Ansible vs Jenkins: Differences and Which is the Right Choice?

Quick Summary: Ansible and Jenkins are the two most popular DevOps tools widely used for automation. But which tool is best for an organization to leverage DevOps automation? This blog helps find an answer by comparing Ansible vs Jenkins. Find out the differences between these tools and know the best choice for your organization.

Successful software organizations follow the right principles, processes, and tools when it comes to developing, testing, and delivering software. Today, DevOps has become a crucial approach among software organizations that want to improve their development and deployment cycles.

DevOps is not about some rules; it’s an organizational culture and mindset that promotes close collaboration between the development and operations teams. This is why you can expect the DevOps market to reach USD 63.4 Billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 21% during 2024-2032.

Automation is foundational in DevOps and there are multifarious tools that handle processes therein. Ansible and Jenkins are among the most widely used tools for the DevOps process. They provide automation and streamline operations.

Jenkins vs Ansible is a common comparison when it comes to choosing an automation tool for your DevOps workflows. Both these tools offer unique features making it tough for an organization to make a choice.

In this article, we will compare these tools to help you choose the right one for your DevOps teams. We will provide good insights that will help you get out of the confusion. Read on to break your dilemma.

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What is Jenkins?

Jenkins is a popular CI (Continuous Integration) tool that automates and manages various processes in software development. It manages software builds, documentation, testing, packaging, and more. This is an important tool for DevOps teams and helps implement and streamline the continuous integration pipeline. According to JetBrains report, it is the most used DevOps tool.

What is Ansible?

It is a popular IT automation tool that is used to automate various IT processes like provisioning of infrastructure, configuration management, orchestration, and software deployment. Ansible is a handy tool for IT Ops teams to manage and automate processes.

Full Comparison of Ansible vs Jenkins

Jenkins and Ansible play a crucial role in the DevOps process. Plus, they help in implementing DevOps practices in complex software development environments. While they both are powerful tools, they are two different beasts. Ansible/Ansible Tower is for orchestration and configuration management in the deployment pipeline. On the other hand, Jenkins is used in automated builds, artifact management, and build ci/cd pipelines. So, Jenkins is a build tool and Ansible is an excellent tool to automate and orchestrate IT Ops.

The following is the comparison between these two tools:

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What are the Pros and Cons of Ansible?

Various organizations are using Ansible for automating IT workflows including Intel and Evernote. It is simple and seamlessly handles multi-tier IT application environments. There are numerous other benefits it offers. Besides, there are also some downsides to it. Let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages below.

Pros

• Easy to Learn: Users quickly reach the optimal speed and productivity with this tool because of easy-to-follow documentation that makes it easy to learn the logic and workflow.
• Based on Python: Ansible is based on the Python programming language which is a simple yet powerful language today. Further, Python libraries are also available for different Linux distributions.
• Offers Agentless Automation: Another advantage of using Ansible is it offers agentless IT automation. It means installing agents on a remote system isn’t a prerequisite that has to be managed. Ansible works with SSH for controller/agent communication.
• YAML Playbooks: Playbooks are Ansible configuration files and are written in YAML which is a human-readable language. It is more suitable for managing configuration and automation than other formats like JSON because it’s easy to read and edit.
• Ansible Galaxy: It’s a handy platform for Ansible users to install different roles for installing and configuring applications. For example, users can install an Ansible role for automated installation and configuration of Gitlab.

Cons

• No Reliable UI: Ansible doesn’t have a reliable GUI, though it offers Ansible Tower which is a web-based interface, there is much scope for improvement in it. So, users still need the command-line interface.
• Not Fully Supported on Windows: Windows support is still in the nascent stage for Ansible. Though it supports Windows along with Linux/Unix from version 1.7, users still need a Linux controller machine for managing Windows hosts.
• No State: Ansible runs in a stateless manner, so there is no track of dependencies. This stateless behavior isn’t suitable in many cases.

What are the Pros and Cons of Jenkins?

Jenkins is quite a popular open-source CI/CD tool. It offers excellent features and flexibility. It is reliable and extensible. Besides these benefits, there are some downsides to it as well. Let’s check them all below.

Pros

• Easy Installation: Installing Jenkins is quite easy. It is installable on platforms like Docker, Windows, Linux, and more with a simple executable. You need Java JDK to be installed on the platform.
• Plenty of Plugins: It offers rich extensibility options with 1000+ plugins that ease your work. Plugins help to integrate more functionality into the Jenkins server.
• Based on Java: It is built on the Java programming language that makes it portable to major platforms. So, Jenkins can be used on many platforms without complex configurations.
• Support Different Scripts: Jenkins is able to execute bash scripts and shell scripts. Plus, it can execute Maven and ANT build scripts.
• Free and Open Source: It is an open-source project, and anyone can download and install Jenkins for free on different types of platforms.
• Customization: It is easy to configure Jenkins as per your requirements for the CI/CD pipeline. It allows users to create advanced custom pipelines.

Cons

• Difficult to Manage: Since Jenkins is a CI server, administrator-level skills are required to manage it.
• Outdated UI: There is a good UI with Jenkins. But it is outdated and doesn’t meet the current standards of user-friendliness.
• Intrusive Configurations: Although there is a simple installation process with Jenkins, the configuration may be tedious due to dependencies.
• CI Disruptions: Small changes in settings can affect continuous integration that may require close attention.
• Plugin Quality: It uses third-party plugins, and the quality may be unreliable.

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Which Tool Should You Choose: Ansible or Jenkins?

As we are comparing these tools, one question might arise in your mind – is Ansible better than Jenkins or vice versa? Making a choice between Jenkins and Ansible can be difficult if you don’t define your goals precisely. Hence, the right decision depends on a few scenarios as follows:

• In smaller projects where many tools are needed for building, code analysis, testing, etc., Jenkins is the right choice.
• Use Ansible for larger projects with many servers and a bigger development environment.

Although their functions overlap, and it is possible to use both of them for CI/CD, they are usually meant for different purposes. Indeed, when it comes to automating your IT operations and processes, Ansible is the right tool and Jenkins is excellent for software build automation and delivery.

Final ThoughtModern DevOps teams combine Ansible and Jenkins to ensure seamless DevOps workflows. While Jenkins is utilized for building and testing software, Ansible helps in managing, configuring, and automating the deploying platform. Together they offer an efficient pipeline for building, testing, and deploying software.If you are looking for help, you can partner with a leading DevOps services company that has tremendous experience in the field and offers CI/CD consultation to choose the best automation tool for your organization.Contact us to get quality consultation or hire experts for DevOps processes. We offer services that are aligned to your organization’s needs.