Ansible Automation Platform and SUSE Manager charge for every node you manage, every year. Gardience is open-source Salt with a support contract, priced per fleet. At scale that is a different order of magnitude.
Enter your fleet and what you use today. Prices are each vendor's published list price, before discounts.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Premium lists at $19,250 per 100 managed nodes per year on AWS Marketplace, sold in 100-node packs. Gardience is one flat yearly fee. The same fleet, both ways, at list price:
| Fleet | AAP Premium (AWS Marketplace list) | Gardience, flat | What you save |
|---|---|---|---|
| 250 nodes | $57,750 (three 100-node packs) | $6,000 | $51,750 |
| 1,000 nodes | $192,500 (ten 100-node packs) | $15,000 | $177,500 |
| 5,000 nodes | $962,500 (fifty packs, before any volume discount) | from $40,000 | over $900,000 |
Every price below is the vendor's own published price or its official cloud marketplace listing, before negotiated discounts.
| Product | How it is priced | 250 servers | 1,000 servers | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gardience | Flat per fleet | $6,000 | $15,000 | Windows and Linux, same price |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Premium | $19,250 per 100 nodes a year | $57,750 | $192,500 | Windows (over WinRM) and Linux |
| Progress Chef Enterprise | $189 per node a year | $47,250 | $189,000 | Windows and Linux |
| SUSE Multi-Linux Manager, Lifecycle Management+ | $268 a year per unit of up to 2 VMs | $33,500 | $134,000 | Linux only |
| Microsoft System Center 2025 Datacenter | $3,968 per 16-core host (MSRP) | depends on your host count | Configuration Manager has had no Linux client since version 1902 | |
Sources, seen October 26, 2026: AAP Premium on AWS Marketplace, chef.io/pricing, SUSE shop, System Center pricing. SUSE totals assume virtual machines; physical servers are priced per 1 to 2 sockets and cost twice as much. Broadcom does not publish a standalone price for Tanzu Salt.
You can keep your SUSE or Red Hat Linux subscriptions for the operating system and still cut the management bill, and Gardience manages the Windows half SUSE Multi-Linux Manager leaves out.
The engine is open-source Salt. You are paying for packaging, hardening, and support, not a tax on every host you add.
Per-node pricing means every new server raises the bill. A flat fleet fee means adding nodes is free until you cross a tier.
Windows and Linux in one console, so you are not paying for a second product to cover what MLM leaves out.
Manage cloud instances, on-prem servers, or both from one master, with no separate cloud-endpoint charge.