Cloud & Infrastructure · head to head
Fly.io vs Chef
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Fly.io egress is priced by destination region, from $0.02 per GB in North America and Europe to $0.12 per GB for Africa and India, so the same traffic costs six times more depending on where users are; Chef priced per node per year, at $59 on Business and $189 on Enterprise, so cost scales with fleet size rather than with team size
- They diverge on capability: Fly.io covers Global deployment, Chef covers Recipes.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Fly.io and Chef actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cloud & Infrastructure).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Fly.io
- Global deployment
- Docker support
- Postgres databases
- Redis support
- Auto-scaling
- Health checks
- Backups
- Monitoring
Only in Chef
- Recipes
- Cookbooks
- Roles
- Data bags
- Attributes
- Chef Server
- Chef Infra
- Chef Compliance
Both cover
- Docker
- Cloud deployment
- Api support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Fly.io
- Deploying containerised applications close to users across regionsnot Chef
- Running full stack apps and databases on managed machinesnot Chef
Chef
- Configuration management and infrastructure automation across server fleetsnot Fly.io
- Enforcing compliance and audit policy on managed nodesnot Fly.io
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Fly.io
- Egress is priced by destination region, from $0.02 per GB in North America and Europe to $0.12 per GB for Africa and India, so the same traffic costs six times more depending on where users are
- Stopped machines still bill at $0.15 per GB of root filesystem a month, so a paused service is not a free one
- Volumes are billed on provisioned capacity rather than usage, at $0.15 per GB a month
- Reservation discounts of 40% require paying a year up front, from $36 to $1,440
- Fly Kubernetes is a separate $75 a month per cluster
- Dedicated IPv4 addresses are $2 a month each
Chef
- Priced per node per year, at $59 on Business and $189 on Enterprise, so cost scales with fleet size rather than with team size
- Tripling the price between the two published tiers puts compliance and audit features well above basic automation
- Enterprise Plus and every self managed deployment are custom quoted with no published price
Pricing, plan by plan
Fly.io
Free- FreeFree
- 3 shared-cpu-1x VMs
- 3GB persistence storage
- 160GB outbound data/month
- Pay-as-you-goFree
- Unlimited applications
- Dedicated machines
- Global deployment
Chef
Free- Open SourceFree
- Chef Infra
- Community support
- Full functionality
- Chef Automate$4000/year
- Chef Infra
- Compliance automation
- Insights
Which should you pick?
Choose Fly.io if
- You need global deployment.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api, Docker.
- You also want docker support.
Choose Chef if
- You need recipes.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, Windows, Mac, Api.
- You also want cookbooks.
Questions people ask
- Is Fly.io or Chef better?
- Neither clearly leads. Fly.io starts at Free and Chef at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Fly.io or Chef?
- Fly.io starts at Free and Chef at Free.
- Does Fly.io or Chef run on more platforms?
- Fly.io runs on Web, Api, Docker. Chef runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Api.
- Can I use Fly.io for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Fly.io best used for?
- Fly.io is most often used for deploying containerised applications close to users across regions, running full stack apps and databases on managed machines. Of those, deploying containerised applications close to users across regions and running full stack apps and databases on managed machines are not what Chef is typically brought in for.
- What can Fly.io do that Chef cannot?
- Fly.io covers Global deployment, Docker support, Postgres databases, Redis support. Chef covers Recipes, Cookbooks, Roles, Data bags. Both handle Docker, Cloud deployment, Api support.