Jenkins has long been a go-to open source automation server for developer teams. But with its aging interface, tricky setup, and plugin maintenance challenges, many teams find themselves seeking out alternatives. The good news is there are now several modern, developer-friendly options that rival what Jenkins offers.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the top 8 Jenkins alternatives available today, including both self-hosted and SaaS products. We’ll highlight the strengths of each option, as well as which types of development teams can benefit most from making the switch.
Overview of Top 8 Jenkins Alternatives
Here‘s a high-level look at leading alternatives to Jenkins:
| Tool | Hosting | Key Strengths | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| TeamCity | Self-hosted | Stable plugins, fantastic support. Low maintenance, highly .NET compatible | Windows-based teams seeking ease of use |
| AWS CodePipeline | SaaS | Fully-managed, integrates with other AWS services. Easy setup. | Teams using AWS already |
| Bamboo | Self-hosted | Excellent Atlassian integration, scalable, easy setup | Atlassian stack users |
| CircleCI | SaaS | Highly customizable, excellent GitHub integration. Runs on many environments. | Flexible teams wanting cloud convenience |
| GitLab CI | SaaS | Built into GitLab itself for easy CI/CD without third-party tools. Good security and access control. | Dev teams already using GitLab |
| Travis CI | SaaS | Open source heritage. Excellent version control system integration and build matrix support. | Teams that value openness |
| GitHub Actions | SaaS | Deep GitHub integration by design. Simple workflow configuration format. | GitHub-centric teams |
| Bitbucket Pipelines | SaaS | Native integration with Bitbucket. Very fast spin up time. | Teams committed to Bitbucket |
Let‘s explore each of these top alternatives in more detail.
TeamCity: Low Maintenace Windows CI/CD
TeamCity from JetBrains has been around since 2006, making it a mature and robust Jenkins competitor. Offered as both cloud-hosted and on-premises, it‘s trusted by over 400,000 developers at 100,000 organizations.
Some key advantages TeamCity offers over Jenkins:
Low maintenance: TeamCity maintains itself and just works without a complex setup. No need for a dedicated admin.
Cross-platform: Supports Windows Servers out of the box making it an excellent fit for Microsoft-stack shops.
Stable plugin ecosystem: Plugins don‘t suffer the maintenance issues common with Jenkins.
Incident-free upgrades: Smooth upgrades with zero downtime.
Professional support included: Excellent technical support channel available for all customers.
TeamCity integrates nicely with GitHub, Azure DevOps, and other systems. But it especially shines when used to complement the Microsoft stack with integrations like Visual Studio and .NET Framework. The TeamCity plugin for Octopus Deploy also enables advanced deployment scenarios.
Overall, TeamCity strikes a nice balance between power and usability. And you can try it free for 30 days.
AWS CodePipeline: Optimize Existing AWS Workloads
The CI/CD service AWS CodePipeline is purpose built for AWS users. Rather than a standalone automation server, it fully integrates automated release pipelines with other AWS offerings.
Tapping into services like CodeCommit, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy and more, CodePipeline brings consistent workflows to all stages of release cycles. And you get a central dashboard to visualize your entire pipeline.
Some reasons AWS developers love AWS CodePipeline:
No servers to manage: Fully hosted service means less operational load.
Granular IAM controls: Apply advanced security controls across all integrated AWS services.
Integrates with GitHub/Bitbucket: External repos can be used as pipeline code sources.
Central dashboard: Single pane of glass to view all pipelines, stages and track releases.
Pay only for usage: No long term commitments required and costs scale up and down.
For teams running entirely on AWS already, CodePipeline deserves a hard look as a Jenkins replacement. The native AWS experience it enables is unparalleled.
Bamboo: The CI/CD Powerhouse for Atlassian Users
Atlassian‘s Bamboo comes from a trusted vendor many developer teams rely on for issue tracking, documentation, and code repositories. It brings impressive capability for automating builds, tests, and deployments.
What really sets Bamboo part is its amazing integration across Atlassian tools like:
- Jira Software
- Bitbucket
- Confluence
This allows for central administration of source code to production delivery pipelines – all from tools teams already use daily.
Additional advantages of Bamboo over Jenkins:
Scalable: Handles hundreds of projects and thousands of build agents.
Reliable: Very consistent and dependable release performance.
Parallel execution: Test and deploy on multiple agents simultaneously with elastic capacity.
Easy administration: Multi-server administration lets you handle all Bamboo instances in one place.
While Bamboo pairs best with existing Atlassian stack investments, its robust feature set makes it suitable for almost any team willing to host it themselves. And it‘s free to try for 30 days.
CircleCI: Flexible Cloud CI/CD with Powerful GitHub Integration
As a cloud native CI/CD platform, CircleCI has attracted lots of developers thanks to its flexible customization and maintenance-free convenience. And its advanced integration with GitHub helps accelerate commits to production via transparent pipelines.
Reasons to choose CircleCI over Jenkins include:
Better GitHub experience: First class webhooks, status badges, auto cancelation of obsolete builds and more.
Killer parallelism: Test up to 4x faster by running huge matrices of jobs concurrently.
Convenience pricing: Pay-as-you go plans scale effortlessly without yearly commitments.
Orbs make configuration easy: Quickly install pre-packaged integrations and commands without new pipelines.
Faster setup: Get started in just minutes with 1000s of pre-made config templates.
With strong language support, docker compatibility, and billing by computing resource usage only, CircleCI removes many pains of both Jenkins and managing physical hardware yourself.
And its cloud-first approach means you focus more on shipping code, not babysitting servers. Convenient!
GitLab CI: Built-In CI/CD for GitLab Users
Dev teams committed to GitLab for repos, issue tracking, and collaboration have an ace up their sleeve: GitLab CI. Offering continuous integration and delivery is built right into GitLab itself – no need for an external tool like Jenkins.
Just connect your repository to get these slick features:
Tons of pre-made templates Get started instantly for tons of languages and frameworks without custom config.
Visual pipeline editor Skip YAML and edit pipelines visually if desired.
Review Apps Spin up per-branch previews of proposed changes with one click.
Monorepo support Concurrently test and deploy microservices from the same repo.
Integrated security Leverage existing permissions and credential stores.
Since it‘s already part of their adopted stack, GitLab CI allows dev teams to implement CI/CD faster using familiar tools. No context switching between Jenkins and GitLab UIs trying to glue things together.
For GitLab power users, look no further for a Jenkins replacement.
Travis CI: Open Source Heritage Adapted for The Cloud
With Travis CI, we have another cloud offering tailored for open source developers. It offers convenient GitHub synchronization, flexible build matrixes, and scriptable build configs.
Some advantages Corey Travis CI offers compared to self-hosted Jenkins:
GitHub Marketplace integration Makes adding Travis CI a breeze from within GitHub UI.
Build matrix support Cross test across multiple runtime versions with a single config.
CLI client available Automate Travis CI jobs from terminal or scripting environments.
Mac and Windows testing Run jobs against macOS and Windows environments with ease.
Granular permissions Control access per branch with restricted secrets.
While pricing starts free for open source projects, paid tiers unlock additional capacity and concurrency options. This allows teams to scale Travis CI as needed.
For devs that crave Jenkins capability but not the baggage, Travis CI shines.
GitHub Actions: Deeply Integrated Pipelines
GitHub Actions offers Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery pipelines deeply integrated with GitHub pull requests and issues.
With GitHub Actions, you can build end-to-end DevOps workflows natively within GitHub itself. That means never leaving tools developers already use daily.
Compared to Jenkins installed and managed separately, GitHub Actions advantages include:
Tied to GitHub permissions and accounts No separate logins or credential silos.
Works with existing GitHubHooks and notifications Single event stream powers everything.
Embedded logs and artifacts Outputs persist related to source instead of hidden on CI server.
Marketplace offers turnkey extensions Discover and install apps that plug right in.
Pay only for overages Up to 2000 free build minutes per month.
For teams collaborating primarily through GitHub already, Actions can replace and centralize much of what Jenkins provides into native UIs.
Bitbucket Pipelines: Cloud CI/CD for Bitbucket Users
Like GitHub Actions for GitHub diehards, Bitbucket Pipelines directly integrates continuous integration and delivery pipelines within Bitbucket Cloud itself.
That gives teams committed to Bitbucket for Git workflows, issues, and code reviews the ability to automate releases without additional tools.
Advantages Bitbucket Pipelines for Teams offers over Jenkins:
Super fast setup Add a simple YAML config file and let Bitbucket handle the rest.
Built-in integrations with Jira, HipChat, and Slack enhances traceability.
Scalable Fast parallel processing allows efficient matrix builds.
2,000+ free build minutes per month Pay only for additional resources used.
For Mercurial or Git repositories hosted with Bitbucket, Pipelines can replace Jenkins and its overhead in one swift move by unifying everything under Atlassian tools.
Key Decision Factors When Evaluating Jenkins Alternatives
With so many high-quality Jenkins alternatives now available, it‘s crucial to decide which best fits your team‘s needs and goals.
Here are some of the top factors we recommend considering as part of your selection process:
Preferred version control system: Do you use GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or something else? Look for CI/CD tools that integrate here.
Self-hosted vs SaaS: Determine whether you want on-prem infrastructure or cloud convenience.
Budget constraints: Balance capability needs vs license costs + resource overhead.
OS platform support: Do you rely more on Windows, Linux, or macOS? Not all tools support all 3 equally.
Language and tech stack: Node, .NET, Java, Go? Find CI/CD solutions proven with your stacks.
Learning curve: Look for onboarding experiences tailored for dev teams.
Plugin needs: If leveraging community plugins heavily, ensure your new CI/CD option has an established marketplace.
Once you narrow down one or two preferred solutions, take advantage of free trials offered by most on this list to confirm hands-on they address your needs.
Migrating from Jenkins to Alternatives
Once decided on moving from Jenkins to another CI/CD platform, what‘s the best process for migrating gracefully while minimizing productivity disruption?
Here is an overview of best practices to follow:
1. Audit existing architecture Document current Jenkins pipelines, integrations, resources usage, and dependencies. This quantifies what to replicate.
2. Assess target platform Sign up for trial account and build small proofs of concepts that emulate current processes. Identify gaps.
3. Develop migration plan Guided by learnings from POCs, create detailed inventories of assets to be migrated and how. Assign owners.
4. Migrate in phases Start by reconstructing functionality required for one specific application or service. Repeat iteratively across codebase without "big bang" switches. Continue syncing old and new pipelines during transition period.
5. Sunset legacy Jenkins After all critical pipelines now run via new platform, clean up and decommission old Jenkins the way you would end-of-life other resources. Consider keeping it read-only for reference.
6. Optimization and expansion With migration complete, look into additional capabilities within your new solution you may have overlooked initially like improved security scans, performance testing, etc. There‘s likely valuable features and integration potential you can take greater advantage of.
The most crucial guideline is approach migration in contained steps vs an overnight overhaul. Be extremely reluctant to dismantle any existing pipelines before proving out their replacements end-to-end. Otherwise one risks significant disruptions developers and business users.
Choose the Best Jenkins Alternative for Your Team
Jenkins has enjoyed tremendous popularity over its long history. But for teams wanting modern interfaces, cloud scalability, and painless maintenance, credible alternatives have arrived.
Hopefully the overview provided here of leaders like TeamCity, AWS CodePipeline, Bamboo, and CircleCI helps you identify options meeting your unique needs. Each strikes compelling balances between power, flexibility, security, and ease of use.
Don‘t lock yourself into legacy tools if better fitting solutions now exist. Take advantage of the free trials available to validate if making the switch from Jenkins makes sense for your software delivery goals.
