Chef 360
Choose the Right Chef
for Your IT Infrastructure
Compare the benefits of Chef 360 vs Community Chef to make an informed decision for your IT infrastructure needs.
Discover the New Progress Chef Platform
Chef 360 and Community Chef Explained
Chef 360 is the commercial offering of the Progress® Chef® software suite. This version builds upon the core functionalities of open-source Chef, including advanced features, timely support and enhanced capabilities. It is designed to meet the needs of larger organizations and complex infrastructures.
Community Chef is the open-source, community version of the Chef software suite. The community edition of Chef is supported by active users on various platforms such as GitHub, Stack Overflow and other popular Chef community sites. However, a reasonably higher level of expertise is still needed to provision, install, configure and deploy a Chef server from scratch when using Community Chef.
What Changes Immediately?
With Chef 360, optimize every stage of your DevOps pipeline from configuration and compliance to collaboration, gaining success with scale.
Chef 360 Platform
Get DevOps Freedom with Enterprise Power
Features You Can’t Ignore
Get Future Ready with an Integrated Platform
Configure systems, promote compliance and deliver applications with the flexibility and scale to support complex DevOps workflows in a secure, enterprise-grade automation platform.
Scale with Agentless Automation
Chef enables SSH/WinRM-based execution across 80+ non-Windows resources that allow running Chef resources remotely without installing agents and monitor everything from a central workstation.
Fleet-wide Visibility with Node Management
Chef 360 provides centralized node management across hybrid environments, giving teams clear visibility into managed and unmanaged nodes, their state and role in production systems.
Run Even Ansible Playbooks with Chef Job Orchestration
Chef 360 provides controlled, auditable job execution across distributed infrastructure, orchestrating Chef workflows and even existing Ansible Playbooks from a single control plane.
Modernize Easily with AI Capabilities
Chef 360’s roadmap includes AI-driven cookbook modernization using Progress Agentic RAG for best-practice compliance and compatibility with newer client versions.
Intent-based AI-drive Automation
Transform human intent into validated, scalable automation workflows in minutes using the new and upcoming integrated AI-driven capability in the Chef 360 platform.
What Open-Source Alone Can’t Provide
Public Company Know-How for Continued Compliance
Chef 360 is reviewed regularly for its adherence to industry standards, such as SOC, PCI, DSS, ISO 90078 and more. Supporting documents are available in the Progress Security Center.
Faster Time to Value with a SaaS Solution
Chef SaaS is a cloud-based, fully managed version of the Chef 360 platform, ideal for infrastructure, compliance and cloud security automation for your entire IT estate.
24/7 Support & SLA-based Incident Responses
Customers have Service Level Agreements (SLAs) tied to incident response and security fixes, which include identification, notification, mitigation and resolution with 24/7 assistance.
Access to Chef Professional Services
With Chef 360, you can opt for Professional Services to receive solutions and services tailored to your unique needs.
Better Planning with Long-Term Support (LTS)
Plan upgrades confidently with extended maintenance, security patches, and predictable release cycles that will be exclusive to Chef 360.
Wide Platform and Integration Support
Chef 360 supports a wide range of environments and platforms ( 25+) and provides third-party integrations with premium tools.
Chef 360 vs Community Chef
| Capabilities | Chef 360 | Community Chef |
|---|---|---|
| Integrated and Secure Platform | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| Node Management | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| Job Orchestration | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| SaaS-based Solution | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| Supply Chain Integrity of Distribution and Service Level Objectives (SLOs) | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| Public Company Standards for Managing Customer Environment Security Risks and Incidents | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| SLA-based Priority Incident Response and Security Fixes on CVEs (Identification, Notification, Mitigation and Resolution) | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| Data Integrity and Cyber Resilience | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| Cyber Insurance and Indemnification | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| Progress Security Operation Center (SOC) support | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| Access to Chef Premium Content | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| 24/7 support from Chef | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| Professional Services | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| Priority Communications on Updates, Releases and New Features | Regular communications from all customer-facing teams | Communication with the community about new features and releases will not match the frequency for Chef 360 users |
| Access to Beta Releases | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| HA Deployment Option | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| Dashboard with Insights | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| OS Support | Higher number of platforms and OS supported (fit for enterprises with strict guidelines on platforms) | Supports only eight platforms (Not meant for large enterprises) |
| First-Party Integration with Progress Product Portfolio | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| Premium Integrations (ServiceNow et al.) | Included in Chef 360 | Not included in Community Chef |
| Future Capabilities | Included in Chef 360 | Limited visibility |
| Migration | Dedicated support for all customers | A community user can also migrate to the Chef 360 platform later |
Which Version of Chef Is Right for You?
Chef is built on the core of open-source software. However, like many other open-source products, the community version has limitations regarding features, security and service.
If you are an established enterprise or a growing company, scale matters and technical debt is a very real concern. The ROI of using Chef 360 is the preparation it gives you for the present and future.
For instance, security incidents can have a significant impact on your organization’s reputation and finances. Chef 360 offers significantly better support in addressing malicious attacks and inadvertent security breaches than the community version. Advanced features and exceptional support provide an edge that the community version cannot give. Choose Chef 360 for better support, enhanced visibility and advanced features.
We more readily get what we want out of a Chef-run than any of the other technologies that are out
Larry Herz Senior Site Reliability Manager, iManage
Buy on Marketplaces
Purchase Chef products on the top public cloud marketplaces.
- Leverage existing cloud budgets to access Chef products
- Faster procurement processes
- Easier deployment options
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