Both Chef and Puppet offer robust open source versions that handle most basic configuration management needs. The open source Chef (Chef Infra) includes:

• Infrastructure automation capabilities
• Policy enforcement
• Workstation management
• Community-supported cookbooks

For Puppet, the open source version provides:

• Node management
• Resource abstraction
• Catalog compilation
• Basic reporting

With Chef's enterprise edition, you gain access to:

# Example of Chef enterprise-only feature: Policyfiles
name 'web_server'
default_source :supermarket
run_list 'nginx::default'
cookbook 'nginx', '~> 10.0.0'

Puppet Enterprise adds capabilities like:

# Example of Puppet enterprise-only feature: Node Manager
puppet node_manager {
  'web01.example.com':
    ensure => 'present',
    groups => ['production', 'web_servers']
}

Here's a basic Chef recipe you can use with the open source version:

package 'nginx' do
  action :install
end

service 'nginx' do
  action [:enable, :start]
end

And equivalent Puppet manifest:

package { 'nginx':
  ensure => installed,
}

service { 'nginx':
  ensure => running,
  enable => true,
}

The enterprise editions become valuable when you need:

• Centralized management console
• Compliance automation
• Enterprise support
• Advanced reporting
• Team collaboration features

For individual developers or small teams, the open source versions typically provide sufficient functionality for most configuration management tasks.

Both Chef and Puppet originated as open source configuration management tools. The core functionality remains free under open source licenses:

# Example Chef recipe (free/open source)
package 'nginx' do
  action :install
end

service 'nginx' do
  action [:enable, :start]
end

# Example Puppet manifest (free/open source)
package { 'nginx':
  ensure => installed,
}

service { 'nginx':
  ensure => running,
  enable => true,
}

The paid versions provide additional capabilities primarily useful for large enterprises:

Chef Enterprise Features

• Management console GUI
• Role-based access control (RBAC)
• Automated compliance scanning
• Premium support with SLA
• Enhanced reporting and analytics

Puppet Enterprise Features

• Node classification and management
• Orchestration services
• Code management and deployment
• Enterprise support
• Puppet Tasks for workflow automation

Consider the enterprise editions if you require:

# Example of enterprise-only Puppet code
puppet task run package::linux action=install name=nginx --nodes web1.example.com

For most individual developers and small teams, the open source versions provide complete functionality:

# Complete server setup with open source Chef
execute 'apt-update' do
  command 'apt-get update'
end

package 'apache2' do
  action :install
end

template '/var/www/html/index.html' do
  source 'index.html.erb'
  owner 'www-data'
  group 'www-data'
  mode '0644'
end

The core engines are identical in both versions. Enterprise tools mainly add management layers without performance improvements for the actual configuration execution.