Chef vs GitHub Actions comparison

Progress Software and GitHub are both solutions in the Build Automation category. Progress Software is ranked #20 with an average rating of 7.0, while GitHub is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.5. Progress Software holds a 0.6% mindshare in BA, compared to GitHub’s 11.4% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Progress Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of GitHub users who would recommend it.

Chef

Read 19 Chef reviews

1,238 Views
248 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

GitHub Actions

Read 22 GitHub Actions reviews

2,804 Views
2,804 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Chef

GitHub Actions

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

Chef and GitHub Actions are both essential in the DevOps space, competing primarily in continuous integration and infrastructure management. GitHub Actions stands out due to its superior features integrated within the GitHub ecosystem, offering a seamless experience for existing GitHub users.

Features: Chef provides a powerful scripting language for system automation, comprehensive configuration management, and the ability to handle vast numbers of servers effortlessly. In contrast, GitHub Actions offers native integration with GitHub, easy-to-define workflows, and strong automation capabilities that are favored for development teams using GitHub.

Room for Improvement: Chef could enhance its rollback functionalities and streamline deployment procedures. It's also seen as complex for smaller setups. GitHub Actions would benefit from improved pipeline starting speeds and enhanced AI project support. Additionally, deeper insights into integration with external tools could elevate its usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Chef has a complex deployment model that fits large-scale infrastructures, backed by comprehensive enterprise support. Meanwhile, GitHub Actions offers an intuitive, easier deployment directly within GitHub's interface with integrated support, making it straightforward for GitHub-centric teams.

Pricing and ROI: Chef requires significant initial investment but provides high ROI for detailed system management. GitHub Actions leverages flexible pricing within GitHub, scalable to project needs, attracting teams seeking cost-effective CI/CD integration without large upfront costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Chef vs. GitHub Actions Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Chef vs. GitHub Actions

July 2025

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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

Chef

Ranking in Build Automation

20th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Release Automation (11th), Configuration Management (18th)

GitHub Actions

Ranking in Build Automation

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of Chef is 0.6%, down from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GitHub Actions is 11.4%, up from 7.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Build Automation

Featured Reviews

Aaron P

DevOps Engineer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

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.

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MuhammadAzhar Khan

Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group

Integration with various environments and cloud providers enhances automation

I use GitHub Actions for CI/CD pipelines. I automate infrastructure, deployment, and all processes. Most companies use CI/CD pipelines, and GitHub Actions is one of the tools available for this purpose The most valuable feature of GitHub Actions is that it is completely free. It can be integrated…

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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

"I wanted to monitor a hybrid cloud environment, one using AWS and Azure. If I have to provision/orchestrate between multiple cloud platforms, I can use Chef as a one-stop solution, to broker between those cloud platforms and orchestrate around them, rather than going directly into each of the cloud-vendors' consoles."

"The solution is easy to use and learn, and it easily automates all the code and infrastructure."

"Stable and scalable configuration management and automation tool. Installing it is easy. Its most valuable feature is its compliance, e.g. it's very good."

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

"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."

"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 is a great tool for an automation person who wants to do configuration management with infrastructure as a code."

"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."

More Chef pros

"It is a very stable solution as we have not faced any issues."

"GitHub Actions can be easily configured, especially for environment variables and secrets. The UI is understandable and user-friendly for setting up CI/CD pipelines. I prefer tools like GitLab, where the pipeline starts quickly and is accessible near the commits for easy access. However, many CI/CD tools are interchangeable due to similar features of GitHub Actions and other similar tools."

"It improves efficiency as it involves no downtime and is managed by GitHub."

"GitHub Actions helps automate the deployment process, eliminating manual copying and testing, which saves time and minimizes errors."

"It is easy to use, especially if you are accustomed to using GitHub."

"The most valuable feature of GitHub Actions is the ability to automate various tasks, such as backups and deployments, to ease the development workflow."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a good product that offers stability and performance."

"I am familiar with the entire life cycle of the product."

More GitHub Actions pros

Cons

"There is a slight barrier to entry if you are used to using Ansible, since it is Ruby-based."

"The agent on the server sometimes acts finicky."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"In the future, Chef could develop a docker container or docker images."

More Chef cons

"There is a part that detects outdated libraries. If that feature could be more intuitive and informative, that would be nice."

"In terms of improvements, I think better logging for debugging purposes would be helpful, especially for complex workflows."

"The main improvement would be to add support for more programming languages and frameworks."

"The only issue I have faced is with authorization, particularly when configuring the GitHub token correctly."

"The minor drawback of GitHub Actions is the management of the dashboard and pipeline runs, which needs improvement. The dashboard for running pipelines could be better."

"Sometimes it is quite complex to commit code from our local system to the GitHub repository; creating a folder in GitHub can be tedious."

"We can leverage this database tool to manage everything within our environment and data burners, allowing for customization and execution. An additional advantage is the capability to modify aspects like file size, making processes more efficient and faster across the pipelines. Regarding improvements or implementations, I believe there should be enhancements made to the deployment tool. It should be integrated as part of the solution. Infrastructure-wise, we already have tools like GitHub and RobSpot, and data enables us to automate various processes, which is quite beneficial. As for further enhancements, I'm uncertain. I've shared everything I know. However, if there's something specific you'd like to see in future releases, a feature that may not exist yet but would be desirable, I can't provide any input on that matter."

"Improvements could be made in terms of time-saving capabilities and resolving potential complexities in centralized workflows."

More GitHub Actions cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

More Chef pricing and cost advice

"Price-wise, GitHub Actions is okay. If I want to use the product's advanced features, then I need to pay the licensing charges for the solution."

"Regarding cost, as an enterprise, we negotiate our license and expenses, so I can't provide a specific rating for that."

"The tool's price is okay and reasonable."

"For our basic usage, we didn't have to pay."

"The product is slightly more expensive than some alternatives."

"It is free and open platform, so I would rate it 1 out of 10."

"It's low-priced. Not high, but definitely low."

"The cost for GitHub Actions may be around $45 dollars per user."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

15%

Retailer

University

Financial Services Firm

17%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Chef?

Chef is priced based on the number of nodes.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What do you like most about GitHub Actions?

I have optimized job execution time by running test scripts in parallel and creating multiple pipelines; we've significantly reduced execution times. What could take 50 minutes can be cut down to j...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GitHub Actions?

I would rate pricing a seven, which leans toward the expensive side. However, there is still value for money, and that's why we continue using it.

See all answers

What needs improvement with GitHub Actions?

Frankly, I cannot imagine something that could be improved in GitHub Actions; there's a lot of capabilities, and the feature set is more advanced than we use. The pricing is high for the advanced s...

See all answers

Comparisons

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VMware Aria Automation vs Chef

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Compared 31% of the time

Harness vs GitHub Actions

Compared 14% of the time

Bamboo vs GitHub Actions

Compared 12% of the time

TeamCity vs GitHub Actions

Compared 9% of the time

Buildkite vs GitHub Actions

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Chef

August 2025

Download Chef product report

Buyer's Guide

GitHub Actions

August 2025

Download GitHub Actions product report

Overview

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

GitHub Actions streamlines CI/CD processes with an intuitive YAML workflow and robust automation, enhancing efficiency and integration with third-party tools and cloud providers.

GitHub Actions automates development pipelines, supports scalable public and private runners, and manages secure secrets. This tool integrates seamlessly with platforms like AWS, Kubernetes, Google Cloud, and Databricks. It enhances DevOps workflows with reliable task automation. Users note areas for UI and deployment tool improvements, artifact management simplification, and additional programming language support. Debugging complexity and hosting agent transitions pose challenges, along with integration enhancements for tools like OneDrive.

What are GitHub Actions' key features?

YAML Workflow Creation: Simplifies configuration with intuitive YAML.
CI/CD Integration: Provides seamless integration within DevOps pipelines.
Automation Capabilities: Automates tasks with minimal manual intervention.
Third-Party Tool Compatibility: Works well with diverse tools and platforms.
Secure Secrets Management: Protects sensitive information effectively.

What benefits do users find in GitHub Actions?

Enhanced Performance: Boosts task execution speed and reliability.
Scalability: Supports growth with flexible runner options.
Improved Release Cycles: Ensures consistent updates and deployments.
Workflow Efficiency: Reduces manual tasks, increasing operational efficiency.

Companies in tech and software development frequently utilize GitHub Actions for integrating, deploying, and versioning projects. It is often employed for deploying applications to cloud environments like AWS and Kubernetes, managing extensive CI/CD workflows, and automating test and security operations, thereby streamlining production cycles across industries.

GitHub

Sample Customers

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

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Chef vs. GitHub Actions

July 2025

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