Chocolatey vs. ProGet

It is very easy to install a batch of Windows software from the command line when setting up a new machine. All needed software installs could be scripted in one batch file and then run on a new machine. It is also very easy to keep the installed software up-to-date via the command line.

Incentivized

As of current, the only artifactory management tool that I would recommend is ProGet. The free version is plentiful in features, supporting all feed types that the paid plans do. The paid plans also add even more capabilities on top of the free plan, such as data retention policies, which helps to minimize storage waste on my server and keep everything clean.

Incentivized

• Package management
• Dependency management
• Ease of use
• Availability of libs

Incentivized

• The Docker registry feature works great. Compared to Sonatype Nexus 3, I don't need to set up extra ports, as everything just works off the port ProGet itself is running on.
• Debian feeds support automatic GPG key generation, without me having to create or manage them myself. This is another spot where ProGet is better than Nexus, as you have to manually create and specify a key with Nexus, while ProGet simply handles it all for you.

Incentivized

• Available software to install is not easy to find.
• You need admin rights to install all software.

Incentivized

• When running ProGet inside of a Docker container, changes to some settings requires a manual restart of the container (i.e. with 'docker restart x').

Incentivized

The big reason I picked Chocolatey was the fact that npm and Maven are not well-suited for native windows environments. I had to run on a Windows Server virtual machine, so was limited by what I could use, and I did not want to install WSL on the machine. So, I picked Chocolately for dependency management on those machines.

Incentivized

Both Sonatype Nexus 3 and ProGet support all the feed types I use, but ProGet simply does them better. The Docker feeds run on the same port as ProGet itself, while Nexus requires additional ports to be set up, which can be a burden when running in Docker. Debian feeds also support GPG key creation without having to manually specify one, again, reducing the burden for me to manually do things, allowing me to set up and distribute my programs even quicker.

Incentivized

• Improved time to setup new machines
• Improved security due to easy update process of installed software

Incentivized

• I don't need to develop custom solutions for distributing my software, as ProGet does it all for me.
• ProGet also integrates easily into my CI systems, with a fully-featured API that allows me to upload packages right after building.

Incentivized