AWS CodePipeline vs Spinnaker: What are the differences?

Introduction

AWS CodePipeline and Spinnaker are both continuous delivery platforms that help in building, testing, and deploying applications. However, there are key differences between these two platforms that make them unique in their own ways.

1. Integration with Cloud Providers: AWS CodePipeline is tightly integrated with various AWS services such as Amazon S3, AWS CodeBuild, AWS CodeDeploy, and many others. This allows users to easily configure and automate their application delivery pipelines within the AWS ecosystem. On the other hand, Spinnaker is a cloud-agnostic platform that can be used to deploy applications on multiple cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. It provides a unified interface for managing deployments across different cloud environments.

2. Scale and Flexibility: CodePipeline is primarily built to support AWS services, making it highly scalable and flexible within the AWS ecosystem. It provides specific actions and integrations for different AWS services, enabling users to easily customize their deployment workflows. Spinnaker, being cloud-agnostic, offers a more generic approach towards deployments across multiple cloud providers. It provides a wide range of plugins that can be used to extend its capabilities and adapt to different deployment scenarios, making it highly flexible and scalable across different cloud environments.

3. Pipeline Orchestration: CodePipeline is a linear, sequential pipeline where stages and actions are executed in a defined order. While it provides some level of parallelization, it doesn't offer as much flexibility and control over pipeline orchestration compared to Spinnaker. Spinnaker, on the other hand, provides a highly flexible and customizable pipeline model where users can define complex deployment workflows with multiple parallel stages, manual approvals, and automated triggers. This makes it more suitable for complex deployment scenarios that require advanced pipeline orchestration.

4. Deployment Strategies: CodePipeline focuses on traditional deployment strategies like rolling deployments and blue-green deployments. It provides built-in support for these strategies with seamless integration with AWS services like CodeDeploy. Spinnaker, on the other hand, offers a broader range of deployment strategies including canary deployments, red/black deployments, and automated rollbacks. It provides more granular control over deployment strategies, allowing users to define fine-grained rollout policies and advanced traffic management rules.

5. Community Support and Ecosystem: CodePipeline is backed by the extensive AWS ecosystem and has a large user base within the AWS community. It benefits from the wide range of AWS services and integrations, as well as the support and documentation provided by AWS. While Spinnaker may not have the same level of community support as CodePipeline, it has gained popularity in the industry and has a growing community of users and contributors. It also benefits from the collaboration with companies like Netflix and Google, who actively contribute to its development and integration with other cloud platforms.

6. Extensibility and Customization: CodePipeline provides a closed ecosystem with limited extensibility options. Users are limited to using AWS services and predefined integrations for building their deployment pipelines. Spinnaker, on the other hand, offers a highly extensible and customizable platform. It provides a plugin architecture that allows users to develop and integrate custom extensions, add new cloud provider integrations, and customize the behavior of the platform according to their specific requirements. This makes Spinnaker a more adaptable and extensible solution for complex deployment scenarios.

In summary, AWS CodePipeline is tightly integrated with AWS services, providing a scalable and flexible solution within the AWS ecosystem, while Spinnaker offers a cloud-agnostic and highly customizable platform with advanced pipeline orchestration and a broader range of deployment strategies.