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GitLab vs Jenkins comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

GitLab
Ranking in Build Automation
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Application Security Tools (11th), Release Automation (2nd), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (10th), Rapid Application Development Software (12th), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (5th), Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (2nd), Fuzz Testing Tools (2nd), DevSecOps (3rd)
Jenkins
Ranking in Build Automation
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of GitLab is 17.3%, down from 19.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Jenkins is 11.3%, down from 14.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Build Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Corné den Hollander - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 15, 2022
Powerful, mature, and easy to set up and manage
It's more related to the supporting layer of features, such as issue management and issue tracking. We tend to always use, for example, Jira next to it. That doesn't mean that GitLab should build something similar to Jira because that will always have its place, but they could grow a bit in those kinds of supporting features. I see some, for example, covering ITSM on a DevOps team level, and that's one of the things that I and my current client would find really helpful. It's understandably not going to be their main focus and their core, and whenever you are with a company that needs a bit more advanced features on that specific topic, you're probably still going to integrate with another tool like Jira Service Management, for example. However, some basic features on things like that could be really helpful. In terms of additional features, nothing comes to mind. One of the potential pitfalls is to keep adding new features and functionalities. They can just improve some of the existing features to make it high-end, top-quality. I don't have any substantial experience with agile planning. I don't know the industries GitLab is in, and I don't know why they make decisions like this, but as a customer, I would rather see them invest in improving the basic agile planning functionalities rather than adding, for example, portfolio planning features. That's because if I'm going to do portfolio planning, I probably will also need a lot of business users. I'm not sure if I want them in GitLab, I'd rather have them in Jira collaborating with me on portfolio planning. That's way better fitted for that type of work.
AllenUmlas - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 29, 2024
Streamlines the CI/CD process with its user-friendly interface, extensive plugin ecosystem and efficient automation capabilities
In our CI/CD pipeline, we rely on Jenkins to trigger various tasks related to the Telco Cloud infrastructure. It's an essential tool for managing our infrastructure tasks efficiently Jenkins is incredibly user-friendly, so I haven't encountered any difficulties using it. It's the only product…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"This is a scalable solution. We had around 200 users working with it."
"They incorporate new features every September, and they have introduced their own code editor and AI features."
"The most valuable feature of GitLab is its convenience. I am able to trace back most of my changes up to a far distance in time and it helps me to analyze and see the older version of the code."
"Git hosting has an integration with ACD which is why we liked this solution in the first place."
"Of all available products, it was the easiest to use and easy to install."
"The most valuable features of GitLab are the review, patch repo, and plans are in YAML."
"CI/CD is very good. The version control system is also good. These are the two features that we use."
"We like that we can have an all-encompassing product and don't have to implement different solutions."
"I love Jenkins. I like that you work on anything, and you make anything. Jenkins is very important for my team. I am satisfied with the product."
"Jenkins optimizes the CI/CD process, enhances automation, and ensures efficiency and management of our build and deployment pipeline."
"The automated elements are easy to use and you can put them into your server."
"Jenkins's open-based framework is very valuable."
"I like the business logs. It's a very useful tool. Client-server communication is also very fast."
"Jenkins is very easy to use."
"The most valuable feature of Jenkins is its open source."
"Jenkins is stable, user-friendly, and helps with continuous integration. As of today, I can't see any tool that's better than Jenkins."
 

Cons

"When deploying the solution on cloud and the CI/CD pipeline, we have to define the steps and it becomes confusing."
"We'd always like to see better pricing on the product."
"GitLab's UI could be improved."
"It would be really good if they integrated more features in application security."
"GitLab could consider introducing a code-scanning tool. Purchasing such tools from external markets can incur charges, which might not be favorable. Integrating these features into GitLab would streamline the pipeline and make it more convenient for users."
"I would like configuration of a YML file to be done via UI rather than a code file."
"I would like to see security increased in the future. A secure environment is very important."
"It would be better if there weren't any outages. There are occasions where we usually see a lot of outages using GitLab. It happens at least once a week or something like that. Whatever pipelines you're running, to check the logs, you need to have a different set of tools like Argus or something like that. If you have pipelines running on GitLab, you need a separate service deployed to view the logs, which is kind of a pain. If the logs can be used conveniently on GitLab, that would be definitely helpful. I'm not talking about the CI/CD pipelines but the back-end services and microservices deployed over GitLab. To view the logs for those microservices, you need to have separate log viewers, which is kind of a pain."
"It can be improved by including automated mobile reporting integrations."
"Jenkins relies on the old version of interface for configuration management. This needs improvement."
"We cannot change the ownership of any directory or file or any kind of directory."
"Jenkins can be improved, but it's difficult for me to explain. The initial setup could be more straightforward. If you connect Jenkins with bookings and lockouts, it can be challenging."
"Tasks such as deployment, cloning, database switchover, and all other database missions and tasks are being done through Jenkins. If a job does not go through, at times the error message does not clearly indicate what caused the failure. I have to escalate it to the Jenkins DevOps team just to see what caused the failure. If the error message is clear, then I wouldn't have to escalate the issue to different teams."
"Jenkins is an old product, and we encounter performance issues and slow response. Also, some of the plugins are not stable."
"It does not have a very user-friendly interface."
"It would be better if there were an option to remove its Java dependency. This would make it more compatible with other software, and it could be much better. At present, we have to depend on Java whenever we want to deploy agents."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is okay."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing a five out of ten."
"Its price is fine. It is on the cheaper side and not expensive. You have to pay additionally for GitLab CI/CD minutes. Initially, we used the free version. When we ran out of GitLab minutes, we migrated to the paid version."
"The solution is based on a subscription model and is reasonably priced."
"We are using its free version, and we are evaluating its Premium version. Its Ultimate version is very expensive."
"The open-source version is very good and the commercial version is reasonably priced."
"There are different licensing options available, including a free limited-user license."
"I think that we pay approximately $100 USD per month."
"It is a free product."
"We are using the free version of Jenkins. There is not a license required to use the solution because it is open-source."
"​It is free.​"
"Jenkins is an open-source tool."
"Jenkins is a free solution, it is open source."
"The tool is open-source."
"We use the tool's open-source version which is free. There is an enterprise version which is expensive but comes with better support."
"This is an open-source solution for the basic features. However, if an organization wishes to include specific functionality, outside of the basic package, there are extra costs involved."
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Comparison Review

it_user184734 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 22, 2015
I generally find TeamCity a lot more intuitive than Jenkins.
Moving to TeamCity from Jenkins At work, we’re slowly migrating from Jenkins to TeamCity in the hope of ending some of our recurring problems with continuous integration. My use of Jenkins prior to this job has been almost strictly on a personal basis, although I pretty much only use Travis…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
28%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about GitLab?
I find the features and version control history to be most valuable for our development workflow. These aspects provide us with a clear view of changes and help us manage requests efficiently.
What needs improvement with GitLab?
In the next release, I would like to see GitLab expand its integration capabilities to include platforms like DigitalOcean, which developers widely use for cloud infrastructure. Enhancing CI/CD aut...
How does Tekton compare with Jenkins?
When you are evaluating tools for automating your own GitOps-based CI/CD workflow, it is important to keep your requirements and use cases in mind. Tekton deployment is complex and it is not very e...
What do you like most about Jenkins?
Jenkins has been instrumental in automating our build and deployment processes.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Jenkins?
Jenkins is open source and free to use. You simply download it, install it on your server, and it manages your pipelines.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

1. NASA  2. IBM  3. Sony  4. Alibaba  5. CERN  6. Siemens  7. Volkswagen  8. ING  9. Ticketmaster  10. SpaceX  11. Adobe  12. Intuit  13. Autodesk  14. Rakuten  15. Unity Technologies  16. Pandora  17. Electronic Arts  18. Nordstrom  19. Verizon  20. Comcast  21. Philips  22. Deutsche Telekom  23. Orange  24. Fujitsu  25. Ericsson  26. Nokia  27. General Electric  28. Cisco  29. Accenture  30. Deloitte  31. PwC  32. KPMG
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Find out what your peers are saying about GitLab vs. Jenkins and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.