Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Jenkins VS CircleCI

Compare Jenkins VS CircleCI and see what are their differences

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Jenkins logo Jenkins

Jenkins is an open-source continuous integration server with 300+ plugins to support all kinds of software development

CircleCI logo CircleCI

CircleCI gives web developers powerful Continuous Integration and Deployment with easy setup and maintenance.
  • Jenkins Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-15
  • CircleCI Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05

CircleCI

$ Details
-
Release Date
2011 January
Startup details
Country
United States
State
California
Founder(s)
Allen Rohner
Employees
500 - 999

Jenkins features and specs

  • Open Source
    Jenkins is an open-source tool, which means users can modify, share, and use it without licensing fees.
  • Large Plugin Ecosystem
    Jenkins has a robust plugin ecosystem with over 1,500 plugins, allowing extensive customization and functionality to fit various DevOps needs.
  • Active Community
    The active and large community of Jenkins users and developers provides extensive support, documentation, and shared solutions.
  • Platform Independent
    Jenkins can run on various platforms including Windows, macOS, and various Unix-like systems, providing flexibility in deployment.
  • CI/CD Capabilities
    Jenkins is well-suited for implementing Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, facilitating automated build, test, and deployment processes.
  • Scalability
    It supports distributed builds using Master-Slave architecture, enabling you to scale your build and deployment processes across multiple machines.
  • Extensible
    Thanks to its plugin architecture, Jenkins can be extended to integrate with a variety of tools and services, making it highly adaptable.

Possible disadvantages of Jenkins

  • Complex Setup
    Initial setup and configuration of Jenkins can be complicated, especially for new users or large-scale environments.
  • Resource Intensive
    Jenkins can be resource-intensive, requiring significant memory and CPU, particularly for large projects or high-frequency builds.
  • Maintenance Overhead
    Due to its extensive plugin usage, keeping Jenkins and its plugins updated can be time-consuming and sometimes problematic.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    Learning to use Jenkins effectively can have a steep learning curve, particularly due to the need to understand its various plugins and configuration options.
  • User Interface
    The user interface of Jenkins is sometimes considered outdated and not as intuitive or user-friendly as some of its modern counterparts.
  • Security Vulnerabilities
    As with many open-source tools, Jenkins can have security vulnerabilities that need to be regularly addressed to ensure a secure environment.
  • Poor Plugin Compatibility
    Not all plugins are maintained equally, leading to potential compatibility issues or bugs when using multiple plugins together.

CircleCI features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    CircleCI offers a user-friendly interface and straightforward configuration, making it accessible for both beginners and experienced users.
  • Scalability
    CircleCI easily scales with your project, allowing for flexible resource allocation and handling multiple workflows in parallel.
  • Extensive Integrations
    CircleCI supports a wide range of integrations with various tools and services like GitHub, Bitbucket, Docker, and Slack, enabling seamless workflows.
  • Speed and Performance
    With features like advanced caching, dependency management, and parallelism, CircleCI enables faster builds and quicker feedback cycles.
  • Customizability
    CircleCI provides powerful configuration options through YAML files, allowing users to tailor their CI/CD pipelines to specific project requirements.
  • Free Tier Availability
    CircleCI offers a free plan that includes several features, making it suitable for small projects and open-source contributions.

Possible disadvantages of CircleCI

  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While CircleCI is generally user-friendly, mastering advanced configurations and optimizations can take time and require a deeper understanding of the platform.
  • Cost for Higher Tiers
    The pricing for higher-tier plans can become expensive, especially for large teams or enterprises requiring extensive usage and advanced features.
  • Limited Concurrency in Free Plan
    The free plan has limited concurrent builds, which might not be sufficient for larger projects with high parallelization needs.
  • Occasional Stability Issues
    Users have reported occasional performance and stability issues, particularly during high-demand periods, which can slow down the build process.
  • Configuration Complexity
    If not properly managed, the YAML configuration files can become complex and difficult to maintain for larger projects, leading to potential misconfigurations.

Jenkins videos

Mick Jenkins - The Circus Album Review | DEHH

More videos:

  • Review - Mick Jenkins - The Water[s] ALBUM REVIEW
  • Review - Mick Jenkins - THE WATERS First REACTION/REVIEW

CircleCI videos

CircleCI Part 1: Introduction to Unit Testing and Continuous Integration

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How To Setup CircleCI On Your Next Project (Vue, React, or Angular)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Jenkins and CircleCI)
DevOps Tools
56 56%
44% 44
Continuous Integration
50 50%
50% 50
Continuous Deployment
51 51%
49% 49
Monitoring Tools
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Jenkins and CircleCI

Jenkins Reviews

The Best Alternatives to Jenkins for Developers
Jenkins X, a new kind of Jenkins made for cloud environments and modern development practices, tries to make setting up and handling CI/CD pipelines easier. It uses Kubernetes along with GitOps ideas in order to offer teams working on cloud-native apps an automated way that is less complex when it comes to managing their project’s lifecycle.
Source: morninglif.com
Top 5 Jenkins Alternatives in 2024: Automation of IT Infrastructure Written by Uzair Ghalib on the 02nd Jan 2024
If you have searched about Jenkins alternatives and you are reading this article, then there must be one of the three reasons you are here. You are already using Jenkins and are fed up with facing different issues and looking for a change. Or maybe you haven’t faced any issues yet but have heard the stories about Jenkins issues and looking to avoid them by choosing an...
Source: attuneops.io
What Are The Best Alternatives To Ansible? | Attune, Jenkins &, etc.
Jenkin is a popular tool for performing continuous integration of software projects in the market. Plus, it continues the delivery of projects regardless of the platform you’re working on. And it is also responsible for handling any build or continuous integration with various testing and development technologies. As a product, Jenkins is more developer-centric and...
Best 8 Ansible Alternatives & equivalent in 2022
Jenkins is an open-source continuous integration tool. It is written using the Java programming language. It facilitates real-time testing and reporting on isolated changes in a larger code base. This software similar to Ansible helps developers to quickly find and solve defects in their code base & automate testing of their builds.
Source: www.guru99.com
Top 10 Most Popular Jenkins Alternatives for DevOps in 2024
Jenkins may be a de-facto tool for CI/CD, but it’s no longer a shiny newcomer borne directly out of modern DevOps best practices. Although Jenkins is still relevant, newer tools can offer improved ergonomics and expanded functionality. These can be better suited to contemporary software delivery methods.
Source: spacelift.io

CircleCI Reviews

The Best Alternatives to Jenkins for Developers
CircleCI is a cloud-based CI/CD platform that has gained significant traction in recent years. With a focus on simplicity and ease of use, CircleCI offers a streamlined approach to automating your build, test, and deployment processes. One of its standout features is its strong support for Docker, making it a great choice for teams working with containerized applications.
Source: morninglif.com
Top 5 Jenkins Alternatives in 2024: Automation of IT Infrastructure Written by Uzair Ghalib on the 02nd Jan 2024
CircleCI– Get unparalleled performance and insights with CircleCI’s interactive dashboard and automatic upgrades – revolutionizing the way you build and deploy your applications.
Source: attuneops.io
Top 10 Most Popular Jenkins Alternatives for DevOps in 2024
CircleCI can be a Jenkins replacement for teams seeking a managed experience where performance and support options are priorities. CircleCI is also investing heavily in building new capabilities that cater to the pipeline requirements of apps using AI and ML.
Source: spacelift.io
35+ Of The Best CI/CD Tools: Organized By Category
CircleCI is a complete CI/CD pipeline tool. You can monitor the statuses of your various pipelines from your dashboard. Additionally, CircleCI helps you manage your build logs, access controls, and testing. It’s one of the most popular DevOps and CI/CD platforms in the world.
10 Jenkins Alternatives in 2021 for Developers
CircleCI is generally recognized for its flexibility and compatibility. Customization is obviously an important factor when making the switch from Jenkins and CircleCI certainly takes an impressive swing at providing users with a solid collection of features.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, CircleCI seems to be a lot more popular than Jenkins. While we know about 78 links to CircleCI, we've tracked only 7 mentions of Jenkins. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Jenkins mentions (7)

  • CircleCI vs. Jenkins
    Jenkins is an open-source automation server used for software continuous integration and delivery. It automates various tasks, such as building, testing, and deploying applications.  It is easily extendable due to its vast ecosystem of plugins, making it easy to integrate into version control systems like Git, build tools like Maven/Gradle, and deployment platforms like AWS and Docker. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Automated delivery React / Vue app for each Pull Request.
    It will give you a possibility to find and solve problems faster, release more stable and higher quality products. Here we will use CircleCI, but you can use whatever you need (Jenkins, Travis CI, GitLab CI). - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Is Jenkins dead? v2
    CloudBees Jenkins Platform is a commercial offering from CloudBees, it is not the Jenkins project itself (which is open source). Jenkins is alive and well. See https://jenkins.io. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • ELI5 what is Jenkins?
    Ok. I'm talking about this: https://jenkins.io/. Source: over 2 years ago
  • I wanted a self hosted alternative to Atlassian status page so I build my own application !
    Currently supported : Datadog, Jenkins, DNS, HTTP. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

CircleCI mentions (78)

  • End-to-end testing and deployment of a multi-agent AI system with Docker, LangGraph, and CircleCI
    In this tutorial, you will walk through the process of building, testing, and deploying a multi-agent AI system using LangGraph, Docker, AWS Lambda, and CircleCI. You will develop a research-driven AI workflow where different agents,such as fact-checking, summarization, and search agents, work together seamlessly. You will package this application into a Docker container, deploy it to AWS Lambda, and automate the... - Source: dev.to / about 2 hours ago
  • Improving API Performance In Legacy Systems: A Guide for API Developers
    Tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, and CircleCI offer capabilities for parallel testing and test caching, allowing multiple tests to run simultaneously. This approach significantly reduces overall testing time and prevents unnecessary delays in deployment. Industry leaders such as Netflix and Amazon employ these practices to minimize outages and maintain high service quality. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Top 17 DevOps AI Tools [2025]
    CircleCI is a leading cloud-based platform for CI/CD that automates the software development process, enabling teams to build, test, and deploy applications with efficiency and precision. By integrating seamlessly with popular version control systems like GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket, CircleCI enhances collaboration and accelerates development cycles. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Building a serverless GenAI API with FastAPI, AWS, and CircleCI
    GitHub and CircleCI Accounts: You will need a GitHub account to host your project’s repository and a CircleCI account to automate testing and deployment through CI/CD. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • CircleCI vs. Jenkins
    CircleCI is a CI/CD platform that automates the process of building, testing, and deploying software. It helps developers integrate code changes more frequently and efficiently, ensuring that software development teams can detect and fix errors quickly. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Jenkins and CircleCI, you can also consider the following products

Codeship - Codeship is a fast and secure hosted Continuous Delivery platform that scales with your needs.

Travis CI - Simple, flexible, trustworthy CI/CD tools. Join hundreds of thousands who define tests and deployments in minutes, then scale up simply with parallel or multi-environment builds using Travis CI’s precision syntax—all with the developer in mind.

Bamboo - Bamboo is a continuous integration and deployment tool that ties automated builds, tests and releases together in a single workflow.

Buddy - The simplest CI/CD tool ever made, acclaimed by top developers worldwide. It uses delivery pipelines to build, test and deploy software. Pipelines are created with over 100 ready-to-use actions, that can be arranged in any way.

TeamCity - TeamCity is an ultimate Continuous Integration tool for professionals

Bitrise - Tens of thousands of agencies, startups and enterprise companies with mobile apps - including Runkeeper, Grindr, Duolingo and more - use Bitrise to automate their way to increased productivity & speed