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Atera VS Cfengine

Compare Atera VS Cfengine and see what are their differences

Atera

Atera is reinventing the world of IT by harnessing AI to power our all-in-one Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM), Helpdesk, Ticketing, and automations platform—streamlining organizational IT management at scale with our proprietary Action AI™.

Atera Action AI™
Rating
5.0 · 1 review
Pricing
Paid Free trial
Alternatives Is it good?
Cfengine

CFEngine is a configuration management and automation framework that lets you securely manage your...

Cfengine Landing page
Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Open source
Alternatives Is it good?
SpinUp
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Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Which is more popular?

Cfengine might be a bit more popular than Atera. We know about 5 links to it since March 2021 and only 5 links to Atera.

social mentions
5 vs 5
Monitoring Tools popularity
94% vs 6%
alternatives listed
240+ vs 155

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

Atera
Cfengine
Website atera.com cfengine.com
Pricing
Paid Free trial Official pricing
Open source
Platforms
Windows Mac OSX Linux
—
Company 2001 —
Listed in
Monitoring Tools Remote Monitoring And Management IT Management Patch Management MSP Remote Support IT Asset Management Help Desk Managed Service Provider +6
DevOps Tools Product Deployment IT Automation Build And Deployment Automation +1

About Atera and Cfengine

In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.

Atera
Cfengine

Built to streamline and scale operations, Atera empowers IT teams to efficiently manage and preemptively protect infrastructure, improve service delivery, and ensure organizational needs are met. Serving over 12,000 customers across 120 countries, Atera’s platform offers powerful tools including...

Read more about Atera

No description of Cfengine yet.

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

Atera 7 features
Cfengine 5 features
  • Remote Monitoring
  • Help desk
  • IT Asset Management
  • Network Monitoring
  • Remote Desktop Access
  • Remote Control
  • Patch Management
  • Scalability
    Cfengine is designed to handle large-scale environments efficiently, making it suitable for managing a vast number of systems.
  • Lightweight Agent
    It employs a lightweight agent that consumes minimal system resources, reducing the overhead on managed systems.
  • Security
    Cfengine has a strong focus on security, using encrypted communication between the nodes and server, ensuring integrity and confidentiality.
  • Model-based Configuration
    The tool uses a model-based approach for configuration management, which makes it easy to understand and predict the outcomes of applied policies.
  • Mature and Stable
    With a long history dating back to the 1990s, Cfengine is mature and known for its stability and reliability in production environments.

Possible disadvantages

  • Steeper Learning Curve
    The learning curve can be relatively steep for new users due to its unique policy language and declarative syntax.
  • Complex Debugging
    Debugging configurations might be complex due to intricate policies and a lack of straightforward error messages.
  • Limited Community Support
    Compared to other configuration management tools, Cfengine has a smaller community, which can limit access to third-party modules and assistance.
  • Less Extensible
    While powerful, Cfengine may not offer as much extensibility as some competitors, potentially limiting custom integrations.
  • UI and Usability
    The user interface and overall usability could be less intuitive compared to other modern configuration management tools.

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

Atera
Cfengine

Overall verdict

  • Atera is generally considered a good remote monitoring and management (RMM) tool for IT professionals and managed service providers (MSPs).

Why this product is good

  • Atera offers a comprehensive solution that combines RMM, Professional Services Automation (PSA), and remote access into a single platform. Users appreciate its intuitive interface, robust feature set, and scalability. Additionally, it provides real-time alerting, patch management, and remote control capabilities, which are essential for efficient IT management. Atera's pricing model is also attractive as it's based on a per-user basis, allowing unlimited devices, which can be cost-effective for many businesses.

Recommended for

    Atera is recommended for small to medium-sized MSPs, IT consultants, and internal IT departments that need an all-in-one solution for IT management. It is particularly beneficial for those who prefer a cloud-based platform and value the flexibility of a pay-per-user pricing structure.

Overall verdict

  • Cfengine is a good choice for organizations that require a stable, scalable, and efficient configuration management solution. Its long history and proven track record make it a reliable tool for managing diverse and complex IT environments. However, its learning curve can be steep, and it might not have as active a community or as many user-friendly features compared to some of its newer counterparts like Puppet or Ansible.

Why this product is good

  • Cfengine is a powerful configuration management tool that's been around for a long time, providing stability and maturity to its users. It excels in automating infrastructure management and is known for its scalability, efficiency, and security features. Its lightweight agent and fast execution make it suitable for managing a large number of nodes without a significant performance impact. Additionally, Cfengine has a policy-based approach which ensures that system configurations are enforced consistently, and its declarative language makes it easier to define desired system states.

Recommended for

  • Large enterprises managing thousands of servers
  • Organizations needing a lightweight and fast performance solution
  • IT teams with a focus on security and consistent policy enforcement
  • Users comfortable with a steeper learning curve in exchange for stability and scalability benefits

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

Atera 8 videos + Add
Cfengine 3 videos + Add

Enter a new era of AI-powered IT with Atera

More videos

  • Tutorial - Here's how to streamline your IT workflow - go to: Atera.com
  • Tutorial - Trapp - Atera Customer Stories
  • Tutorial - AI Explainer
  • Review - Atera Review 2024 - Best Remote Monitoring and Management Software (RMM)
  • Review - Atera Review - An in depth look at the PSA and RMM for MSPs
  • Review - Atera Review: The best all in one solution
  • Review - Atera Review: Atera, Dump the other options

Webinar: Presenting the new CFEngine Community 3.4.0

More videos

  • Review - WEBINAR - Infrastructure Automation with CFEngine at LinkedIn
  • Review - Webinar - Unveiling CFEngine Enterprise 3.0

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
Atera
Cfengine
94% 94%
Monitoring Tools
6% 6%
0% 0%
DevOps Tools
100% 100%
100% 100%
IT Management
0% 0%
0% 0%
Product Deployment
100% 100%

User comments

Share your experience with using Atera and Cfengine. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

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Reviews and articles

External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.

Atera 5.0 · 1 review
Cfengine no reviews yet
  • Great tool!
    SaaSHub review
    · Mar 2024

    Atera streamlines IT operations, making them more efficient and accessible. Whether you're a seasoned pro or new to IT, Atera's intuitive platform is a game-changer. Highly recommended for businesses looking to...

  • HWMonitor Review & Alternatives for 2023
    www.comparitech.com · Oct 2023

    The Atera system is a cloud-based service that includes server time and space for processing and storage, so the MSP that signs up for this package doesn’t need to have any major infrastructure on its own site. The...

  • 10 Best RMM Software | Remote Monitoring & Management Tools 2021
    www.softwaretestinghelp.com · Aug 2021

    Verdict: With its fixed pricing for unlimited devices, and its ease of use, Atera is truly the ultimate all-in-one software IT professionals need. Try 100% free for 30-days. It’s risk-free, no credit card required,...

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Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

Atera 5 mentions
Cfengine 5 mentions
  • Chat is a mess...
    Our 24x7 live chat support is the best way to troubleshoot this issue quickly. You can contact them out from our website (atera.com bottom right corner) or from within the app help widget. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Best HaloPSA alternatives?
    Check out atera.com and feel free to let me know if you have any questions! Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Atera ticketing issue
    If after the setup it's still not working, can you pls try to reach out to our support via the live chat channel ? You can contact them using the help icon the right bottom corner of our website, atera.com . Source: about 4 years ago

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  • German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice
    Your admin uses cfengine for example https://cfengine.com/. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Replacement for Chef?
    Another oldie but goodie is cfengine: https://cfengine.com/. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • What does everyone use for automating setting up a new VPS?
    I'm using rudder (https://www.rudder.io/), it's based on cfengine (https://cfengine.com/). But this is more enterprise ready, you'll be fine with lightweight ansible. Nice thing is, that rudder ensures compliance by periodically... Source: over 4 years ago

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Alternatives to Atera and Cfengine

When comparing Atera and Cfengine, you can also consider the following products.

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