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GNU Make vs Jenkins comparison

GNU and Jenkins are both solutions in the Build Automation category. GNU is ranked #17 with an average rating of 9.0, while Jenkins is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.1. GNU holds a 0.6% mindshare in BA, compared to Jenkins’s 11.0% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of GNU users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Jenkins users who would recommend it.
GNU Make
Read 6 GNU Make reviews
  • 191 Views
  • 158 Comparison Views
83% willing to recommend
Jenkins
Read 93 Jenkins reviews
  • 4,563 Views
  • 3,948 Comparison Views
87% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between GNU Make and Jenkins based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Build Automation solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

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To learn more, read our detailed GNU Make vs. Jenkins Report (Updated: January 2025).
Buyer's Guide
GNU Make vs. Jenkins
January 2025
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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

GNU Make
Ranking in Build Automation
17th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Jenkins
Ranking in Build Automation
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
93
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of GNU Make is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Jenkins is 11.0%, down from 14.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Build Automation
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2561757 - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhances productivity with efficient dependency handling and a straightforward setup
GNU Make is used as a build system tool. Most people don't use GNU Make directly but utilize other systems like CMake to generate Make files, which are then run by GNU Make. This is common for tasks like compiling C++ code. In the industry, AI developers, for example, use GNU Make in their work…
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Dinesh-Patil - PeerSpot reviewer
A highly-scalable and stable solution that reduces deployment time and produces a significant return on investment
The dashboard needs to be improved. Though the access management and authentication functionalities are present, the dashboard and UI could be more user-friendly. The product has many plug-ins. Users have to go through the documentation to be able to use the product. The UI must be more user-friendly. The information should be available in the dashboard itself. The users shouldn’t have to refer to the documentation. When a user hovers over the elements on the dashboard, it should reveal information about them.
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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Full-featured syntax allows building strategies as simple or as complex as one wishes, and declarative approach fits the task really well. Wide adoption also means that everybody knows what GNU Make is and how to use it."
"I have not encountered any scalability issues with GNU Make. It is as scalable as the project's structure is, and then some."
"The initial setup of GNU Make is straightforward."
"GNU Make is such an essential tool that it is almost impossible to imagine working without it. Not having it, developers would probably have to resort to doing everything manually or via shell scripts."
"Setup is extremely straightforward."
"Makefiles are extremely easy to work with using any preferred editor. GNU Make can be run directly from the terminal, not requiring any time wasted on clicking."
"Jenkins is very customizable."
"Configuration management: It is so easy to configure a Jenkins instance. Migrate configuration to a new environment just by copying XML files and setting up new nodes."
"The solution is scalable and has a large number of plugins that can help you scale it to your needs."
"It is very useful for us to be able to collect and manage automatic processing pipelines."
"There are a large number of plugins available for integration with third party systems."
"Having builds and test tasks triggered on commit helps not to break the product."
"Jenkins has been instrumental in automating our build and deployment processes."
"The most valuable aspect of this solution is that there are multiple features. We can abstract certain variables and then build our deployment routine while being able to do some abstraction onto the SSH connections."
More Jenkins pros
 

Cons

"GNU Make does not provide traditional customer support."
"Vanilla GNU Make does not support any kind of colored output. A wrapper named colormake exists to work around this, but native (opt-in) support would be welcome."
"GNU Make requires using the Tab symbol as the first symbol of command line for execution. In some text editors this can be problematic, as they automatically insert spaces instead of tabs."
"Logging could be improved to offer a clearer view."
"Sometimes, random errors of metadata are not there, which causes delays. These are essentially gaps in the information being passed to the job."
"Its schedule builds need improvement. It should have scheduling features in the platform rather than using external plug-ins."
"Jenkins takes a long time to create archive files."
"The major drawback with Jenkins is the lack of support."
"And I don't care too much for the Jenkins user interface. It's not that user-friendly compared to other solutions available right now. It's not a great user experience. You can do just fine if you are a techie, but it would take a novice some time to learn it and get things done."
"The UI must be more user-friendly."
"Jenkins is an old product, and we encounter performance issues and slow response. Also, some of the plugins are not stable."
More Jenkins cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"GNU Make is free and open source software."
"There is no price for this product. No licensing. It’s open-source."
"We are using the freeware version of Jenkins."
"Jenkins is an open-source platform."
"It is a free product."
"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."
"In our company, we do pay for the licensing of the solution."
"It's free software with a big community behind it, which is very good."
"Jenkins is a free solution, it is open source."
"Jenkins is open source and free."
More Jenkins pricing and cost advice
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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…
Read full review
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GNU Make?
GNU Make is a free solution that comes with Linux, which positively impacts operational costs by eliminating licensing fees.
See all answers
What needs improvement with GNU Make?
I am not familiar enough with it to suggest any specific new features or areas for improvement. It occupies its niche well.
See all answers
What is your primary use case for GNU Make?
GNU Make is used as a build system tool. Most people don't use GNU Make directly but utilize other systems like CMake to generate Make files, which are then run by GNU Make. This is common for task...
See all answers
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...
See all answers
What do you like most about Jenkins?
Jenkins has been instrumental in automating our build and deployment processes.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Jenkins?
Jenkins is used in many companies to save money, especially within R&D divisions, by avoiding the expenses of proprietary tools.
See all answers
 

Comparisons

No data available
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Compared 13% of the time
Bamboo vs Jenkins Logo
Bamboo vs Jenkins
Compared 11% of the time
Bazel vs Jenkins Logo
Bazel vs Jenkins
Compared 9% of the time
GoCD vs Jenkins Logo
GoCD vs Jenkins
Compared 3% of the time
More Jenkins Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Build Automation
January 2025
GNU Make reportDownload GNU Make product report
Buyer's Guide
Jenkins
February 2025
Jenkins reportDownload Jenkins product report
 

Overview

Make is a tool which controls the generation of executables and other non-source files of a program from the program's source files.
GNU

Jenkins is an award-winning application that monitors executions of repeated jobs, such as building a software project or jobs run by cron.

Jenkins
 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Airial, Clarus Financial Technology, cubetutor, Metawidget, mysocio, namma, silverpeas, Sokkva, So Rave, tagzbox
Buyer's Guide
GNU Make vs. Jenkins
January 2025
Free Report: GNU Make vs. Jenkins
Find out what your peers are saying about GNU Make vs. Jenkins and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
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