CircleCI pros and cons

Name: CircleCI
Brand: CircleCI
Rating: 3.4 (9 reviews)

Vendor: CircleCI

3.4 out of 5

9 reviews
80% willing to recommend

Leave a review

Pros & Cons summary

CircleCI streamlines build automation and workflow execution, offering parallel builds for scalability. It includes features like email notifications, project insights, and failure detection, enhancing deployment speed and productivity. With integrations like Bitbucket and container-based builds, it improves build management. However, it needs better Microsoft Azure integration and pricing transparency. Billing complexities and difficulties in debugging large workflows can hinder ROI, lacking metrics on efficiency improvements.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Get the report

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

CircleCI allows seamless automation of the build process and effortless workflow execution with support for parallel builds, enabling scalability.

It includes essential features such as email notifications, project insights, and the ability to detect failed builds, facilitating rapid deployment to production environments.

Valuable integrations include Bitbucket integration and container-based builds, along with artifact storage for enhanced build management.

The automation workflow related to third-party applications promotes application standardization.

CircleCI enhances productivity and release velocity, significantly reducing build and deployment times to offer a remarkable ROI.

CONS

Integration with Microsoft Azure needs improvement, particularly with features like deployment to App Service.

The pricing structure of CircleCI could be better and lacks transparency.

Billing is often confusing, with unclear network data transfer and storage costs related to caching and workspaces.

Return on investment with CircleCI is not evident, with no shared metrics like time saved or fewer employees needed.

Debugging complex pipelines and managing credits can be challenging, especially for large workflows.

CircleCI Pros review quotes

it_user790470

Full Stack Bot Engineer with 1,001-5,000 employees

Dec 18, 2017

The ability to automate the build process in a seamless way and run workflows effortlessly. It supports parallel builds so it can scale well. Also, it covers the basics of any build and integration tool, including email notifications (especially when tests are fixed), project insights, etc.

Read full review

reviewer993756

Automation & Network Engineer at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees

Oct 21, 2021

The automation workflow in CircleCI related to third-party applications is very good and allows standardization of applications.

Read full review

Mritunjay Kumar

Senior Engineer at Affinidi

Aug 29, 2023

It's a stable product.

Free Report: CircleCI Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about CircleCI. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

881,707 professionals have used our research since 2012.

reviewer0972521

Chief Technology Officer at Kyberlife

Sep 26, 2023

The solution offers continuous integration and continuous delivery.

Read full review

reviewer2783499

SRE coordinator at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

Dec 2, 2025

CircleCI has positively impacted the organization, as it has been used for many years and serves as the main source for application deployment.

Read full review

RahulArora

Global Head - DevOps and AIOps Startegist at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Dec 13, 2025

CircleCI has significantly reduced build and deployment times, saving substantial engineering hours and effort for me, which has directly improved my productivity and release velocity, reflecting incredible ROI.

Read full review

RishooMittal

Managing Technical Consultant - Solution Architect at NTT DATA

Jan 24, 2026

CircleCI has positively impacted my organization by bringing in faster deployments, which means we can release faster, receive quicker feedback, and enhance collaboration and communication across the entire team.

Read full review

CircleCI Cons review quotes

it_user790470

Full Stack Bot Engineer with 1,001-5,000 employees

Dec 18, 2017

Integration with Microsoft Azure is one area for improvement. Azure is growing in its user base, and supports various cloud infrastructure components such as Service Fabric, App Service, etc. Some of Azure’s deployment models (like Kudu) require a steep learning curve, but if CircleCI would come up with such features (deployment to App Service) out of the box, it would be amazing.

Read full review

reviewer993756

Automation & Network Engineer at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees

Oct 21, 2021

There needs to be some improvement in the user interface of CircleCI.

Read full review

Mritunjay Kumar

Senior Engineer at Affinidi

Aug 29, 2023

The solution’s pricing could be better.

Free Report: CircleCI Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about CircleCI. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

881,707 professionals have used our research since 2012.

reviewer0972521

Chief Technology Officer at Kyberlife

Sep 26, 2023

Billing is a mess.

Read full review

reviewer2783499

SRE coordinator at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

Dec 2, 2025

A return on investment with CircleCI has not been observed, and no relevant metrics such as time saved or fewer employees needed can be shared.

Read full review

RahulArora

Global Head - DevOps and AIOps Startegist at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Dec 13, 2025

I believe debugging complex pipelines and managing credits can sometimes be challenging, especially for large workflows, so these areas can be improved.

Read full review

RishooMittal

Managing Technical Consultant - Solution Architect at NTT DATA

Jan 24, 2026

I rated CircleCI six out of ten because I think they need more transparency in pricing, as there are instances of unclear network data transfer and storage costs related to caching and workspaces.

Read full review