Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Cfengine VS Unleash

Compare Cfengine VS Unleash and see what are their differences

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Cfengine logo Cfengine

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

Unleash logo Unleash

Unleash is an open-source feature management platform. We are private, secure, and ready for the most complex setups out of the box.
  • Cfengine Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-12
  • Unleash Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-06-12

As a highly flexible feature management platform, Unleash is built to reduce the risk of releasing new features and accelerate software development.

Whether you’re a small team or a large enterprise, Unleash enables you to innovate faster and make data-driven decisions that enhance your user experience.

With market-leading data governance, robust change and access controls, SaaS or self-hosted deployment options, multi-region support, and the flexibility of open-source, you have the freedom to choose the setup that works best for you while maintaining full control over your data.

Cfengine

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

Unleash

$ Details
freemium $75.0 / Monthly ("Enterprise Pay-as-you-go", "5 users")
Platforms
Linux JavaScript Java .Net Go Elixir Python Ruby
Release Date
2019 January

Cfengine features and specs

  • 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 of Cfengine

  • 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.

Unleash features and specs

  • Flexibility
    Unleash provides a highly flexible feature management system that allows teams to enable or disable features without deploying new code. This is particularly useful for A/B testing, gradual rollouts, and quick feature toggles.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source platform, Unleash allows you to review the source code, contribute to improvements, and avoid vendor lock-in. This provides a greater degree of transparency and control.
  • Multiple Environment Support
    Unleash supports multiple environments (development, staging, production) out of the box, enabling seamless management of feature releases across different stages of software development and deployment.
  • Strong Community
    As an open-source project, Unleash boasts a strong community that contributes to its constant improvement and provides support through forums, documentation, and other channels.
  • Privacy and Security
    Unleash allows self-hosting, which can be a significant advantage for organizations concerned about data privacy and security. Self-hosting ensures that no feature flag data leaves your infrastructure.

Analysis of Cfengine

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

Analysis of Unleash

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Unleash is generally considered a good option for teams looking to implement feature management and flagging in their development workflow. It is praised for its flexibility, scalability, and ease of integration.

Why this product is good

  • Unleash is a feature management platform that offers robust feature flagging capabilities. It allows teams to ship features faster, reduce risk, and efficiently manage feature rollouts. With a focus on gradual releases, segmentation, A/B testing, and flexible SDKs, Unleash provides the tools needed for sophisticated feature management.

Recommended for

  • Development teams aiming for quick, controlled feature releases.
  • Organizations needing dynamic configuration management.
  • Software projects looking to implement A/B testing and custom targeting strategies.
  • Teams that prioritize open-source solutions and community support.

Cfengine videos

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

Unleash videos

Why Unleash? Why Now?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Cfengine and Unleash)
DevOps Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Product Deployment
100 100%
0% 0
Feature Flags
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Cfengine and Unleash

Cfengine Reviews

Best 8 Ansible Alternatives & equivalent in 2022
CFEngine is a DevOps tool for IT automation. It is an ideal tool for configuration management. It is one of the best Ansible competitors that helps teams to automate large-scale complex infrastructure.
Source: www.guru99.com
35+ Of The Best CI/CD Tools: Organized By Category
CFEngine is the most cut and dry configuration management software on this list. It was originally released in 1993 and has managed to keep up with software development trends. CFEngine features full CI/CD integration. You can automate infrastructure configurations and manage your patches. It also features compliance reporting and infrastructure hardening.

Unleash Reviews

The 8 best free and open-source feature flag services
BlogBackSign inBlogThe 8 best free and open-source feature flag servicesPosted byThe best open-source feature flag tools1. PostHogWhat is PostHog?Supported librariesHow much does it cost?2. UnleashWhat is Unleash?Supported SDKsHow much does it cost?3. GrowthBookWhat is GrowthBook?Supported SDKsHow much does it cost?4. FlagsmithWhat is Flagsmith?Supported SDKsHow much does it...
Source: posthog.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Cfengine might be a bit more popular than Unleash. We know about 5 links to it since March 2021 and only 4 links to Unleash. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Cfengine mentions (5)

Unleash mentions (4)

  • KILLSWITCH
    So my first instinct is to setup some sorta feature-flag thing within a CMS so managers can flip the boolean, I'm exploring getunleash.io and GrowthBook.io and we already use Contentful.com within the app but they're saying they "really don't think we need to use any third party thing for a killswitch"... Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Need your opinion
    We are an Open Source Feature Flagging solution called Unleash, and we are looking to get some feedback from the community on a decision we are trying to make. We are considering offering our developers the option to either write technical content through a Community Content Program for us for a $200 fee, or to donate that amount to charity. Source: over 2 years ago
  • How we use analytics as a privacy focused OSS company
    TLDR: Privacy is really important for us at Unleash. Here you will find the full story on how we ended up with an analytics solution that does not collect personal data and has very short retention. Whenever we evaluate a new feature at Unleash, we always start with one question. How does this fit with our values? This question is powerful. It can quickly qualify or disqualify a feature from consideration, putting... - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • Best A/B testing, experimentation platform for Mobile
    Have seen Unleash used: getunleash.io and people seemed happy with it. Source: almost 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

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

Ansible - Radically simple configuration-management, application deployment, task-execution, and multi-node orchestration engine

LaunchDarkly - LaunchDarkly is a powerful development tool which allows software developers to roll out updates and new features.

Rudder - Rudder is an easy to use, web-driven, role-based solution for Continuous Automation and Compliance.

Flagsmith - Flagsmith lets you manage feature flags and remote config across web, mobile and server side applications. Deliver true Continuous Integration. Get builds out faster. Control who has access to new features. We're Open Source.

Chef - Automation for all of your technology. Overcome the complexity and rapidly ship your infrastructure and apps anywhere with automation.

ConfigCat - ConfigCat is a developer-centric feature flag service with unlimited team size, awesome support, and a reasonable price tag.