Chef Software
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2008
- HeadquartersSeattle, United States
- Headcount251–500
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Chef Software does
Chef Software (Progress Chef) is a Seattle-based infrastructure automation vendor founded in 2008 and acquired by Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS) in 2021, where it now operates as a product line within the parent's application-development and digital-experience portfolio. The company builds a Policy-as-Code and Infrastructure-as-Code platform centered on the Chef 360 Platform, which unifies Chef Infra (configuration management), Chef Automate (operational dashboarding), Chef InSpec (compliance-as-code), Chef Habitat (application packaging), Chef Courier (job orchestration), Chef Node/Edge Management, Chef Desktop, and the AIOps-powered Chef Opsmith capability on a single control plane. The platform supports Linux, Windows, macOS, and hybrid/multi-cloud environments, with native integrations into AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, ServiceNow, Jenkins, Slack, and major patch-management systems.
Chef generates revenue primarily through annual subscription licenses for the Chef 360 platform and associated components, complemented by a managed SaaS deployment option (Chef 360 SaaS / Chef SaaS), professional services and training, and cloud-marketplace distribution through AWS and Azure. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed, with a free-trial funnel for evaluation. GTM is hybrid: enterprise field sales targeting large organizations (with named customers including Meta, IBM, iManage, Walmart, Barclays, and Ford) paired with self-serve SaaS for mid-market and a partner channel via Progress Software's reseller and SI network. The Chef Supermarket community (4,070+ cookbooks, 80,934+ members), granted patents across Infra, InSpec, Habitat, and compliance/remediation, and a global operating footprint across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific anchor the company's competitive position in the broader deployment-automation market, which is projected to reach $15.8B by 2033 at an 18.5% CAGR.
Chef Software firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Chef Software
- Legal name
- Progress Software Corporation and/or its subsidiaries or affiliates
- Website
- https://chef.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2008
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 251–500 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Chef Software industry classification
Industry- Product category
- DevOps Automation Software
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (513210), Software Publishers (5132)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Developer Tools & DevOps Platform Services (CI/CD, Artifacts, IaC) (HDABAAAI)
Keywords
Where Chef Software is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Seattle
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Chef Software business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Enterprise Subscription Licenses: Chef generates revenue through commercial software subscriptions for enterprise customers requiring Chef Automate, advanced support, and compliance features. Subscriptions include license keys for Chef Infra Client, Chef Automate, and access to the Chef 360 platform with tiered support levels.
- SaaS Deployment Fees: Cloud-based deployment option where customers pay for Chef products delivered as SaaS, eliminating on-premises infrastructure requirements and including automatic upgrades and centralized governance.
- Professional Services and Training: Offerings include instructor-led training, certification programs, self-paced learning paths, and professional services for implementation and customization.
- Marketplace/Cloud Provider Licensing: Chef products available through AWS and Azure marketplaces, enabling customers to deploy using cloud provider billing and procurement systems.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise subscription with full platform access including Chef 360, Chef Automate, support, and compliance features |
| Subscription | Monthly | SaaS deployment option with managed cloud infrastructure and automatic upgrades |
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Free trial for evaluation of Chef capabilities |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels9 records
Chef Software product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Chef Software provides a unified DevOps automation platform (Chef 360 Platform) that combines infrastructure configuration management, compliance-as-code, job orchestration, and node management on a single control plane. Its core products — Chef Infra, Chef InSpec, Chef Habitat, Chef Automate, and the AIOps-powered Chef Opsmith — enable enterprises to enforce desired state configurations, run continuous compliance audits (CIS, DISA STIG), and orchestrate operational workflows across hybrid, multi-cloud, on-prem, and edge environments.
Product overview
Chef Software (Progress Chef) offers a unified DevOps automation platform called Chef 360 Platform that combines infrastructure configuration management, compliance automation, job orchestration, and node management. The core products include Chef Infra (configuration management), Chef Automate (enterprise dashboard/analytics), Chef InSpec (compliance as code), Chef Habitat (application packaging), and Chef Workstation (local development tools). Additional modules include Chef Desktop (endpoint management), Chef Courier (job orchestration), Chef Opsmith (AIOps capability), Chef Compliance, Chef Cloud Security, and Chef Edge Management. Chef products are available as SaaS deployment, self-managed on-premises, or via cloud marketplaces (AWS, Azure). The platform supports hybrid infrastructure, CI/CD integration, and follows Policy-as-Code principles.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Chef 360 Platform: Unified platform that unifies infrastructure, compliance, orchestration and more on one single platform.
- Chef Infra
- Chef InSpec
- Chef Habitat
- Chef Automate
- Chef Workstation
- Chef SaaS
- Chef Courier
- Chef Desktop
- Chef Opsmith
Products and services
- Chef 360 Platform Unified enterprise platform that combines infrastructure management, compliance automation, job orchestration, and node management on a single control plane for DevOps automation across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
Quantifiable outcome
- 45% reduced annual storage costs
- +8 more outcomes
Companies that use Chef Software
Customer profileNamed customers7 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Chef Software technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration8 records
AI capability6 records
Feature6 records
Chef Software partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.
- AWScoreChef has partnered with AWS to provide seamless integration with AWS services and marketplace availability. AWS OpsWorks users are being migrated to Chef SaaS with support from the Chef team to ensure disruption-free transition. Chef products are available in AWS Marketplace for easy procurement.
- Microsoft AzurecoreChef provides native integration with Microsoft Azure cloud environments. Chef SaaS integrates within .Net and Azure environments for VM configuration to CIS security standards. Azure Marketplace listing enables customers to procure Chef products through Azure billing.
- Google CloudcoreChef supports Google Cloud Platform as part of its multi-cloud strategy, enabling customers to manage infrastructure and configurations across Google Cloud environments.
- Progress Software CorporationflagshipChef is a product line of Progress Software Corporation, the leading provider of application development and digital experience technologies. Progress provides corporate backing, R&D investment, and go-to-market infrastructure for Chef products.
Scale indicators12 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Chef Software competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Microsoft Azure Automation: Azure Automation provides native configuration management, update management, and process automation for Azure customers, competing with Chef SaaS for Azure-focused enterprise workloads and offering simpler procurement via Azure billing.
- AWS Systems Manager: AWS Systems Manager is a broad incumbent offering configuration, patching, and compliance automation natively within the AWS ecosystem, overlapping with Chef's node management and patch management capabilities for AWS-centric customers.
Direct peers
- Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform: Ansible is Chef's most direct competitor in agent-based configuration management and IT automation, sharing the same target persona of sysadmins, DevOps engineers, and SREs managing large server fleets across hybrid environments.
- HashiCorp (Terraform): HashiCorp's Terraform is the most widely adopted Infrastructure-as-Code platform, competing head-to-head with Chef Infra for declarative infrastructure provisioning across multi-cloud environments. Both target DevOps and platform engineering teams with policy-driven automation.
- CFEngine: CFEngine is one of the original configuration management engines and a direct peer to Chef Infra in policy-based infrastructure automation, with comparable enterprise compliance use cases.
- SaltStack (VMware/Broadcom): SaltStack offers event-driven automation and configuration management that competes directly with Chef Infra, particularly for large-scale data center and cloud orchestration use cases.
- Puppet: Puppet is a longstanding direct rival to Chef Infra in declarative configuration management for servers and compliance automation, with similar policy-as-code positioning and enterprise customer base.
Emerging players
- Pulumi: Pulumi is an emerging IaC platform using general-purpose programming languages, competing with Chef for infrastructure automation workloads with a developer-first orientation; smaller scale than Chef but rapidly growing mindshare.
- Octopus Deploy: Octopus Deploy focuses on deployment automation and release management that complements CI/CD pipelines, overlapping with Chef Courier's job orchestration capabilities for enterprise release workflows.
Others
- Progress Chef parent brand Progress Software: Progress Software is the parent company that acquired Chef; it provides corporate GTM, R&D, and cross-sell infrastructure that is ecosystem-relevant but not a direct product competitor.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Chef Software social profiles
Digital presenceChef Software financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Chef Software leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Chef Software funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds5 records
Investors10 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Chef Software M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A2 records
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Chef Software
What does Chef Software do?
Chef Software provides a unified DevOps automation platform (Chef 360 Platform) that combines infrastructure configuration management, compliance-as-code, job orchestration, and node management on a single control plane. Its core products — Chef Infra, Chef InSpec, Chef Habitat, Chef Automate, and the AIOps-powered Chef Opsmith — enable enterprises to enforce desired state configurations, run continuous compliance audits (CIS, DISA STIG), and orchestrate operational workflows across hybrid, multi-cloud, on-prem, and edge environments.
Is Chef Software a public or private company?
Chef Software is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was Chef Software founded?
Chef Software was founded in 2008. It employs 251 to 500 people.
Where is Chef Software based?
Chef Software is headquartered in Seattle, United States, in the North America region.
How does Chef Software make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Enterprise Subscription Licenses are the primary driver. The others are saaS Deployment Fees, professional Services and Training and marketplace/Cloud Provider Licensing.
Who are Chef Software's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Microsoft Azure Automation and AWS Systems Manager. Direct peers are Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, HashiCorp (Terraform), CFEngine, SaltStack (VMware/Broadcom) and Puppet. Emerging players are Pulumi and Octopus Deploy. Progress Chef parent brand Progress Software is listed as an others.
Does Chef Software have an API?
Yes. Chef provides REST APIs through Chef Automate for data aggregation, node management, and enterprise automation. The Chef Automate API enables programmatic access to infrastructure data, compliance reports, and system configuration state. Additionally, Chef Infra Server exposes API endpoints for cookbook management, node bootstrapping, and policy distribution. Chef also provides a Commercial Download API and Community API for license and package distribution. Chef Supermarket has its own API for cookbook sharing. Developer documentation is at docs.chef.io/automate/api.
What industry is Chef Software in?
Chef Software's product category is DevOps Automation Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDABAAAI, Developer Tools & DevOps Platform Services (CI/CD, Artifacts, IaC). Its NAICS code is 513210 and its SIC code is 7372.