Primary references
Use the original standards below to check terminology and requirements. These references explain the standards; they do not endorse CISGuard or independently verify its product coverage.
← All alternatives
Puppet Comply Alternative
A Puppet Comply alternative, with no config-management prerequisite.
Puppet Comply brings CIS-based compliance assessment to organizations running Puppet Enterprise. CISGuard delivers the same discipline as a standalone platform: 22 CIS Benchmarks, continuous scanning, multi-framework evidence, and air-gapped deployment, with no configuration-management platform required underneath.
Why Customers Evaluate Alternatives
Common reasons to look beyond Puppet Comply.
- Puppet Comply is built atop Puppet Enterprise; the value proposition assumes that ecosystem investment
- Teams outside the Puppet ecosystem face a platform prerequisite before compliance assessment begins
- Audit scope often spans assets that are not under configuration management at all
- Multi-framework evidence (NIST, ISO 27001, SOC 2) requires mapping work beyond CIS assessment output
Puppet Comply strengths
Where Puppet Comply is genuinely strong
- Tight integration with Puppet Enterprise, pairing assessment with Puppet's remediation workflows
- CIS-based assessment content aligned with an established configuration-management ecosystem
- Natural fit for organizations already standardized on Puppet for infrastructure automation
- Desired-state heritage that connects compliance findings to enforcement
CISGuard differentiators
Where CISGuard is materially different
- Standalone platform: no Puppet Enterprise or any configuration-management prerequisite
- Broader benchmark set: 22 CIS Benchmarks and 3,933 controls across the estate
- Multi-framework evidence built in: NIST 800-53, ISO 27001, and SOC 2 from one scan
- Covers assets outside configuration management: unmanaged servers, desktops, appliance-adjacent systems
- Fully on-premises and air-gapped deployment as first-class configurations
- Per-deployment licensing and managed onboarding, independent of any automation stack
Best Fit
CISGuard is the right choice when:
- Organizations not running Puppet Enterprise, or moving away from platform-coupled tooling
- Estates with material scope outside configuration management (unmanaged or legacy systems)
- Compliance teams needing NIST, ISO 27001, and SOC 2 evidence, not only CIS assessment
- Air-gapped and disconnected environments
Frequently Asked
Migration questions, answered directly.
Do I need Puppet or any configuration management tool to run CISGuard?
No. CISGuard is a standalone compliance platform with no configuration-management prerequisite. It scans and assesses assets directly, whether they are managed by Puppet, Ansible, SCCM, or nothing at all. This matters because audit scope routinely includes systems that were never brought under configuration management, and those are often the least compliant assets in the estate.
Is CISGuard a replacement for Puppet Comply?
For CIS benchmark assessment and audit evidence, yes, and without the Puppet Enterprise dependency. What CISGuard does not replace is Puppet itself: if you use Puppet Enterprise for desired-state enforcement and remediation, that remains valuable. A common pattern keeps Puppet for remediation with CISGuard as the independent assessment and evidence layer, which auditors often prefer.
How does CISGuard's benchmark coverage compare?
CISGuard implements 22 CIS Benchmarks covering 3,933 controls across Windows, Linux, cloud platforms, and browsers, assessed continuously with drift detection. Puppet Comply positions around CIS-based assessment for nodes in the Puppet estate. If your compliance scope extends beyond Puppet-managed nodes or beyond the benchmarks Puppet Comply covers, CISGuard's standalone breadth is the differentiator.
Can CISGuard feed findings back into remediation workflows?
CISGuard identifies each failed control with the specific CIS recommendation, which maps directly to remediation content in configuration-management ecosystems. Teams running Puppet, Ansible, or other automation take CISGuard's per-control findings as the work queue for their existing enforcement tooling. Assessment and remediation stay decoupled, which keeps the evidence source independent.
Does CISGuard support air-gapped environments?
Yes. CISGuard runs fully on-premises including in air-gapped networks, with scanning, dashboards, and evidence generation operating entirely offline and benchmark updates delivered as offline packages. Managed onboarding covers disconnected deployment patterns. This is a first-class configuration, not a constrained mode of a connected product.
Evaluating CISGuard against Puppet Comply?
Our compliance engineers will walk through a side-by-side evaluation specific to your environment and audit scope.