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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
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
14
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 (19th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Release Automation category, the mindshare of AWS CodeDeploy is 2.5%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Chef is 1.4%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Release Automation Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
AWS CodeDeploy2.5%
Chef1.4%
Other96.1%
Release Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Mahadev Metre - PeerSpot reviewer
YAML configuration and cloud integration simplify tasks and enhance AWS resource flexibility
The features and capabilities of AWS CodeDeploy that I have found most valuable are that it is very user-friendly, and the codebase we can use there, specifically the tech stack, is YAML configuration. YAML is quite user-friendly itself, so if you just understand the basic concepts of YAML, then you're good to go. However, people face some problems with the YAML tech stack, as it is very strict with indentation and the placement of attributes. Overall, it's very strict with indentation and how it interprets our input. For example, in a stage where an environment is defined, there should be two spaces followed by an environment key and value. Knowing YAML is essential before working on AWS CodeDeploy, as the YAML file controls the service. AWS CodeDeploy's integration with other AWS services contributes significantly to scaling, monitoring, and security in my deployment processes by requiring IAM permissions. This is the only gateway for it to obtain permission to perform any tasks or triggers. One advantage we have with AWS CodeDeploy is its hassle-free accessibility through IAM roles and permissions. Being an AWS service, it operates on ARNs, which are identifiers. When we refer to these codes in IAM policies, we can give specific permissions while adhering to the least privileges rule of IAM. This makes it quite good and flexible with AWS resources, unlike third-party options.
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

"The product is easy to use."
"It is very flexible."
"CodeDeploy is quite easy to use within the AWS ecosystem."
"I appreciate the feature for automating the deployment of code to the server."
"The biggest feature of AWS CodeDeploy is its scalability."
"You can easily integrate AWS CodeDeploy with multiple services."
"I found the default settings of AWS CodeDeploy to be highly beneficial for my deployment workflows. For instance, when deploying a Node.js application, I manually installed the necessary components on my AWS instance, such as the web server required by developers. Then, I created deployment scripts for starting and stopping instances and performing the deployment itself. These scripts were stored alongside my code in GitHub, ensuring they executed seamlessly with the CI/CD pipeline. Since the project wasn't overly complex, I opted for the default settings, which proved to be efficient and straightforward for deployment."
"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."
"We have had less production issues since using Chef to automate our provisioning."
"The most valuable feature is the language that it uses: Ruby."
"The most valuable feature is automation."
"If you're handy enough with DSL and you can present your own front-facing interface to your developers, then you can actually have a lot more granular control with Chef in operations over what developers can perform and what they can't."
"Deployment has become quick and orchestration is now easy."
"It is a well thought out product which integrates well with what developers and customers are looking for."
"The most important thing is it can handle a 100,000 servers at the same time easily with no time constraints."
"This solution has improved my organization in the way that deployment has become very quick and orchestration is easy. If we have thousands of servers we can easily deploy in a small amount of time. We can deploy the applications or any kind of announcements in much less time."
 

Cons

"The documentation could be more detailed, especially for new users."
"There will always be room for improvement, however, I cannot think of any specific improvements at the moment."
"An improvement for the end users would be easier implementation, especially regarding local testing tools for deployment."
"I faced some stability issues."
"Deployment and stability should be improved."
"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."
"We have faced some issues and bugs along the way when it comes to stability."
"Third-party innovations need improvement, and I would like to see more integration with other platforms."
"The agent on the server sometimes acts finicky."
"In the future, Chef could develop a docker container or docker images."
"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."
"Support and pricing for Chef could be improved."
"If only Chef were easier to use and code, it would be used much more widely by the community."
"If they can improve their software to support Docker containers, it would be for the best."
"Since we are heading to IoT, this product should consider anything related to this."
 

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."
"It is costly."
"The product is free with EC2."
"Since we are using a dedicated AWS environment, the solution's pricing is fine."
"The product's price is normal."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"We are using the free, open source version of the software, which we are happy with at this time."
"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."
"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."
"Chef is priced based on the number of nodes."
"Pricing for Chef is high."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
15%
University
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
15%
Retailer
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise12
 

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?
My usual use cases for AWS CodeDeploy involve utilizing it as an AWS service, which is a subservice of CodePipeline. AWS CodePipeline is a whole package of services which consists of AWS CodeDeploy...
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: September 2025.
869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.