different servers and would prefer a simpler process.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"You can easily integrate AWS CodeDeploy with multiple services."
"It is very flexible."
"CodeDeploy is quite easy to use within the AWS ecosystem."
"The most valuable features of AWS CodeDeploy are its integration with other AWS services to deploy applications."
"I would suggest using AWS CodeDeploy if your applications are on AWS cloud platform, as it integrates well with multiple AWS services and automates scalability and infrastructure management."
"The product's initial setup phase is easy."
"The product is easy to use."
"AWS CodeDeploy operates on an on-demand basis. This means that you only pay for the exact duration of the deployment process. Whether it takes one minute, two minutes, or even longer, you're only charged for the time it takes to complete the deployment. You're not locked into paying for dedicated servers."
"Chef recipes are easy to write and move across different servers and environments."
"The solution is easy to use and learn, and it easily automates all the code and infrastructure."
"The most valuable feature is automation."
"Deployment has become quick and orchestration is now easy."
"Chef can be scaled as needed. The Chef server itself can scale but it depends on the available resources. You can upgrade specific resources to meet the demand. Similarly, with clients, you can add as many clients as you need. Again, this depends on the server resources. If the server has enough resources, it can handle the number of servers required to manage the infrastructure. Chef can be scaled to meet the needs of the infrastructure being managed."
"We have had less production issues since using Chef to automate our provisioning."
"Automation is everything. Having so many servers in production, many of our processes won't work nor scale. So, we look for tools to help us automate the process, and Chef is one of them."
"The most valuable feature is the language that it uses: Ruby."
 

Cons

"We have faced some issues and bugs along the way when it comes to stability."
"Improvements could be made to AWS CodeDeploy in terms of its agent's compatibility across different operating systems. Currently, there are instances where the agent may not work seamlessly with certain integrations, leading to issues with registering protocols on authorized servers."
"The support and those things are lacking compared to others."
"The documentation could be more detailed, especially for new users."
"An improvement for the end users would be easier implementation, especially regarding local testing tools for deployment."
"AWS should provide its own templates in the console so that I don't need to go anywhere else to get the template for AWS CodeDeploy or AWS CodeBuild."
"An improvement for the end users would be easier implementation, especially regarding local testing tools for deployment."
"Deployment and stability should be improved."
"The AWS monitoring, AWS X-Ray, and some other features could be improved."
"There appears to be no effort to fix the command line utility functionality, which is definitely broken, provides a false positive for a result when you perform the operation, and doesn't work."
"If only Chef were easier to use and code, it would be used much more widely by the community."
"Third-party innovations need improvement, and I would like to see more integration with other platforms."
"In the future, Chef could develop a docker container or docker images."
"They could provide more features, so the recipes could be developed in a simpler and faster way. There is still a lot of room for improvement, providing better functionalities when creating recipes."
"There is a slight barrier to entry if you are used to using Ansible, since it is Ruby-based."
"I would rate this solution a nine because our use case and whatever we need is there. Ten out of ten is perfect. We have to go to IOD and stuff so they should consider things like this to make it a ten."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"AWS CodeDeploy has proven to be a cost-effective solution for us, especially considering the benefits we gain from using it. In terms of pricing, AWS is quite affordable, providing excellent value for the features and services it offers."
"The product is free with EC2."
"The product's price is normal."
"Since we are using a dedicated AWS environment, the solution's pricing is fine."
"It is costly."
"Pricing for Chef is high."
"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."
"Purchasing the solution from AWS Marketplace was a good experience. AWS's pricing is pretty in line with the product's regular pricing. Though instance-wise, AWS is not the cheapest in the market."
"We are able to save in development time, deployment time, and it makes it easier to manage the environments."
"Chef is priced based on the number of nodes."
"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."
"We are using the free, open source version of the software, which we are happy with at this time."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
12%
University
10%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
23%
Computer Software Company
17%
University
6%
Healthcare Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS CodeDeploy?
Evaluating cost, it is important to note that the services provided by CodeDeploy can be expensive to purchase from other cloud platforms. However, depending on the services, it might be worth the ...
What is your primary use case for AWS CodeDeploy?
I remember it was a Node.js API that I deployed to some EC2 instances. I was trying to use PM2, a process manager, to deploy the application to the end users.
What do you like most about Chef?
Chef is a great tool for an automation person who wants to do configuration management with infrastructure as a code.
What needs improvement with Chef?
Chef does not support the containerized things of Chef products. In the future, Chef could develop a docker container or docker images.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS CodeDeploy vs. Chef and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.