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 8.4. Progress Software holds a 1.0% mindshare in BA, compared to GitHub’s 10.0% 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

1,243 Views
286 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

GitHub Actions

Read 22 GitHub Actions reviews

2,938 Views
2,938 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Chef

GitHub Actions

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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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: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Chef vs. GitHub Actions

September 2025

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Helped 868,787 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

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 (19th)

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 October 2025, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of Chef is 1.0%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GitHub Actions is 10.0%, up from 9.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Build Automation Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
GitHub Actions	10.0%
Chef	1.0%
Other	89.0%

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

"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."

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

"Deployment has become quick and orchestration is now easy."

"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."

"You set it and forget it. You don't have to worry about the reliability or the deviations from any of the other configurations."

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

"The most important thing is it can handle a 100,000 servers at the same time easily with no time constraints."

"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."

More Chef pros

"It is user-friendly, with clear and organized processes, making it easy to navigate and work with."

"GitHub Actions is a beautiful tool that integrates smoothly with all major tools, reducing CI/CD work by 30% to 40%."

"Creating workflows in YAML format is straightforward and easy to comprehend. This includes both understanding and writing workflows. Additionally, the downloading aspect for third-party instances can also be easily done. It's worth noting that vulnerability analysis and similar tasks should be part of our automation through data workflows. Furthermore, we can break down our processes step by step, starting from building, then moving on to analysis, testing, and finally deploying in production and the clear environment. All of these tasks can be efficiently managed within this platform."

"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 solution has saved us approximately 20% in terms of efficiency and productivity."

"The main benefit is collaboration. It allows us to easily collaborate with other developers, regardless of location. For example, we can collaborate with both our African and German colleagues seamlessly. It's platform-agnostic, so it is flexible and not tied to any OS, so we can work on Linux, Windows, web, and even Oracle applications. It's flexible, reliable, and overall an excellent tool for our needs."

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

More GitHub Actions pros

Cons

"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."

"It is an old technology."

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

"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."

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

"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."

"Support and pricing for Chef could be improved."

"I would also like to see more analytics and reporting features. Currently, the analytics and reporting features are limited. I'll have to start building my own custom solution with Power BI or Tableau or something like that. If it came with built-in analytics and reporting features that would be great."

More Chef cons

"The main challenge I've experienced is with integration, particularly uploading to OneDrive, which was more complex compared to Google Drive or AWS S3 bucket."

"The primary area for improvement I see is in artifact management, especially for saving screenshots or videos from failed tests or data-driven actions. Currently, the configuration for saving these artifacts is complex."

"GitHub sometimes makes it difficult to debug actions."

"The reporting capabilities are somewhat limited."

"The solution's integration capabilities and UI are areas of concern where improvement is required to make the product more user-friendly."

"My company would want to see some AI features in the tool as it can add value to the product."

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

"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

"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."

"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."

"Pricing for Chef is high."

"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."

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

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

More Chef pricing and cost advice

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

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

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

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

"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."

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

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

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

15%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	12

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	11

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

BigFix vs Chef

Compared 47% of the time

AWS CloudFormation vs Chef

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs Chef

Compared 9% of the time

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs Chef

Compared 8% of the time

More Chef Competitors

Tekton vs GitHub Actions

Compared 29% of the time

Harness vs GitHub Actions

Compared 14% of the time

Bamboo vs GitHub Actions

Compared 10% of the time

TeamCity vs GitHub Actions

Compared 10% of the time

Buildkite vs GitHub Actions

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Chef

September 2025

Download Chef product report

Buyer's Guide

GitHub Actions

September 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

September 2025

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