Top 10 CI/CD Tools in 2022

Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) tools are software solutions that leverage automation to support DevOps and speed up application delivery to end-users. This article explains the key features you need in a CI/CD tool and the ten best options in the market today. 

Key Must-Have Features of CI/CD Tools

Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) tools are defined as software solutions that leverage automation to support DevOps and speed up the application delivery to end-users.

According to a 2022 report published by Market Growth Reports, CI/CD tools were valued at $402 million in 2017. The market is expected to reach $1.3 billion by 2023. This indicates strong demand for CI/CD tools, owing to their ability to optimize the various stages of DevOps-driven software development processes – namely planning, coding, build, test, release, deployment, and operations. 

Here are the key features to look out for when adopting a CI/CD tool: 

1. Ease of installation

The CI/CD tool you choose should be easy to set up. Otherwise, it might make more sense to craft your automation scripts from scratch if the installation requires too much time, effort, and other technologies. Further, DevOps processes are often executed on-premise, which might be a factor when selecting the best CI/CD tool for your organization. Some vendors may be able to help you with tailored installation services for organization-specific use cases.

2. Developer-centricity

While specific software development tools are aimed at business users (e.g., low-code platforms and codeless automation platforms), users of continuous integration and continuous delivery solutions will bring significant technical experience. 

Your selected continuous integration/delivery technology’s functionality must be adjusted accordingly, including training, code repositories, collaborative processes, and, if required, automation. Bear in mind that the precise feature set may change according to the developer’s actual position and classification within the software development lifecycle. Additionally, it is beneficial to have a development community around the tool to assist its versatility.

3. Collaboration support for DevOps

While developer cooperation is critical, the CI/CD solution must also be capable of facilitating continuous coordination and communication between development and operations teams. While the development team is writing code, the operations team must be able to deploy it and provide feedback and changes as necessary immediately. This collaboration is critical to the success of DevOps. As a result, the tool must support collaboration natively (if possible) or via integration with third-party collaboration services.

4. Integration flexibility

You should be able to integrate the CI/CD tool with your existing software stack, including software development tools, production environments, and ITOps solutions. There are two ways these tools can be integrated — through native integrations and application programming interfaces (APIs). Ideally, the CI/CD tool should support native integrations with continuous integration/continuous development (CI/CD) products through an integration marketplace with open APIs for the rest of your enterprise stack.

5. Enterprise-readiness

Your CI/CD tool must be scalable for enterprise use. Different stakeholders across the team and organization should be able to use it meaningfully, and it must be able to handle complex digital environments. Small teams and startups often adopt CI/CD tools in their early stages of growth. If the technology is not scalable, it may have to rebuild the composite development landscape.

See More: What Is CI/CD? Definition, Process, Benefits, and Best Practices for 2022

Top 10 CI/CD Tools in 2022

CI/CD tools are available in both open-source and commercial variants, depending on your budgetary specifications and requirements. Let us look at the top CI/CD tools for 2022, arranged in alphabetical order. 

Disclaimer: This list is based on publicly available information and may include vendor websites that sell to mid-to-large enterprises. Readers are advised to conduct their final research to ensure the best fit for their unique organizational needs.

1. Azure Pipelines

Overview: Azure Pipelines (part of Microsoft Azure) simplifies the creation and testing of code projects prior to making them freely accessible. It may be used with practically any programming language or type of project. Azure Pipelines lets you build and test your code concurrently while distributing it to any destination.

Key features:

• Ease of installation: It is possible to develop, test, and deploy applications written in Node.js, Python, Java, PHP, Ruby, C/C++,.NET, Android, and iOS on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
• Developer-centricity: With ease, users can create and push images to container registries such as Docker Hub and Azure Container Registry. Containers may be deployed to individual hosts or Kubernetes clusters.
• Collaboration support for DevOps: Users may benefit from robust and linked DevOps processes with native container support.
• Integration flexibility: Pipeline supports a diverse set of community-developed build, test, and deployment apps, as well as hundreds of extensions ranging from Slack to SonarCloud.
• Enterprise-readiness: Enterprises can benefit from simple build chaining and multi-phased builds that include support for release gates, test integration, reporting, etc.

USP: Azure Pipelines ensures that every open source project has rapid CI/CD capabilities. Further, users receive ten complimentary parallel tasks with unlimited build minutes for any open source project.

Pricing: It is priced at $40 per Microsoft-hosted CI/CD parallel task and $15 per additional self-hosted CI/CD parallel job with unlimited minutes.

Editorial comments: The features are all synchronized, making them extremely easy to use. However, it might be challenging to implement environment-specific adjustments.

2. Bamboo 

Overview: Bamboo Server helps DevOps, and CI/CD teams streamline software development and delivery using the power of automation, integrations, and workflow management. It is part of the Atlassian ecosystem of products and can be used in conjunction with your code pipelines in Bitbucket. 

Key features:

• Ease of installation: Bamboo can be installed on your local servers in a perpetual license model. Keep in mind that some set-up effort may be required.
• Developer-centricity: It is compatible with all major coding languages and development platforms. Bamboo is available as a tarball file for Mac and Windows and a ZIP file.
• Collaboration support for DevOps: You get free support for the first 12 months while also gaining from a community of 3 million+ global Atlassian users. 
• Integration flexibility: It integrates seamlessly with all Atlassian products and third-party applications (Docker, AWS CodeDeploy, OpsGenie, etc.) at various CI/CD stages.
• Enterprise-readiness: It is suitable for large deployments with up to 1000 remote agents and unlimited local agents.

USP: Bamboo perfectly fits into cloud-based software development stacks such as AWS and has many automated tasks for builds, tests, and deployment use cases. You can gain from automation efficiency for regression testing, releases for different environments, and much more. 

Pricing: Pricing starts at $1,500 for one remote and unlimited local agents. 

Editorial comments: Companies engaging in on-premise software development using their servers should consider Bamboo. However, the tool can be challenging to learn for first-time users. 

3. Docker

Overview: Docker is a containerization solution widely used in DevOps and CI/CD workflows. Using the tool, it is possible to decouple apps from their surrounding environments, and it also includes a ready community of container images for development use. 

Key features:

• Ease of installation: Docker supports application development for computing environments, including public, hybrid, and multi-cloud. It also includes access to free public repositories. 
• Developer-centricity: Docker offers open-source developer tools, a thriving community, and pre-built images for developer use. 
• Collaboration support for DevOps: Docker provides easy shareability of codebases without requiring specialized knowledge in Kubernetes and includes developer productivity tools.
• Integration flexibility: It allows users to develop applications in any language and natively integrates with a wide range of third-party platforms like Azure, GitHub, etc. 
• Enterprise readiness: The Docker Hub feature streamlines enterprise use by integrating with GitHub and enabling deployment using a centralized platform.  

USP: Docker is the premier platform for container-based CI/CD projects. It has a localized desktop version for independent use and a centralized enterprise hub. 

Pricing: Pricing for this CI/CD tool starts at $7 per user per month. 

Editorial comments: Docker is among the leading options for individuals, teams, and organizations looking to adopt containerization for CI/CD purposes. However, large-scale deployments may be costly for independent developers. 

4. GitLab

Overview: GitLab is a collection of tools intended to be used in various software development life cycle stages. At its core, it is a Git repository manager designed to be used on the web, with capabilities such as tracking issues, reporting, and an online wiki.

Key features:

• Ease of installation: Branching tools allow users to create, view, and manage project data and codes to simplify installation and use.
• Developer-centricity: It offers container scanning, dynamic application security testing (DAST), dependency scanning, and static application security testing (SAST) to support developers.
• Collaboration support for DevOps: It provides a single source of scalability and truth for project and code collaborations.
• Integration flexibility: Integration with popular services such as Campfire, Flowdock, Jira, Pivotal Tracker, and Slack are available to users.
• Enterprise-readiness: It maximizes the overall return on software development for enterprises by delivering software faster while strengthening security and compliance.

USP: GitLab is a single application for the entire software development lifecycle, including project planning and source code management to delivery and upkeep. This reduces the need to maintain multiple tools in the stack.

Pricing: GitLab is free for individual users and costs $19 per team user. 

Editorial comments: Gitlab is an extremely popular CI/CD tool, mainly due to its free tier, which offers 5 GB of complimentary storage and 10 GB of data transfers. However, it does not provide premium consultancy services like large-scale integrations.

5. Harness

Overview: A continuous self-service integration and delivery platform, Harness lets engineers and DevOps build, test, deploy, and verify software on-demand. Using Harness, feature flags, cloud cost optimization, and many CI/CD other processes are simplified, thanks to the industry’s first AI-powered software delivery platform.

Key features:

• Ease of installation: Harness modules are available via SaaS or on-premises software, making it easy to install and set up. 
• Developer-centricity: It offers a seamless modern developer experience through configuration as code, GitOps, self-service, modern UI, visual pipelines, and real-time debugging.
• Collaboration support for DevOps: It allows users to deploy to all multiple cloud providers simultaneously from the same pipeline, collaborating across different stakeholders.
• Integration flexibility: Harness integrates with and orchestrates the entire software delivery toolchain, supporting all primary DevOps tools.
• Enterprise-readiness: It is geared for enterprise use as it is equipped with role-based access control, single sign-on (SSO), and audit capabilities.

USP: Its artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm bolsters your delivery pipelines. One can prioritize what tests to run, automate canary verifications, automate cloud costs, determine the impact of changes, etc.

Pricing: It costs $100 per service per month.

Editorial comments: Harness makes managing the complete CI/CD process easy across multiple teams. However, certain features like the option to build images without pushing do not currently exist in the Harness CI module.

See More: CI/CD vs. DevOps: Understanding 8 Key Differences

6. Jenkins

Overview: Jenkins is an open-source server for automation that is free to use. In software development, it aids in the automation of the processes associated with creating, testing, and deploying, hence helping the methods of continuous integration and delivery. In this case, it is a server-based solution that operates in servlet containers such as the Apache Tomcat web server.

Key features:

• Ease of installation: It is a Java-based tool that is ready to work right out of the box on various operating systems, including Windows, Linux, macOS, and other Unix operating systems.
• Developer-centricity: It offers greater control and flexibility of configuration to developers, owing to its web interface. 
• Collaboration support for DevOps: It distributes work over several workstations, allowing teams to complete builds, tests, and deployments for various stakeholders in a shorter amount of time.
• Integration flexibility: Jenkins’s functionality can be expanded via its plugin architecture, which opens the door to many possibilities for the tools Jenkins can integrate with.
• Enterprise-readiness: Enterprises can benefit from Jenkins Enterprise, a powerful CI/CD tool built on Jenkins’ open-source capabilities. 

USP: Despite being a free tool, it provides hundreds of ready-to-use plug-ins in its update center to reduce developer effort. Also, it has a large community with regular events and workshops. 

Pricing: Jenkins is free to use, although users must pay for the hosting server. 

Editorial comments: Jenkins is easy to set up and provides the largest integration libraries among open source CI/CD tools. However, the Jenkins dashboard can be difficult to use when executing multiple jobs simultaneously. 

7. Octopus Deploy

Overview: Octopus Deploy applies automated workflows to streamline even the most complex software deployments. It uses automated deployment tools for developers and releases managers and automated runbooks to reduce efforts for operations teams. 

Key features:

• Ease of installation: It can be quickly deployed as a service for up to 5000 deployment targets. On local servers, it supports unlimited deployments.
• Developer-centricity: It supports all major development environments like Java, .NET, Node.js, Python, etc. 
• Collaboration support for DevOps: Slack communities and discussion forums are available for Octopus Deploy, with active participation from users.
• Integration flexibility: It natively connects with major CI servers, operations tools, container platforms, etc., and you can integrate custom applications through APIs.
• Enterprise-readiness: A dedicated offering called Octopus Deploy for Enterprise connects multiple teams, platforms, and software releases across the organization.

USP: Octopus’s primary differentiators are its simplicity and automation capabilities. You may immediately get tutorials and directions for all major programming languages, package repositories, and build servers.

Pricing: It is free for up to ten deployment targets and costs between $7-9 per target each month in the cloud.

Editorial comments: Octopus Deploy delivers vast capabilities at a scalable and accessible pricing point geared toward unifying and automating your CI/CD environment. However, the user interface is slightly cluttered. 

8. Opsera

Overview: Opsera allows a zero-code approach to automation, enabling you to automate any CI/CD stack without writing a single line of code. You may pick your tools through a graphical user interface and also get extensive analytics on the performance of your CI/CD pipeline.

Key features:

• Ease of installation: It is available as a ready-to-use SaaS platform with modules for toolchain automation, pipelines, and unified insights.
• Developer-centricity: It works with all major cloud-based development environments on AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and on-premise infrastructure. 
• Collaboration support for DevOps: A growing body of resources is available for Opsera customers, including monthly DevOps huddles and regular webinars.
• Integration flexibility: There is a large integration marketplace for different products types and CI/CD stages.
• Enterprise-readiness: It is purpose-built for multi-faceted development landscapes with many tools, stringent security, and privacy built-in.

USP: Its unique approach to automation requires minimal manual scripting from CI/CD professionals. You can deploy these integrated workflows on a public cloud, an on-premise server, or using Opsera’s own virtual private cloud environment. 

Pricing: The tool is custom priced. 

Editorial comments: Opsera is relatively new in the DevOps segment but has enormous potential. It has won several awards and adoption by enterprises like Honeywell and Autodesk in the recent past. However, the lack of maturity means that there is insufficient documentation. 

9. Relay 

Overview: Relay is a CI/CD automation platform primarily focused on cloud operations. It is powered by Puppet, a DevOps technology pioneer, and provides CI/CD developers with straightforward solutions for automating cloud-based operations.

Key features:

• Ease of installation: Relay is easy to deploy as a single platform, with tools to define event-based triggers and workflows. 
• Developer-centricity: It works with all major development environments like Google Cloud, AWS, Azure, Docker, and Kubernetes. 
• Collaboration support for DevOps: You access Puppet’s global community of users, conducting camps, champion programs, and test pilots. 
• Integration flexibility: It has a large integrations library covering 50+ tools, triggers, and integration steps.
• Enterprise-readiness: The dedicated enterprise edition supports 5000 active workflows, stringent security, and on-premise requirements. 

USP: Relay’s most unique differentiator is that it is entirely cloud-first. Also, it supports both low-code automation workflows and code-based workflows to give you greater control. 

Pricing: Pricing for Relay starts at $20 per user per month.

Editorial comments: Relay has an excellent library of ready-to-use integrations, event-based triggers, and automation recipes or steps that can help you get started with minimal effort. However, support for on-premise environments is limited. 

10. Travis CI

Overview: Travis CI is a hosted CI tech option. One can leverage it to build and test software projects hosted on GitHub and Bitbucket. Travis CI was one of the first continuous integration platforms to provide services to open-source projects for free, and it continues to do so today.

Key features: 

• Ease of installation: It is possible to install the CI/CD tool in just a few minutes, log in with GitHub, instruct Travis CI to test a project, and then push it directly to GitHub. 
• Developer-centricity: Many databases and services are pre-installed to reduce developer effort and can be enabled in the existing build configuration.
• Collaboration support for DevOps: Multiple stakeholders and cross-functional teams can work on Travis CI and drive end-to-end workflows. 
• Integration flexibility: DevOps teams can choose to deploy anywhere, as Travis CI will update staging and production environments as soon as code passes testing. 
• Enterprise-readiness: While Travis CI is primarily meant for open-source use, it is also suitable for enterprises due to its open architecture and wide range of integrations.

USP: Travis CI provides speedy service and supports automated testing in minutes. Also, users can gain from 900,000+ open-source projects and a community of 600,000+ users. 

Pricing: Pricing starts at $69 per month. 

Editorial comments: Travis CI is easy to use and does not require much configuration. However, there is no provision for running applications in a virtual private cloud (VPC). 

See More: Top 10 DevOps Automation Tools in 2021

Product Comparison: Best CI/CD Tools in 2022

Let us compare the key highlights of the CI/CD tools we discussed:

Takeaways

CI/CD tools are an essential part of the modern software development journey. As teams increasingly embrace DevOps to support market demand for quicker fixes, shorter release cycles, and high-quality software code, these tools allow teams to work seamlessly together and deliver at pace. CI/CD tools are among the most popular software development aids, supporting organizations in ramping up their production capacities. 

What is your preferred CI/CD tool for software development? Tell us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you! 

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