Chef vs VMware Tanzu Platform comparison

Progress Software and VMware are both solutions in the Build Automation category. Progress Software is ranked #20 with an average rating of 7.0, while VMware is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.5. Progress Software holds a 0.5% mindshare in BA, compared to VMware’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Progress Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Chef

Read 19 Chef reviews

277 Views
154 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

VMware Tanzu Platform

Read 22 VMware Tanzu Platform reviews

334 Views
236 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Chef

VMware Tanzu Platform

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

Chef and VMware Tanzu Platform are competing in infrastructure management and application modernization. VMware Tanzu Platform tends to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive features, favoring scalability and innovation.

Features: Chef offers robust configuration management, automation for infrastructure scripting, and easy integration with CI processes. VMware Tanzu Platform includes application lifecycle management, cloud-native infrastructure capabilities, and supports microservices architectures.

Room for Improvement: Chef could improve in deployment processes, rollback mechanisms, and providing a GUI for less technical users. VMware Tanzu Platform needs to simplify its deployment process, enhance initial setup efficiency, and broaden support for legacy applications.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Chef is known for its straightforward setup and strong customer support, facilitating integration in existing environments. VMware Tanzu Platform, despite its complex deployment due to extensive capabilities, provides robust resources and support to ensure successful implementation.

Pricing and ROI: Chef is recognized for competitive pricing and favorable ROI due to efficient infrastructure management. VMware Tanzu Platform, with a higher initial cost, offers extensive capabilities that justify the investment for improved modern development frameworks and deployment efficiencies.

To learn more, read our detailed Chef vs. VMware Tanzu Platform Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Chef vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

June 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 (12th), Configuration Management (18th)

VMware Tanzu Platform

Ranking in Build Automation

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

PaaS Clouds (13th), Cloud Management (25th), Development Platforms (3rd), Container Management (3rd), Service Mesh (7th), Agile and DevOps Services (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of Chef is 0.5%, down from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Tanzu Platform is 0.9%, down from 1.1% 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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DarshanChaudhari

Solutions Architect Hybrid Cloud Practice US/Europe at Tech Mahindra Limited

Empowers seamless connectivity and integration through APIs while offering robust auto-scaling

I am involved in IT services and we provide a solution to customers. We work with VMware, Nutanix, OpenShift, and Microsoft Hyper-V The Tanzu platform is highly available, scalable, and flexible. It offers native services for autoscaling and integrations through APIs, allowing seamless…

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

"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."

"It has been very easy to tie it into our build and deploy automation for production release work, etc. All the Chef pieces more or less run themselves."

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

"The product is useful for automating processes."

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

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

More Chef pros

"VMware Tanzu Mission Control has many valuable features, such as ease of use and customization."

"The Day 2 operations support is the most vital feature"

"The observability platform and end-to-end service portal provided by Tanzu are the most valuable features."

"We never experienced any problems with scalability."

"The initial setup is easy."

"The valuable feature I have found to be the management of Kubernetes clusters in a private cloud or public clouds, such as Azure or Google Cloud Platform."

"Tanzu is easy to upgrade and scale, whether we're talking about horizontal or vertical scaling. It is as smooth as possible without any downtime. The platform maintenance, upgrading, and operations part is very smooth."

"I have multiple Kubernetes environments within my environment. TMC gives me a single pane view, which is good for managing everything."

More VMware Tanzu Platform pros

Cons

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

"The solution could improve in managing role-based access. This would be helpful."

"The agent on the server sometimes acts finicky."

"It is an old technology."

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

"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."

"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."

More Chef cons

"One potential area for expansion would be leveraging AI capabilities, which my customer might be interested in exploring as they grow."

"The solution is currently focused on VMware infrastructure and I would like to see more options made available."

"VMware Tanzu Service Mesh could add better integration with other cloud platforms, such as vRealize Automation or VMware vCloud Director for cloud providers."

"Cost is always a concern. Smaller companies might find the price a bigger issue."

"We want to see a new feature that helps build more security architecture like Zero Trust Security or shifting left in Kubernetes."

"Having a unified dashboard to manage all infrastructure, whether it involves additional IT infrastructure or modern apps, would be highly advantageous"

"Tanzu could provide more granular control over whatever networking is being done on the containers. I would also like to see a slightly more detailed view of application-level tracing. I'm referring to the connections between different microservices. If they added a service-matching feature, that would be helpful for the customers to build or be more effective."

"Customers have noticed a considerable price increase after VMware's acquisition by Broadcom."

More VMware Tanzu Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

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

"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."

"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."

"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 least expensive licensing cost for VMware is around $350 per core."

"There are different licenses available. You have to upgrade your license if you want to scale the solution more."

"The price of VMware Tanzu Mission Control is greater than that of Red Hat's competitor solution"

"VMware Tanzu Mission Control is cheaper than Red Hat OpenShift."

"The product is not expensive, but it is not cheap."

"I would recommend that businesses look into the full price for their requirements. The price is high, but there are some open-source add-ons that can be used for customization while keeping costs down, although these might not be suitable for everyone."

"Its pricing is very competitive. We get around 70% or 75%, sometimes even 80%, discount on the product. I would rate it a four out of five in terms of pricing."

"Since we were at a large data center, the price might not have been a concern for us."

More VMware Tanzu Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

15%

University

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

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

Which is better - OpenShift Container Platform or VMware Tanzu Mission Control?

Red Hat Openshift is ideal for organizations using microservices and cloud environments. I like that the platform is auto-scalable, which saves overhead time for developers. I think Openshift can b...

See all answers

What do you like most about VMware Tanzu Mission Control?

It definitely gives the end customer a good overview and perspective of running applications in terms of overall workload footprint. TMC provides a very detailed description of your cloud-native ap...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Tanzu Mission Control?

The price of VMware Tanzu Mission Control is greater than that of Red Hat's competitor solution. I would rate the pricing of VMware Tanzu Mission Control as four out of ten.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 45% of the time

AWS Systems Manager vs Chef

Compared 15% of the time

VMware Aria Automation vs Chef

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs Chef

Compared 10% of the time

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs Chef

Compared 10% of the time

More Chef Competitors

Rancher Labs vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 16% of the time

Kubernetes vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 14% of the time

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 10% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 8% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 8% of the time

More VMware Tanzu Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Chef

June 2025

Download Chef product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Tanzu Platform

May 2025

Download VMware Tanzu Platform product report

Also Known As

No data available

Tanzu Application Catalog, Application Platform, Application Service, Hub, Mission Control, Service Mesh, Build Service, Concourse for VMware Tanzu

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

VMware Tanzu Platform is designed for cloud-native development and management of Kubernetes, CI/CD processes, microservices, and containerized workloads. It supports deployments both on cloud and on-premises, providing centralized management via Mission Control.

VMware Tanzu Platform offers seamless integration with vSphere, ESX, and vSAN, supporting centralized cluster management and lifecycle management. The platform provides a GUI for monitoring CI/CD pipelines and network policies, enhancing multi-tenancy and Day 2 operations. Users can easily manage Kubernetes clusters, monitor applications, and integrate with tools such as GitHub, GitLab, Cloud Foundry, and Azure. It ensures compliance and security for service providers, financial institutions, and businesses.

What are the key features of VMware Tanzu Platform?

Integration with vSphere, ESX, and vSAN: Enhances compatibility and flexibility.
Seamless Cluster Management: Centralized control over Kubernetes clusters.
CI/CD Pipelines and Network Policies: Simplifies monitoring and management.
Multi-tenancy Support: Facilitates resource sharing among multiple users.
Comprehensive Lifecycle Management: Streamlines deployment and scalability.
Observability Platform: Provides enhanced visibility and control.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in VMware Tanzu Platform reviews?

Centralized Management: Simplifies operations and reduces manual effort.
Enhanced Compliance and Security: Meets regulatory requirements.
Flexibility in Deployment: Supports both cloud and on-premises options.
Seamless Integration: Works with multiple vendors and tools.
Developer-Friendly Environment: Improves productivity and innovation.

Industries such as financial institutions, service providers, and businesses requiring rigorous compliance and security deploy VMware Tanzu Platform. These entities benefit from centralized management, streamlined DevOps processes, and integrated tools, enhancing their capabilities in cloud-native developments and containerized workloads.

VMware

Sample Customers

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

Verizon, Cerner, Zipcar, Avarteq

Buyer's Guide

Chef vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

June 2025

Free Report: Chef vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

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