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AWS CodeBuild vs Jenkins: What are the differences?
Introduction
AWS CodeBuild and Jenkins are two popular tools used for continuous integration and deployment in software development. While both serve the same purpose, there are several key differences between them.
Platform Integration: AWS CodeBuild is a fully managed service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and is tightly integrated with other AWS services like AWS CodeCommit, AWS CodeDeploy, and AWS CodePipeline. Jenkins, on the other hand, is an open-source tool that can be installed on various platforms including Windows, macOS, and Linux, and can be integrated with a variety of tools and services.
Scalability and Flexibility: AWS CodeBuild allows developers to easily scale their build environments by specifying the required compute resources through the use of build specifications. It also offers pre-configured compute types and provides the flexibility to run builds in a containerized environment. Jenkins, while it can be scaled manually, requires additional setup and management for running on multiple instances or within a clustered environment.
Pricing and Cost: AWS CodeBuild uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model, where users are charged based on the number of build minutes consumed and any additional compute resources used. Jenkins, being an open-source tool, is free to use but requires infrastructure and maintenance costs for running and managing the Jenkins server.
Managed Service vs Self-Managed: AWS CodeBuild is a managed service, meaning that it takes care of the underlying infrastructure and maintenance tasks such as patching, scaling, and security. Jenkins, on the other hand, requires manual setup, configuration, and maintenance by the user or system administrators.
Integration with CI/CD Pipelines: AWS CodeBuild integrates seamlessly with other AWS services like AWS CodePipeline, offering a complete CI/CD pipeline solution. Jenkins, being a standalone tool, requires additional configuration and setup to integrate with various CI/CD tools and services.
Built-in Monitoring and Logging: AWS CodeBuild provides built-in monitoring and logging features, allowing developers to easily view the status and logs of their build processes through the AWS Management Console or the AWS CLI. Jenkins requires additional setup and configuration for enabling monitoring and logging, which may involve the use of plugins or external tools.
In Summary, AWS CodeBuild offers a fully managed and integrated solution with scalable and flexible build environments, while Jenkins provides a self-managed and highly customizable option with extensive integration possibilities but requires additional setup and maintenance efforts.
We are currently using Azure Pipelines for continous integration. Our applications are developed witn .NET framework. But when we look at the online Jenkins is the most widely used tool for continous integration. Can you please give me the advice which one is best to use for my case Azure pipeline or jenkins.
If your source code is on GitHub, also take a look at Github actions. https://github.com/features/actions
I'm open to anything. just want something that break less and doesn't need me to pay for it, and can be hosted on Docker. our scripting language is powershell core. so it's better to support it. also we are building dotnet core in our pipeline, so if they have anything related that helps with the CI would be nice.
Google cloud build can help you. It is hosted on cloud and also provide reasonable free quota.
I'm planning to setup complete CD-CD setup for spark and python application which we are going to deploy in aws lambda and EMR Cluster. Which tool would be best one to choose. Since my company is trying to adopt to concourse i would like to understand what are the lack of capabilities concourse have . Thanks in advance !
I would definetly recommend Concourse to you, as it is one of the most advanced modern methods of making CI/CD while Jenkins is an old monolithic dinosaur. Concourse itself is cloudnative and containerbased which helps you to build simple, high-performance and scalable CI/CD pipelines. In my opinion, the only lack of skills you have with Concourse is your own knowledge of how to build pipelines and automate things. Technincally there is no lack, i would even say you can extend it way more easily. But as a Con it is more easy to interact with Jenkins if you are only used to UIs. Concourse needs someone which is capable of using CLIs.
From a StackShare Community member: "Currently we use Travis CI and have optimized it as much as we can so our builds are fairly quick. Our boss is all about redundancy so we are looking for another solution to fall back on in case Travis goes down and/or jacks prices way up (they were recently acquired). Could someone recommend which CI we should go with and if they have time, an explanation of how they're different?"
We use CircleCI because of the better value it provides in its plans. I'm sure we could have used Travis just as easily but we found CircleCI's pricing to be more reasonable. In the two years since we signed up, the service has improved. CircleCI is always innovating and iterating on their platform. We have been very satisfied.
As the maintainer of the Karate DSL open-source project - I found Travis CI very easy to integrate into the GitHub workflow and it has been steady sailing for more than 2 years now ! It works well for Java / Apache Maven projects and we were able to configure it to use the latest Oracle JDK as per our needs. Thanks to the Travis CI team for this service to the open-source community !
I use Google Cloud Build because it's my first foray into the CICD world(loving it so far), and I wanted to work with something GCP native to avoid giving permissions to other SaaS tools like CircleCI and Travis CI.
I really like it because it's free for the first 120 minutes, and it's one of the few CICD tools that enterprises are open to using since it's contained within GCP.
One of the unique things is that it has the Kaniko cache, which speeds up builds by creating intermediate layers within the docker image vs. pushing the full thing from the start. Helpful when you're installing just a few additional dependencies.
Feel free to checkout an example: Cloudbuild Example
I use Travis CI because of various reasons - 1. Cloud based system so no dedicated server required, and you do not need to administrate it. 2. Easy YAML configuration. 3. Supports Major Programming Languages. 4. Support of build matrix 6. Supports AWS, Azure, Docker, Heroku, Google Cloud, Github Pages, PyPi and lot more. 7. Slack Notifications.
You are probably looking at another hosted solution: Jenkins is a good tool but it way too work intensive to be used as just a backup solution.
I have good experience with Circle-CI, Codeship, Drone.io and Travis (as well as problematic experiences with all of them), but my go-to tool is Gitlab CI: simple, powerful and if you have problems with their limitations or pricing, you can always install runners somewhere and use Gitlab just for scheduling and management. Even if you don't host your git repository at Gitlab, you can have Gitlab pull changes automatically from wherever you repo lives.
If you are considering Jenkins I would recommend at least checking out Buildkite. The agents are self-hosted (like Jenkins) but the interface is hosted for you. It meshes up some of the things I like about hosted services (pipeline definitions in YAML, managed interface and authentication) with things I like about Jenkins (local customizable agent images, secrets only on own instances, custom agent level scripts, sizing instances to your needs).
We replaced Jenkins with Github Actions for all our repositories hosted on Github. GA has two significant benefits for us compared to an external build tool: it's simpler, and it sits at eye level.
Its simplicity and smooth user experience makes it easier for all developers to adopt, giving them more autonomy.
Sitting at eye level means it's completely run and configured right alongside the code, so that it's easier to observe and adjust our builds as we go.
These two benefits have made "the build" less of a system engineer responsibility and more of a developer tool, giving developers more ownership from code to release.
Jenkins is a friend of mine. 😀
There are not much space for Jenkins competitors for now from my point of view. With declarative pipelines now in place, its super easy to maintain them and create new ones(altho I prefer scripted still). Self-hosted, free, huge community makes it the top choice so honestly for me it was an easy pick.
Within our deployment pipeline, we have a need to deploy to multiple customer environments, and manage secrets specifically in a way that integrates well with AWS, Kubernetes Secrets, Terraform and our pipelines ourselves.
Jenkins offered us the ability to choose one of a number of credentials/secrets management approaches, and models secrets as a more dynamic concept that GitHub Actions provided.
Additionally, we are operating Jenkins within our development Kubernetes cluster as a kind of system-wide orchestrator, allowing us to use Kubernetes pods as build agents, avoiding the ongoing direct costs associated with GitHub Actions minutes / per-user pricing. Obviously as a consequence we take on the indirect costs of maintain Jenkins itself, patching it, upgrading etc. However our experience with managing Jenkins via Kubernetes and declarative Jenkins configuration has led us to believe that this cost is small, particularly as the majority of actual building and testing is handled inside docker containers and Kubernetes, alleviating the need for less supported plugins that may make Jenkins administration more difficult.
Jenkins is a pretty flexible, complete tool. Especially I love the possibility to configure jobs as a code with Jenkins pipelines.
CircleCI is well suited for small projects where the main task is to run continuous integration as quickly as possible. Travis CI is recommended primarily for open-source projects that need to be tested in different environments.
And for something a bit larger I prefer to use Jenkins because it is possible to make serious system configuration thereby different plugins. In Jenkins, I can change almost anything. But if you want to start the CI chain as soon as possible, Jenkins may not be the right choice.
Pros of AWS CodeBuild
- Pay per minute7
- Parameter Store integration for passing secrets5
- Integrated with AWS4
- Streaming logs to Amazon CloudWatch3
- Bit bucket integration3
- GitHub Webhooks support2
- AWS Config and Config rule integration for compliance2
- VPC PrivateLinks to invoke service without internet2
- Windows/.NET support1
- Jenkins plugin integration1
- Ondemand scaling of build jobs1
- Scheduled builds with CloudWatch Events integration1
- Local build debug support1
- Native support for accessing Amazon VPC resources1
- Docker based build environment1
- Support for bringing custom Docker images1
- Fully managed (no installation/updates, servers to mai1
- PCI, SOC, ISO, HIPAA compliant1
- Full API/SDKs/CLI support1
- YAML based configuration1
- Great support (forums, premium support, SO, GitHub)1
- Perpetual free tier option (100 mins/month)1
- GitHub Enterprise support1
Pros of Jenkins
- Hosted internally523
- Free open source469
- Great to build, deploy or launch anything async318
- Tons of integrations243
- Rich set of plugins with good documentation211
- Has support for build pipelines111
- Easy setup68
- It is open-source66
- Workflow plugin53
- Configuration as code13
- Very powerful tool12
- Many Plugins11
- Continuous Integration10
- Great flexibility10
- Git and Maven integration is better9
- 100% free and open source8
- Github integration7
- Slack Integration (plugin)7
- Easy customisation6
- Self-hosted GitLab Integration (plugin)6
- Docker support5
- Pipeline API5
- Fast builds4
- Platform idnependency4
- Hosted Externally4
- Excellent docker integration4
- It`w worked3
- Customizable3
- Can be run as a Docker container3
- It's Everywhere3
- JOBDSL3
- AWS Integration3
- Easily extendable with seamless integration2
- PHP Support2
- Build PR Branch Only2
- NodeJS Support2
- Ruby/Rails Support2
- Universal controller2
- Loose Coupling2
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Cons of AWS CodeBuild
- Poor branch support2
Cons of Jenkins
- Workarounds needed for basic requirements13
- Groovy with cumbersome syntax10
- Plugins compatibility issues8
- Lack of support7
- Limited abilities with declarative pipelines7
- No YAML syntax5
- Too tied to plugins versions4