Puppet vs. Saltstack: Which is the Best Fit for You?
Both offer server configuration and automation — but how do they differ?
If you need to support your growing and changing organization with a tool that is built to scale — Puppet has what you need.
Puppet vs. Saltstack at-a-Glance
Puppet Enterprise was designed to use declarative language to manage desired state configurations. It works seamlessly across different environments (on premises, cloud, and hybrid cloud) to help automate, configure, manage, maintain compliance, and more. SaltStack, also known and referred to as Salt, was created as an imperative configuration tool. Once you tell SaltStack how to change the state of your infrastructure, it will execute on those instructions.
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Puppet
Progress Chef
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Language
Both declarative/desired state and procedural/task-based capabilities – tell Puppet what you want, and Puppet will figure out how to get there OR bring your own scripts in any language
Primarily desired state with limited ability to integrate existing scripting and tooling
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Architecture
Client/Server OR Agentless, Primarily Pull
Client/Server with ZeroMQ Event Bus Push. Limited Agentless capability.
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Interface
GUI in Puppet Enterprise with visibility to events & config details
Primarily command line, multiple unsupported open source GUIs, VMware Aria Config limited function GUI
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Setup
Built to scale with your automation needs
Complex setup requiring much manual configuration, including creation of separate state, identification, and remediation codes
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Community
A bustling dev community and thousands of modules on the Forge
Active, growing community but no external, centralized module repository
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Trial
Active, growing community but no external, centralized module repository
Hands-On Labs or 60 Day limited trial
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Scalability
Designed to scale for enterprise automation
Designed to scale
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Management
Puppet DSL and some YAML for all modules. Ruby might be needed to add some new functions
YAML and Jinja2 Templates, Python required for building new modules. Optional JSON, Mako, or Wempy
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Cloud Availability
AWS, Azure, GCP + more
AWS, Azure, GCP + more
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Communication
SSL or SSH/WinRM
SSL or SSH/WinRM
What Makes Puppet the Best Choice?
Easy to Get Started
With Puppet, you can be functional with YAML from the start — Salt starts with YAML and immediately requires another templating language.
Enhanced Visibility
Puppet offers visibility into changes made to an environment, offering insight that no other configuration management tool can match. The ability to ensure that a deployment will run smoothly is just one of the ways that Puppet differentiates itself from SaltStack
Built to Scale
Unlike the manual configuration required by Salt, Puppet is automatically built to scale with your growing and evolving automation needs in mind.
A Puppet Tool for Every Infrastructure Need
Puppet Core
The offering for Open Source Puppet users that need Security Compliance Enforcement, security hardened binaries and packages, and guaranteed SLAs for Puppet patches.
Puppet Enterprise
Drive efficiency at any scale with Puppet’s secure infrastructure automation and configuration platform.
Puppet Enterprise Advanced
The strength of Puppet Enterprise with Security Compliance Enforcement and Impact Analysis included.
Request a Demo to See Puppet in Action
If you’re evaluating infrastructure automation and configuration management tools like Puppet and Saltstack, you should absolutely do as much hands-on research as possible. That’s why we offer a free demo of Puppet products