Canonical MAAS
8.1#1 in bare metal provisioning softwareFrom $30 a yearFree planWebAPILinuxSelf-hosted
VisitCanonical MAAS vs OpenStack Ironic
OpenStack Ironic
5.8#21 in bare metal provisioning softwareFree planFree planAPILinuxSelf-hosted
VisitWhat both publish
| Fact | Canonical MAAS | OpenStack Ironic |
|---|---|---|
| API | MAAS exposes a REST API with GET, POST, PUT and DELETE methods; version 2.0 is the documented supported API version. | Ironic provides RESTful APIs with a vendor-agnostic interface for managing machines through their lifecycle. |
| Integrations | Canonical documentation names Juju, Chef, Puppet, Ansible, Terraform, OpenStack and Kubernetes as MAAS automation or orchestration integrations. | Ironic documentation identifies Bifrost, Metal3, and OpenStack Compute as deployment options or adjacent projects. |
| License | The MAAS source repository is distributed under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3. | Ironic is collaboratively developed under the Apache 2 license. |
| Purpose | MAAS is an open source platform for centrally managing and provisioning physical servers as cloud resources. | Ironic manages bare-metal infrastructure across node discovery, cataloging, enrollment, provisioning, maintenance, and decommissioning. |
Canonical MAAS plans
- FreeFree
- Self-supportFree
- Essential$30 a year
- Standard$50 a year
- Advanced$100 a year
OpenStack Ironic plans
- Open source IronicFree
Pick Canonical MAAS if…
MAAS suits teams managing physical servers for private cloud with OpenStack, server automation, or bare metal Kubernetes. Its single-machine installation is also described for homelabs, proofs of concept, and small production environments.
Pick OpenStack Ironic if…
It suits operators managing bare-metal machines across provisioning and maintenance stages, including teams using separate hardware pools. Bifrost deployment requires network-interface and hardware-controller credential knowledge.