#6 of 28 infrastructure automation tools · Updated October 2026
Ansible review 2026
Ansible (ansible-core and the community package) · Dependable engine on a published calendar
Ansible ranks #6 of 28 infrastructure automation tools in the Infrastructure Automation Ledger 2026, with a Ledger Index of 60.4 out of 100. The open-source engine inside Ansible Automation Platform: agentless and broad through its collections, with no state file, control plane or AI of its own.
Scores
Source: Infrastructure Automation Ledger 2026, edition 2026-10-16. How each score works: methodology.
Pros
- Ecosystem and integrations4.5/5
- Provisioning breadth4/5
- Configuration management depth4/5
- Language and authoring4/5
Cons
- AI assistance0/5
- State, planning and safety2/5
- Orchestration and self-service2/5
What the Ledger says
Ansible is the most widely reached automation engine on this list, and the collections model means its breadth is now set by vendors and community teams as much as by Red Hat. The engine itself has changed slowly since 2020: the real movement is in collections and in the 2.19 templating rework. Its limits are structural: no state file, no drift detection, no control plane and no AI, so every one of those needs a product on top. The thing to check before you build on it is which collection covers your platform and who maintains it, because Proxmox VE and XCP-ng are community or nothing while vSphere, Nutanix and Hyper-V have certified content.
The engine has no AI feature of its own and no official agent interface. Agents can call it only through the command line or the runner library, which is why the AI score sits near zero here while the platform built on it scores.
Capability by area
Buying, lock-in and release record
Technical lock-in(lower is better)
- Formats1
- Open YAML and plain-text inventory, Ansible specific
- Export path2
- No state to export; leaving means rewriting playbooks in another tool
- Stack coupling0.5
- Agentless; needs Python on Linux targets and PowerShell 5.1 or later on Windows
- Hardware / cloud coupling0
- Any host, fully offline
- Skills and tooling coupling1
- Widely held skills; open tooling
Release credibility
- Cadence4.5
- Published May and November rhythm, kept for 2.20 (2025-11-03) and 2.21 (2026-05-18); 2.19 landed 2025-07-21
- Roadmap transparency4.5
- Public per-release roadmap pages with dates, open tracker, porting guides; feature plans beyond deprecations are thin
- Say-do4
- Dated releases held; deprecation promises for 2.23 and 2.24 still pending
- Velocity3.5
- 2.19 brought several substantive changes; 2.20 and 2.21 were maintenance and platform floors
- Lifecycle stability3
- About 18 to 24 months per version, no LTS, Python floor rises each cycle, templating breaks in 2.19
Partners and services
- Partner programme openness3
- No programme for the engine; anyone can build on it; certified content runs through Red Hat Partner Connect
- Multi-tenancy and self-service0.5
- None in the engine
- API and infrastructure-as-code3.5
- CLI, ansible-runner library and ansible-rulebook; no REST API of its own
- Skills and certification4.5
- Exam-based Red Hat certification (EX294) and a very large talent pool
Alternatives to Ansible
Questions about Ansible
Is Ansible any good?
Ansible ranks #6 of 28 infrastructure automation tools in the Infrastructure Automation Ledger 2026, with a Ledger Index of 60.4 out of 100. Its strongest areas are ecosystem and integrations, provisioning breadth, configuration management depth. Its weakest are ai assistance, state, planning and safety, orchestration and self-service.
What are the best alternatives to Ansible?
The closest by Ledger Index are Bicep (59.6), Pulumi (61.2), Harness IaCM (59.3), CloudFormation (62).
How much lock-in does Ansible bring?
Ansible scores 4.5 out of 25 on technical lock-in (lower is better). Export path: No state to export; leaving means rewriting playbooks in another tool.
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