Chef vs SUSE Manager comparison

Progress Software and SUSE are both solutions in the Configuration Management category. Progress Software is ranked #18 with an average rating of 7.0, while SUSE is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.3. Progress Software holds a 2.0% mindshare in CM, compared to SUSE’s 3.3% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Progress Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of SUSE users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Chef and SUSE Manager are both valuable tools for IT infrastructure management. SUSE Manager seems to have a slight edge in terms of comprehensive feature sets tailored for enterprise environments.

Features: Chef users value its wide range of automation capabilities, integration with various platforms, and extensive ecosystem. SUSE Manager is praised for its system management, patching capabilities, and compliance features.

Room for Improvement: Chef users note the need for enhancing reporting capabilities, reducing the complexity of initial configurations, and streamlining processes. SUSE Manager users suggest improvements in scalability, interface responsiveness, and performance under heavy workloads.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Chef is appreciated for its clear documentation and community support, making it easier for smaller teams to deploy. SUSE Manager's deployment is smoother in enterprise environments, with strong customer service support. SUSE Manager users find the setup process more straightforward compared to Chef’s complex initial deployment.

Pricing and ROI: Chef users find the tool competitively priced, offering good ROI for smaller to mid-sized companies. SUSE Manager, although perceived as pricier, is viewed as worth the investment due to its extensive feature set and reliability in large-scale deployments. Users feel that Chef provides cost-effective solutions, while SUSE Manager offers higher ROI for extensive enterprise needs.

To learn more, read our detailed Chef vs. SUSE Manager Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Chef vs. SUSE Manager

June 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 860,168 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

Microsoft Intune

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 10.2%, up from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Chef is 2.0%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SUSE Manager is 3.3%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Configuration Management

Featured Reviews

Joseph Merusi

Collaborations engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Everything has worked better since we started using it

Sometimes the syncing is inconsistent. I'm confident that the devices are checking in every eight hours, but sometimes the devices aren't picking up the settings as quickly as I would expect. Some features haven't been updated in a while, and Microsoft doesn't seem interested in developing them. Unless you talk to an engineer, you don't know whether there will be an update. There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now. Some reporting areas still need development. For example, I noticed that the reporting for driver updates is still confusing.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

Victor Estival

Developer Product Marketing Manager at Parity Technologies

Easy to deploy, offers embedded monitoring, and is very stable

I am a SUSE partner. I have a central server and then I'm connected to the VPN. That way, I can connect to all different customers. I'd advise new users to certainly read the documentation, as that's what I tend to skip. However, it's an important step. Try to automate as much as you can. One of the most powerful things that I noticed when I arrived, was that it was underutilized, and there are all of these automation capabilities that SUSE Manager has. It's saved just so much time for me. I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The biggest benefits of Intune are the ability to push changes and the added security. When we moved forward with Defender, we onboarded all those machines automatically. That helps dramatically. For a while, we were left with machines that weren't protected. We could see where people had done things they shouldn't have done, and Defender saved our skins a few times. It didn't happen a lot, but it happened enough that it made us glad we made that decision."

"The security features are most definitely valuable. If I have to give an example, the lockdown features that prevent employees from configuring anything or downloading company data are valuable. We get high-quality device protection, malware protection, and information protection at the same time."

"Microsoft Intune's autopilot has been nice to have."

"Intune can wipe devices. For example, if a disgruntled employee wants to leak the data on their company phone, Intune can terminate their access and wipe the entire device with a click."

"The main benefit for us with Microsoft Intune is centralized management of all devices, allowing us to apply one policy across the company from one location."

"The thing I appreciate most about Microsoft Intune is that the management of the devices was very simplified."

"What I like most about the tool is that it's now very easy to set up a device for someone to use. It also helps us tremendously in managing security. Before, we used on-premise management with a domain controller. It was difficult to manage security comprehensively. For example, it was hard to know which computers were updated. We weren't able to do that easily with our previous solution."

"Within Intune, managing policies and having a consistent way to manage devices is valuable."

More Microsoft Intune pros

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

"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."

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

"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 is a well thought out product which integrates well with what developers and customers are looking for."

"One thing that we've been able to do is a tiered permission model, allowing developers and their managers to perform their own operations in lower environments. This means a manager can go in and make changes to a whole environment, whereas a developer with less access may only be able to change individual components or be able to upgrade the version for software that they have control over."

"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."

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

More Chef pros

"When it comes to managing both Red Hat and SUSE environments, it provides the support for live patching, which is something I really, really appreciate."

"The setup is straightforward."

"What I appreciate best about SUSE Manager is that it supports most of the Linux flavors."

"SUSE Manager is valuable for managing systems, patching, and utilizing SaltStack connectivity for various installations and other routines."

"SUSE Manager is the best solution for maintaining the Linux environment"

"SUSE Manager helps to optimize operations at a reduced cost."

Cons

"We faced issues with macOS support. The product should have better inventory and asset management."

"The most significant challenge is reporting and monitoring. The reporting accuracy for deploying applications and all aspects of Intune needs to be improved."

"We are currently unable to control aspects of group policy from Teams like we can for GPO. They are still not part of Intune. Microsoft is adding this, but it's currently in preview, and few GPO features have been added to the product."

"Lacking ability to leverage more iOS device management internally."

"Intune could add more Linux security features and more integration with on-prem devices. The application deployments can also be improved."

"We had an APNS certificate set to expire last week. We tried to renew it two days before it expired. We logged in to the APNS portal but could not find that certificate. We didn't know where it went. All the iOS devices stopped working. We contacted the Apple and Microsoft teams, and each blamed the other. This is something that Microsoft should take care of. Last week, we had so many escalations from high-profile users who couldn't access corporate data on their devices."

"The reporting part needs improvement, and it would be beneficial if it could integrate with third-party tools instead of just Power BI."

"China blocks Google and Google Play Store, which makes installation challenging. Microsoft Intune is a company software, which has to be installed to the app portal or Microsoft Software Center."

More Microsoft Intune cons

"Chef could get better by being more widely available, adapting to different needs, and providing better documentation."

"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."

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

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

"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."

"Support and pricing for Chef could be improved."

"Vertical scalability is still good but the horizontal, adding more technologies, platforms, tools, integrations, Chef should take a look into that."

"It is an old technology."

More Chef cons

"It can be complex and difficult for users who are new to Linux and don't have any technical expertise."

"The initial setup of SUSE Manager is quite complex."

"From an integration perspective, it is difficult to integrate with Jira or any ticketing tool, which is challenging."

"We sometimes have server issues and need to restart the service."

"I really would like to have a broader library of VCP's or playbooks that I can deploy."

"The initial stage is a bit complex, but after that, everything runs seamlessly."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is reasonable. When you have Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 license, it is already licensed in that license. So, you could say it is free."

"Microsoft Intune has a user-based subscription model. You can go for a monthly or a yearly payment."

"The pricing is competitive, but it is not cheap."

"Every customer used to purchase licenses based on their needs."

"The price for Intune is fair."

"On a scale of one to ten with one being the cheapest, the cost of Microsoft Intune is a five."

"I have no comment on pricing of the solution."

"The licensing costs we leave up to the customer and these vary from one to another."

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

"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."

"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 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."

"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."

"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."

More Chef pricing and cost advice

Information not available

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Configuration Management solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

15%

University

Retailer

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Energy/Utilities Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?

Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes ...

See all answers

What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of...

See all answers

How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also ...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about SUSE Manager?

SUSE Manager helps to optimize operations at a reduced cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SUSE Manager?

From an integration perspective, it is difficult to integrate with Jira or any ticketing tool, which is challenging. ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SUSE Manager?

My use cases include using SUSE Manager for patching the Linux operating system. I used to use SUSE Manager in my pre...

See all answers

Comparisons

Jamf Pro vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 11% of the time

Workspace ONE UEM vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 7% of the time

ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Intune Competitors

BigFix vs Chef

Compared 45% of the time

AWS Systems Manager vs Chef

Compared 13% of the time

VMware Aria Automation vs Chef

Compared 10% of the time

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs Chef

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs Chef

Compared 8% of the time

More Chef Competitors

Red Hat Satellite vs SUSE Manager

Compared 78% of the time

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs SUSE Manager

Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs SUSE Manager

Compared 4% of the time

More SUSE Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Intune

June 2025

Download Microsoft Intune product report

Buyer's Guide

Chef

June 2025

Download Chef product report

Buyer's Guide

Configuration Management

June 2025

Download SUSE Manager product report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

No data available

Overview

Microsoft Intune provides centralized management of mobile devices and applications, ensuring security, compliance, and productivity through integration with Microsoft services like Microsoft 365 and Azure Active Directory.

Organizations use Intune for managing mobile devices and applications, enhancing security and compliance across platforms. With features like single sign-on, conditional access, and zero-touch deployment via Autopilot, it facilitates efficient operations. Intune's scalability, easy enrollment, and capabilities such as remote wipe support diverse device management, offering robust data protection and efficient operation. Despite its features, improvement areas include reporting, compatibility with non-Microsoft devices, and better support for macOS and Linux devices.

What are the key features of Microsoft Intune?

Seamless Integration: Works with Microsoft 365, Azure Active Directory, and System Center for streamlined management.
Conditional Access: Enhances security with policies that restrict access based on conditions.
Autopilot: Provides zero-touch deployment for setting up new devices efficiently.
Mobile Device Management: Enables control over both personal and corporate devices.
Application Deployment: Facilitates app delivery across a range of devices.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Centralized Management: Reduces complexity by managing devices and applications in one place.
Security Enhancement: Protects data with features like remote wipe and compliance monitoring.
Improved Productivity: Enhances efficiency with seamless integration and automation features.
Device Scalability: Supports diverse device management for growing business needs.

In industries such as finance, healthcare, and education, Microsoft Intune is implemented to ensure secure and compliant device management. Companies leverage its capabilities to deploy security policies and manage both corporate-owned and BYOD environments, facilitating a unified approach to data protection and compliance.

Microsoft

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

SUSE Manager was designed to help your enterprise DevOps and IT Operations teams reduce complexity and regain control of your IT assets with a single tool to manage Linux systems across a variety of hardware architectures, hypervisors as well as container, IoT and cloud platforms. It automates Linux server and IoT device provisioning, patching and configuration for faster, consistent and repeatable server deployment helping to optimize operations and reduce costs. And with automated monitoring, tracking, auditing and reporting of your systems, VMs, and containers across your development, test and production environments, you can ensure compliance with internal security policies and external regulations.

SUSE

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway

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

Day & Zimmermann, Cisco, CEMEX, L.B. Foster, Adient, Istanbul Technical University, 7Pixel, University of Maine System, Guerbet

Buyer's Guide

Chef vs. SUSE Manager

June 2025

Free Report: Chef vs. SUSE Manager

Find out what your peers are saying about Chef vs. SUSE Manager and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Chef vs. SUSE Manager report.

See our list of best Configuration Management vendors.

We monitor all Configuration Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.