SaltStack Review & Pricing 2025 | Configuration Management Guide

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🔄 Updated December 2025 Link to heading

Major Changes Since 2020:

VMware Acquisition & Salt Project Fork (2024):

  • VMware (now Broadcom) acquired SaltStack in 2020
  • Salt Project became the community-driven open-source fork in 2024
  • Commercial “VMware Aria Automation Config” (formerly SaltStack Enterprise) continues separately
  • Open-source community is now more active under Salt Project governance

Current State in 2025:

  • Open Source Version: Still actively maintained as “Salt Project” - 100% free
  • Enterprise (VMware Aria): Now bundled with VMware Cloud, pricing changed significantly
  • Ansible dominance: While Salt remains powerful, Ansible has captured more market share
  • Modern alternatives: Tools like Pulumi, Terraform, and cloud-native solutions competing

Why Consider SaltStack in 2025:

  • ✅ Still one of the fastest config management tools (ZeroMQ messaging)
  • ✅ Excellent for large-scale infrastructures (10,000+ servers)
  • ✅ Python-native fits modern DevOps stacks
  • ✅ Event-driven architecture for real-time orchestration
  • ⚠️ Smaller community than Ansible
  • ⚠️ Enterprise support now tied to VMware ecosystem

Summary: Link to heading

Saltstack i (2025 Update): Link to heading

Open Source (Salt Project):

VMware Aria Automation Config (Enterprise):

  • Pricing: Now bundled with VMware Cloud Foundation
  • Standalone pricing: Contact VMware sales (no longer published publicly)
  • Estimated: $200-300/node/year (based on VMware Aria suite pricing)
  • Note: VMware restructured pricing after Broadcom acquisition - many customers report significant price increases

For most use cases in 2025:

  • Small-to-medium deployments (< 500 servers): Consider Ansible (free, simpler learning curve)
  • Large-scale (1000+ servers): Salt Project open-source still excellent choice
  • Enterprise with VMware ecosystem: VMware Aria makes sense if already invested
  • Cloud-native: Consider Terraform + cloud provider tools (AWS Systems Manager, Azure Automation)
  • OnPremise open-source
  • SaltAPI via CherryPy for extended functionality and automation

Deployment: Link to heading

  • Set up a SaltMaster
  • Install Salt-Minions
  • Accept salt-minion keys on saltmaster

Usability: Link to heading

  • Written in Python
  • Write in YAML
  • Jinja2 templating

Maintainability: Link to heading

  • Easy updates via system package installers
  • Pretty easy to pick up and write states
  • Jinja2 templating provides for a lot of reusability

List Pricing: Link to heading

  • On-Premise open-sourcenja2 templating makes reading a breeze for developers that don’t use Saltstack day in and day out
  • Saltstack is a big supporter of the DevSecOps flow
  • Plenty of documentation
  • Saltstack formulas provide pre-written states that can be used to automate several tasks
  • Salt-minion requires resources when applying salt states, so it is entirely possible to run out of memory using something like a t2.micro – be careful
  • You need to be pretty explicit with Salt; example, if you want a file in directory /var/www/html/salt you need to actually create the directory first

2025 Recommendation: Link to heading

When to Choose SaltStack:

  • Managing 1000+ servers where speed matters
  • Python-heavy development team
  • Event-driven orchestration requirements
  • Already using open-source Salt successfully

When to Choose Alternatives:

  • Ansible: Simpler operations, smaller scale, agentless preferred
  • Terraform: Infrastructure provisioning (use with Salt for config management)
  • Cloud-native tools: AWS Systems Manager, Azure Automation for cloud-only environments
  • Puppet: Mature enterprise with existing Puppet investment

Migration Note: If currently on SaltStack Enterprise, evaluate VMware Aria pricing carefully. Many teams migrated to Ansible or cloud-native solutions in 2024-2025 due to VMware/Broadcom pricing changes.

Contact: Link to heading

Considerations: Link to heading

  • Great for Python-centric shops and Jijna2 templating makes reading a breeze for developers that don’t use Saltstack day in and day out
  • Saltstack is a big supporter of the DevSecOps flow
  • Plenty of documentation
  • Saltstack formulas provide pre-written states that can be used to automate several tasks
  • Salt-minion requires resources when applying salt states, so it is entirely possible to run out of memory using something like a t2.micro – be careful
  • You need to be pretty explicit with Salt; example, if you want a file in directory /var/www/html/salt you need to actually create the directory first

Contact: Link to heading