MAAS review
A capable open-source choice for teams managing bare-metal and virtual machine fleets.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
MAAS is Canonical’s open-source infrastructure management platform for provisioning and managing physical servers and virtual machines. It is designed for data-center operators, IT teams, private-cloud builders, HPC environments, edge deployments, and organizations managing server fleets at scale. Its scope covers hardware discovery, commissioning, operating-system deployment, machine lifecycle operations, network and storage configuration, and power control through hardware controllers. Web, command-line, REST API, and self-hosted workflows support different operating models.
The published plans separate the software from support. Self-support is free for all machines. Essential costs $30 per managed machine per year and adds high availability support, role-based access control, and a Knowledge Base. Standard costs $50 per managed machine per year and adds a four-hour SLA Sev 1 response time plus phone and ticket support during office hours. Advanced costs $100 per managed machine per year and provides a one-hour SLA Sev 1 response time with phone and ticket support 24 hours a day, every day. Standalone support also requires Ubuntu Pro for machines hosting MAAS controllers.
MAAS is particularly suited to environments that need direct hardware control alongside repeatable provisioning. It supports image-based operating-system deployment, custom images, PXE and network boot workflows, BMC power control, partitioning, RAID, LVM, preseed, cloud-init, deployment scripts, resource pools, and user-group permissions. Integrations with Juju, Chef, Ansible, Terraform, and cloud-init extend its place in infrastructure automation workflows. Choose MAAS when bare-metal control, virtual machine provisioning, and self-hosted automation are central requirements. Teams seeking a hosted service rather than an infrastructure platform they operate should consider a different approach.
MAAS pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Discovers, commissions, and provisions physical and virtual machines
- Controls power, storage, networking, RAID, LVM, and PXE workflows
- Offers REST API, CLI automation, custom images, and role-based permissions
- Where it doesn't
- Requires a self-hosted deployment
- Standalone support requires Ubuntu Pro for MAAS controllers
- Advanced support costs $100 per managed machine annually
MAAS fact sheet, pricing and score →
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