15 Best Infrastructure As Code Tools In 2024
Best Infrastructure As Code Tools Shortlist
Here are my top 12 Infrastructure as Code tools for different uses, evaluated on scalability, security, and other key features.
Our one-on-one guidance will help you find the perfect fit.
To streamline your infrastructure management, consider using Infrastructure as Code tools for benefits such as automated configuration, enforced consistency, decreased security risks, and increased productivity.
What Are Infrastructure As Code Tools?
Infrastructure as Code tools set up infrastructure resources such as networks and virtual machines through configuration files. This is in contrast to legacy methods, in which teams would manually set up physical servers and virtual machines and provision cloud computing.
By using code-based deployment of infrastructure, IaC enables automatic deployment instead of manual deployment, saving setup time. The use of code for the infrastructure layer also enables infrastructure versioning, akin to versioning in source code elsewhere.
Another major advantage of IaC is that it simplifies your network by enforcing consistency. This helps you avoid “snowflake” environments in which individual machines diverge into unique configurations over time. Because the IaC code runs the same way every time you execute it, you can remove system inconsistencies and keep every instance the same, which simplifies other tasks like troubleshooting and application deployment.
Best Infrastructure As Code Tools Summary
| Tools | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Chef | From $137/node/year (billed annually) | Website |
| Crossplane | Available for free | Website |
| Packer | From $0.007 per hour | Website |
| AWS CloudFormation | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Pulumi | $1 per 2,000 credits | Website |
| Azure Resource Manager | Customized price upon request | Website |
| Puppet | From $120/node/year (billed annually) | Website |
| Ansible | From $10,000/year (billed annually) | Website |
| Brainboard | From $99/user/month | Website |
| SaltStack | $120/node (unlimited masters) | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareBest Infrastructure As Code Tools Reviews
Here’s my take on the top 10 Infrastructure as Code tools, highlighting key features of each to help you easily select the right IaC solution for your IT environment and business goals.
For infrastructure management at scale, Chef offers tools and automations to stream configuration, monitoring, and deployment. Suitable for on-prem, cloud, or hybrid environments, Chef is a simple yet effective way for you to manage large, complex infrastructures.
Why I picked Chef: When I was evaluating this tool, I focused primarily on its ability to manage large environments, with an impressive suite of automations, testing tools, version control, and dependency management. Chef’s role-based access control helps you strengthen security. Additionally, I liked that it uses Ruby, which gives it a relatively simple learning curve.
Chef: Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include cross-platform support, so you can manage infrastructure resources using operating systems such as Windows and Linux. Chef uses Chef DSL (Domain-Specific Language), which provides more freedom in exactly how you want to manage your infrastructure.
Integrations include Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform. Other tools that integrate with Chef include CoreStack, Blackfire, Stormforge, Resolve, Cutover, and more.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Can automate the deployment process
- Able to deal with risks and security issues well
- Good at handling large infrastructures
Cons:
- Documentation can be unclear at times
- It may not be suitable for smaller environments and growing teams
Managing resources across multiple cloud providers is typically a complicated process, but Crossplane provides a simplified approach in unique fashion–by allowing you to customize your own control plane, tailored specifically to your needs.
Why I picked Crossplane: Crossplane struck me as an unique platform, with its control-plane-centered focus. This means you can optimize it for your own workflows and business needs. Crossplane manages infrastructure across almost any cloud service provider using the Kubernetes API, which makes integrations a snap. I’d recommend investigating this one for anyone taking a multi-cloud approach to your infrastructure.
Crossplane Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include orchestration for applications and infrastructure. Declarative configuration reduces the need for writing code and simplifies the process of infrastructure management. Role-based access controls provide security and customization.
Integrations include Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform. As Crossplane is a Kubernetes API, it integrates with any Kubernetes-compatible system–meaning nearly anything in the cloud-native ecosystem. Other integrations include GitHub, GitLab, Anthos, Rancher, Equinix, OpenShift, and Alibaba Cloud.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Has drift detection to maintain your infrastructure
- Developer-friendly
- Effective at managing infrastructure resources across multiple cloud providers
Cons:
- The number of integrations is lacking compared to other tools
- Community support might be lacking as it’s a newer tool
Packer isn’t like other Infrastructure as Code tools. It creates machine images, which then define your infrastructure. Packer allows you to develop tailor-made machine images for different environments, as it supports multiple builders.
Why I picked Packer: Packer stood out to me from other tools for its unique approach to rapid infrastructure deployment using machine images. Additionally, Packer is relatively easy to learn and start using. I chose Packer since it's quite flexible, as it allows you to configure the software and dependencies in your machine images.
Packer Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include parallel builds, so you can easily create nearly-identical images deployed in different environments. Packer’s template files to give you granular control over the build process. Additionally, the plug-in system allows you to add additional features via integrations.
Integrations include Amazon Web Service, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. Packer can integrate with Cisco, Datadog, RedHat, ServiceNow, GitHub, MongoDB, and Terraform. Image builder integrations include Docker and VMware.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Quick infrastructure deployment with machine images
- Multi-platform support
- Integrates with a variety of tools
Cons:
- Only a command-line interface is available
- No image management is available
AWS CloudFormation specializes in managing AWS infrastructure resources. It uses declarative formatting templates and stack management, which help with consistently managing your infrastructure.
Why I picked AWS CloudFormation: AWS CloudFormation stood out to me with its highly customizable templates. It makes the deployment and management processes much simpler by using JSON or YAML templates, so manual provisioning isn’t needed. I also liked how dependency and stack management further simplify infrastructure management processes.
AWS CloudFormation Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include support for various types of AWS resources. AWS cloud formation lets you preview how stack changes affect your resources, helping you make more informed decisions. Dependency management provides automatic management of dependencies between resources during stack management actions.
Integrations include Amazon EC2, Amazon RDS, Amazon S3, Amazon VPC, and others. Integration with AWS developer tools includes AWS CodePipeline and CodeDeploy.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Helps with infrastructure cost optimization
- Supports a lot of different AWS resource types
- Resource management becomes automated
Cons:
- It may not be ideal for managing resources across multiple cloud platforms
- Provides unclear error messages
Pulumi allows you to use the programming language you’re most familiar with since it supports a wide selection of languages. Pulumi is great for managing many aspects of infrastructure, such as resource provisioning and configuration management.
Why I picked Pulumi: Pulumi stood out to me because of its versatility of available programming languages. The option to use a familiar language reduces your learning curve and eases the transition from traditional software development to infrastructure provisioning. I was also impressed by the real-time preview feature, which lets you visualize the changes before applying them to your infrastructure.
Pulumi Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include support for programming languages such as JavaScript, Python, and Go. Building blocks and reusable architectures are available to speed deployment. The number of resource providers offered by Pulumi is also quite high.
Integrations include Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Kubernetes, and Amazon Web Services. It also integrates with various CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, and GitHub Actions. Additionally, there’s integration with automation tools like Ansible.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Manages infrastructure components such as Cloud resources, databases, serverless functions
- Provides a good experience for developers - interactive debugging
- Flexible choice for programming language
Cons:
- Smaller community and support structure compared to more established tools
- Lack of documentation in some areas
Azure Resource Manager manages all your Azure resources and services in one place. It routes input from multiple tools and requests through a single API, to deliver consistent management from a central control set. The ability to deploy and monitor assets collectively saves time versus manual individual resource management.
Why I picked Azure Resource Manager: If your infrastructure uses the Azure cloud environment, then this is the tool for you. Its template-based deployment caught my eye, as it makes provisioning infrastructure environments easier. I also liked the resource tagging feature it provides to track and monitor resources.
Azure Resource Manager Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include resource deployment, including templates with version control, making it easier to manage your resources. Tagging features assist with resource management, and dependency definition ensures resources are deployed in the correct order.
Integrations include various Azure services like Azure Storage, Azure Networking, and Azure App Service. There’s also the option for integration with Azure DevOps.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Multi-language support
- Integration with full suite of Azure services
- Great way to manage a range of Azure resources
Cons:
- Limited to Azure resources
- Some aspects are complex to learn
Puppet was specifically designed for automating complex infrastructures. Combined with its range of integrations and cross-platform support, Puppet is great for larger teams that need a powerful tool to deal with their vast collection of assets and interdependencies.
Why I picked Puppet: I was drawn to how Puppet uses its own declarative language to simplify complex infrastructure management. It can manage large-scale infrastructures with its optimized communication protocols. I found that the wealth of automation tools helped speed deployment securely and at scale.
Puppet Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include idempotency, which means you can run the same configuration multiple times without worrying about negative effects on the entire system. Puppet has cross-platform support, including Windows and Linux, making it good for managing infrastructure across various platforms.
include Amazon Web Service, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. Puppet also supports integration with Satellite, VMware, F5, and others. Integration with version control tools like Git is also an option.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Cross-platform support
- Supports integration with a lot of tools
- Great for automating infrastructures with large environments
Cons:
- It can be difficult to set up initially
- Puppet may not be suitable for growing teams and infrastructures
Automation is the one word that sums up Ansible. It’s the tool to look at if you want to use a single control surface to manage complex infrastructure and streamline workflows, with automations for common functions like system configuration and software deployment.
Why I picked Ansible: I think Ansible shines because of its orchestration capabilities, which help you manage workflows that would be complicated otherwise. Moreover, I was impressed with how Ansible allows you to automate the deployment of applications across multiple servers.
Ansible Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include infrastructure automation for hybrid cloud, edge, and network servers. It also provides security automation to protect your infrastructure from potential threats. Ansible’s agentless architecture means it doesn’t require software on target systems, which makes the management process easier.
Integrations include Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform. Other integrations include Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins, GitLab, Jenkins, AppDynamics, and many more.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Great for businesses of all sizes wanting to scale
- Can automate many aspects of infrastructure
- Simple to use
Cons:
- Advanced features can be difficult to get used to
- Changes don’t take effect in real-time
Brainboard is a cloud infrastructure builder, but with a twist: It has a visual and interactive dashboard to reduce the need for using code to build your infrastructure. Brainboard can help your team visualize workflows and tools, to more easily collaborate when building your infrastructure.
Why I picked Brainboard: Brainboard is a unique tool that caught my eye and stood out from the others. It simplifies the process of building infrastructure with a visual builder to work with the underlying Terraform code. If you want to reduce learning curve and enable collaboration, Brainbord can help enable a low-code approach for your team members.
Brainboard Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include pre-made templates for popular cloud service providers such as Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. Moreover, Brainboard allows you to import code and generate Terraform code.
Integrations include Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform. Brainboard integrates with GitHub, GitLab, Docker, Azure DevOps, Bitbucket, Hashicorp Vault, and others.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Great tool for teams who want to focus on collaboration
- Can convert projects into reusable templates for future use
- Simplifies the cloud infrastructure design process
Cons:
- Newer tool - community support is more limited
- Only able to generate Terraform code
Saltstack focuses on automation to speed the infrastructure management process. Its Python API makes it a user-friendly tool. If you’re looking to start automating your infrastructure quickly, Saltstack could be the tool for you.
Why I picked SaltStack: I particularly liked that Saltstack is language agnostic, so you can use familiar languages. SaltStack is a newer tool but relatively user-friendly, with detailed documentation available. It simplifies the infrastructure management process with features such as remote execution.
Saltstack Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include remote management, which allows Saltstack to execute multiple commands in seconds. Saltstack also has fault tolerance, which means the system can keep running even in the case of an error.
Integrations include Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. Other integrations include Jenkins, Digital Ocean, ServiceNow, HelixSwarm, Tenable, Docker, and more.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Ensures data is secure with an encrypted protocol
- Simple programming interface with Python API.
- Highly flexible for managing infrastructure
Cons:
- Fewer Integrations compared to other tools
- Limited operating system choices
Other Options
I came across a couple of other highly beneficial Infrastructure as Code tools that are worth having a look at, even if they didn’t make the cut for the top 10 list:
Selection Criteria For Infrastructure as Code Tools
Here’s are the selection and evaluation criteria I used to narrow down my selections for best Infrastructure as Code tools:
Core Functionality
I started by looking at Infrastructure as Code tools that had core functionalities like:
- Automating infrastructure deployment, configuration, and management tasks
- Scaling your infrastructure resources up or down
- Granular control of infrastructure configurations
- Consistent results in delivering the desired environment
Key Features
Here are a few other necessary features needed to deliver the core functionalities listed above:
- Declarative syntax: This allows you to define infrastructure resources as code in a structured way, based on the endpoints you wish to reach. This increases readability and reduces human error.
- Version control: Infrastructure commonly goes through a lot of changes over time. Version control allows you to track your changes and even revert to a previous version if needed.
- Multi-cloud management: This feature allows you to use the Infrastructure as Code tools to manage multiple cloud providers, increasing flexibility and scalability.
Cost
I chose the best value-for-money tools to ensure you’re getting a good return on your investment. Some tools provide a free and enterprise edition, with the enterprise edition providing numerous features that aren’t available in the free version. Other tools have a pay-as-you-go model, where you only pay for the resources you use.
Scalability
I’ve looked for tools that scale with your infrastructure. I took note of which tools are better at scaling up with multiple cloud providers, and which are more specialized for scaling with a particular resource type.
Security
For this criteria, I’ve looked for features such as granular access controls to help reduce the number of unauthorized actions, as well as the ability to enforce any relevant compliance and security settings at the infrastructure level.
Integration
Infrastructure as Code tools require an API to integrate other external systems, enabling you to create more holistic workflows and processes. Because IaC tools are used in a cloud-native ecosystem, they should engage well with all of your existing and future platforms.
People Also Ask
Here are answers to commonly asked questions about Infrastructure as Code tools:
What is the most commonly used Infrastructure as Code tool?
Terraform is the most popular Infrastructure as Code tool for many reasons. One is multi-cloud support, meaning you can manage infrastructure resources across multiple cloud providers such as Google and Azure.
Terraform is highly effective for managing your network infrastructure and automating the creation of cloud infrastructure. Even if you’re working with a massive infrastructure environment, Terraform works well for managing many resources at once.
What are the three main categories in Infrastructure as Code tools?
There are three main categories of Infrastructure as Code tools based on the phases of the deployment process.
Configuration management includes tools for managing software and applications that run on provisioned infrastructure resources.
Infrastructure provisioning is another category, which includes tools that automate the process of provisioning infrastructure resources. These tools allow you to define infrastructure resources as code.
The last category is application deployment. These tools can deploy and manage applications on provisioned infrastructure. These help with deploying applications as code, making scalability more manageable.
What languages do Infrastructure as Code tools use?
There’s a whole range of languages used in Infrastructure as Code tools. Each tool uses different languages, depending on the specialty it’s designed for. For example, HashiCorp developed HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL), which they use in Terraform.
JSON and YAML are often used to help automate infrastructure management. Some more general examples include Python and Ruby.
Finding The Right Tool
Infrastructure as Code tools have changed how teams run their infrastructure, but that doesn’t make it easy to choose the right one. A large enterprise might find more value in the robust offerings of an established provider, while a budget-strapped startup may prefer to look at free, open-source options. Consider each tool listed in this article, and decide which best suits your needs based on their strengths. There are plenty of great IaC options on the market, and I hope this list helps you narrow down your choices.
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