Jenkins
CI/CDA Java-based, self-hosted automation server with a large plugin ecosystem, mostly used to build, test and deploy software.
Open-source alternative to:
CircleCI
What the free edition leaves out
The free edition covers the features teams usually need; we found nothing important held back. “Not confirmed” means the official pages we read did not say, so we do not guess.
| Feature | Free edition | Details | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| SSO / SAML | Free | SSO is provided by the SAML plugin, and LDAP, OpenID Connect, GitHub and others are also plugins. The plugins are free, but they are not part of core and may not be installed. | Source ↗ |
| Role-based access control | Free | Matrix-based and project-based matrix authorization come from the Matrix Authorization Strategy Plugin. Core ships simpler modes such as 'Logged in users can do anything'. Role-based access beyond the matrix was not checked. | Source ↗ |
| Audit logs | Not confirmed | The security page does not describe an audit log feature or plugin. | Source ↗ |
| Multi-user / teams | Free | Jenkins has its own user database and other security realms, and authorization strategies control per-user permissions. | Source ↗ |
| Backups and restore | Not confirmed | No built-in backup feature. Docs describe filesystem snapshots, the thinBackup plugin, or a custom script that copies JENKINS_HOME. | Source ↗ |
| API access | Free | A REST-like remote access API under /api/ URLs returns XML or JSON. | Source ↗ |
| Support SLA | Not confirmed | The homepage mentions no paid support or SLA. CloudBees is listed among supporting organizations, but its commercial offering was not checked. | Source ↗ |
Best for
Teams that want full control over where builds run and need to integrate with many different tools, languages or older systems.
Why choose it over CircleCI
MIT licensed, with no paid edition or per-seat or per-minute fee from the project. You can use any Git host, any operating system and your own build machines. The plugin catalog is large (the homepage cites 2300+ community plugins), and pipelines can be written as code.
Where it falls short
You install, patch and back up the server yourself, and there is no built-in backup. Much of the functionality, including SAML, LDAP and matrix permissions, comes from plugins that you have to select, install and keep updated. No audit logging feature was found. There is no official hosted service or support contract from the project.
Open-source alternative to
- CircleCI — Jenkins is a free, self-hosted automation server that covers the same build and deploy pipeline job as CircleCI's hosted service.
Category
CI/CDTopics
Tech stack
HTML
JavaScriptLanguages as reported by GitHub for the repository.
