Capistrano vs. Pallet

Capistrano is a remote server automation tool. It supports the scripting and execution of arbitrary tasks, and includes a set of sane-default deployment workflows.

The machines being managed require no special dependencies to be installed. As long as they have bash and ssh running, they can be used with pallet. Pallet has no central server to set up and maintain - it simply runs on demand. You can run it from anywhere, even over a remote REPL connection.