Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!
Drone.io vs GitLab CI vs Jenkins X: What are the differences?
Introduction:
In the realm of CI/CD tools, Drone.io, GitLab CI, and Jenkins X stand out as popular options for automating build, test, and deployment processes in software development.
Integration with Version Control System: Drone.io integrates seamlessly with various version control systems like GitHub, Bitbucket, and GitLab, allowing for easy configuration and setup. GitLab CI is tightly integrated with GitLab's version control system, providing a comprehensive CI/CD solution within the GitLab platform. Jenkins X also offers integration with version control systems but is known for its tight integration with Kubernetes for cloud-native applications.
Configuration Flexibility: Drone.io offers a YAML-based configuration file allowing for flexible and simple configurations, making it easy to define pipelines. GitLab CI provides a similar YAML configuration file for defining pipelines, but it also offers a visual editor for those who prefer a GUI interface. Jenkins X follows a more opinionated approach to configuration, with the use of Jenkinsfiles and Helm charts for defining pipelines and deployments.
Community Support and Extensibility: Drone.io has a growing community with active contributors and plugin support, allowing users to extend its functionality as needed. GitLab CI benefits from the broader GitLab community, providing access to a wide range of resources and extensions within the GitLab ecosystem. Jenkins X, being an open-source project under the Continuous Delivery Foundation, also has a strong community backing and the ability to leverage plugins and integrations for customization.
Cloud-Native Capabilities: Jenkins X is designed specifically for cloud-native applications, offering built-in support for Kubernetes and containers, enabling streamlined deployment processes for microservices architectures. While Drone.io and GitLab CI can also be utilized for cloud-native applications, Jenkins X is known for its native integration and features tailored for cloud-native development.
Scalability and Performance: Drone.io is known for its lightweight architecture, making it highly scalable and suitable for both small-scale and large-scale projects, with faster build times. GitLab CI offers robust scalability capabilities, particularly with its GitLab Runners that can be distributed across multiple nodes for parallel processing. Jenkins X is optimized for scalability with its cloud-native approach, allowing for automated scaling of resources based on the workload.
Ease of Deployment and Maintenance: GitLab CI provides an all-in-one solution within the GitLab platform, simplifying deployment and maintenance tasks for users who are already utilizing GitLab for version control. Jenkins X, with its focus on Kubernetes and cloud-native applications, streamlines deployment processes for containerized applications, making it suitable for organizations embracing modern DevOps practices. Drone.io offers a lightweight and simple deployment process, with easy integration into existing workflows, making it a good choice for teams looking for a straightforward CI/CD setup.
In Summary, the key differences between Drone.io, GitLab CI, and Jenkins X lie in their integration with version control systems, configuration flexibility, community support, cloud-native capabilities, scalability, and ease of deployment and maintenance.
We are a mid-size startup running Scala apps. Moving from Jenkins/EC2 to Spinnaker/EKS and looking for a tool to cover our CI/CD needs. Our code lives on GitHub, artifacts in nexus, images in ECR.
Drone is out, GitHub actions are being considered along with Circle CI and GitLab CI.
We primarily need:
- Fast SBT builds (caching)
- Low maintenance overhead (ideally serverless)
- Everything as code
- Ease of use
I think I've tried most of the CI tools out there at some point. It took me a while to get around to Buildkite because at first I didn't see much point given it seemed like you had to run the agent yourself. Eventually it dawned on me why this approach was more ingenious than I realised:
Running my app in a production (or production-like) environment was already a solved problem, because everything was already in some form of "everything as code". Having a test environment where the only difference was adding the Buildkite agent was a trivial addition.
It means that dev/test/prod parity is simple to achieve and maintain. It's also proven to be much easier to support than trying to deal with the problems that come with trying to force an app to fit into the nuances and constraints that are imposed by the containers/runtime of a CI service. When you completely control all of the environment the tests are running in you define those constraints too. It's been a great balance between a managed service and the flexibility of running it yourself.
And while none of my needs have hit the scale of Shopify (I saw one of their engineers speak about it at a conference once, I can't find the video now though 😞) it's good to know I can scale out my worker nodes to hundreds of thousands of workers to reduce the time it takes for my tests to run.
I would recommend you to consider the JFrog Platform that includes JFrog Pipelines - it will allow you to manage the full artifact life cycle for your sbt, docker and other technologies, and automate all of your CI and CD using cloud native declarative yaml pipelines. Will integrate smoothly with all your other toolset.
more configurable to setup ci/cd: * It can provide caching when build sbt, just add this section to yml file * Easy to use, many documentation
Weakness: * Need use gitlab as repository to bring more powerful configuration
Buddy is one of the most easy-to-use tools for CI I ever met. When I needed to set up the pipeline I was really impressed with how easy it is to create it with Buddy with only a few moments. It's literally like: 1. Add repo 2. Click - Click - Click 3. You're done and your app is on prod :D The top feature that I've found is a simple integration with different notification channels - not only Slack (which is the one by default), but Telegram and Discord. The support is also neat - guys respond pretty quickly on even a small issue.
Pros of Drone.io
- Open source51
- Built on docker50
- Free for open source27
- GitHub integration23
- Easy Setup18
- Hosted internally17
- Flexible scripting17
- Bitbucket integration10
- GitLab integration7
- Works with Heroku7
- Gogs integration6
- Browser testing4
- Works with Google AppEngine4
- Active Community4
- Works with Amazon3
- Works with Cloud Foundry2
- Gitea Integration2
- Configuration as code1
- Eazy to use1
- Easy tool to automate CI pipeline. Running in an hour1
- Easy pipelines1
- Only need yml config1
- Written in Go1
Pros of GitLab CI
- Robust CI with awesome Docker support22
- Simple configuration13
- All in one solution9
- Source Control and CI in one place7
- Integrated with VCS on commit5
- Free and open source5
- Easy to configure own build server i.e. GitLab-Runner5
- Hosted internally2
- Built-in Docker Registry1
- Built-in support of Review Apps1
- Pipeline could be started manually1
- Enable or disable pipeline by using env variables1
- Gitlab templates could be shared across logical group1
- Easy to setup the dedicated runner to particular job1
- Built-in support of Kubernetes1
Pros of Jenkins X
- Kubernetes integration7
- Scripted Pipelines5
- GitOps4
Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions
Cons of Drone.io
- Very basic documentation3
Cons of GitLab CI
- Works best with GitLab repositories2
Cons of Jenkins X
- Complexity1
