Bamboo vs Bitbucket: What are the differences?

Bamboo is a continuous integration and build server by Atlassian, offering automated build, test, and deployment processes. Bitbucket, also by Atlassian, is a web-based platform for version control using Git or Mercurial, providing collaboration features along with Git repository management. Let's explore the key differences between them:

1. Integration with Other Tools: Bamboo focuses primarily on continuous integration and deployment, providing seamless integration with other Atlassian tools such as Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket. This allows teams to have a unified and streamlined workflow, reducing manual tasks and increasing productivity. On the other hand, Bitbucket, as a distributed version control system, offers tight integration with popular code collaboration and hosting services, like Git, Mercurial, and even Subversion, making it a versatile choice for developers who prefer multiple options.

2. Build and Deployment Pipelines: Bamboo offers powerful capabilities for setting up build and deployment pipelines, allowing teams to automate the process of building, testing, and deploying their applications. It provides visual tools for creating complex pipelines, along with options for parallel and sequential execution, manual and automatic triggering, and advanced reporting. Bitbucket, on the other hand, offers limited built-in build and deployment capabilities. It relies on integrations with other CI/CD tools like Jenkins or Bamboo itself, which can be advantageous for teams who already have established CI/CD processes.

3. Scalability and Performance: Bamboo is known for its ability to handle large-scale projects and can efficiently manage builds across multiple agents and environments. It offers robust scalability options, including remote agents and elastic agents, which can be dynamically provisioned to handle workload spikes. In contrast, Bitbucket is a distributed version control system that excels in handling large codebases and managing concurrent access. It provides features like smart mirrors and local replication, making it suitable for teams working with a significant amount of code and requiring high availability.

4. Code Review and Collaboration: Bitbucket is specifically designed for code collaboration and offers rich features for code review, pull requests, and inline commenting. It provides a seamless interface for developers to collaborate and contribute to the codebase efficiently. Bamboo, although it offers some code review capabilities, is primarily focused on the build and deployment aspect of the development process. It may require additional integrations or third-party tools for a robust code review process.

5. Permissions and Access Control: Bamboo offers fine-grained access control and permissions management, allowing administrators to define different levels of access for users and groups, ensuring secure and controlled access to sensitive and critical resources. Bitbucket also offers similar access control features, providing options to limit access based on users, groups, and branches. Both tools offer integrations with identity management systems, enabling teams to enforce organization-wide security policies.

6. Pricing and Licensing: Bamboo and Bitbucket have different pricing models and licenses. Bamboo is a commercial product, and its pricing is based on a server or data center license, which may require a substantial upfront investment. Bitbucket, on the other hand, offers different plans, including a free plan for small teams, and a scalable pricing model based on the number of users. This flexibility in licensing makes Bitbucket more accessible for smaller teams or teams with budget constraints.

In summary, Bamboo focuses on continuous integration and deployment with seamless Atlassian tool integration, while Bitbucket excels in code collaboration and version control with flexible integration options and distributed capabilities. Both tools offer scalable performance, but Bamboo is more suitable for large-scale projects, whereas Bitbucket is well-suited for teams working on code collaboration and managing codebases efficiently.