Side by side

Azure Machine Configuration vs Salt

Both stand on configuration management tools. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.

Azure Machine Configuration

Free plan Web

Azure Machine Configuration centers on policy-based settings, drift detection, and compliance reporting. Check resource type and guest configuration assignments when estimating Arc costs.

Visit Azure Machine Configuration

Salt combines remote execution, configuration management, provisioning, and orchestration in a self-hosted framework. Its free Apache 2.0 plan and multiple operating modes suit a range of infrastructure setups.

Visit Salt

The facts

	Azure Machine Configuration	Salt
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Open source	Not published	Not published
Runs on	Web	API, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Windows
Lowest paid plan	See the plans	Free or on request
Plans published	2	1
Maker	Not published	Not published
Website	learn.microsoft.com	saltproject.io
On configuration management tools	#19 of 26	#15 of 26

Azure Machine Configuration: what it does well

Detects configuration drift.
Provides compliance reporting.
Azure resources use the service for free.
Supports multiple Linux distributions.

What to know first

Patch management is not included.
Arc resources cost $6 a month.
Arc billing depends on assigned guest configurations.

Salt: what it does well

Runs commands across thousands of systems in a single execution.
Supports master-minion, agentless, and stand-alone operation.
Orders infrastructure work by dependencies.
Provides REST and WebSocket network APIs.
Uses RSA authentication and encrypted master-minion communication.

What to know first

openSUSE support is reasonable-effort, with no package guarantee.
Salt is self-hosted.
Enterprise features are provided through SaltStack Config.

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