Jenkins vs GitLab for CI/CD: Solving a Developer’s Dilemma

15-Second Summary: Developers often find themselves at a crossroads when choosing between Jenkins and GitLab for their CI/CD workflows. So, the problem we’re trying to address in this blog is – how do you make the right choice between these two tools? We'll do a side-by-side comparison, exploring the strengths and weaknesses of both Jenkins and GitLab so that you can make an informed decision for your project.

In between manual coding, sporadic testing, and anxious deployment nights of the 1990s, the concept of CI/CD was something from the future.

Fast forward to the mid-2000s, the need for faster and quality software increased, and CI/CD solutions came into existence. The mission was to make developers’ lives easier and products more reliable.

However, at present, it’s a wild west out there. You'll find dozens of CI/CD tools with so many made-to-measure comparisons by the providers.

This makes you wonder whether you would miss out on anything by choosing the X tool over the Y.

So, among them all, we’ll focus on Jenkins vs GitLab – two of the top dogs of the DevOps world. The reason we picked them is because they’re right now two widely used CI/CD servers, according to the 2024 State of DevOps Report.

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This blog will explore the features, benefits, integration capabilities, pricing models, and a lot more, to pick a winner between GitLab vs Jenkins. To back up our discussions, we’ll also include practical, hands-on perspectives of developers to help you make a thoughtful decision.

Let's kick things off with a little bit of backdrop and a dash of friendly rivalry!

Introduction to Jenkins

Jenkins, or Jenkins as a Service, is an open-source automation server that has been around for a long time. Originally known as Hudson, it’s suitable for different-sized projects because of its flexibility and scope of customization. In fact, it has an extensive library of more than 1800 plugins that can integrate with a range of third-party tools.

The learning curve is not necessarily steep as Jenkins has extensive documentation and a vibrant community of fellow developers who are very helpful and responsive. It runs on the Java programming language.

Core Features of Jenkins

So, what makes Jenkins one of the top CI/CD tools out there? The answer is the following features:

• Plugins

Jenkins has a wide range of plugins that extend its capabilities to integrate with multiple other tools, including version control systems like Git and cloud platforms like Azure.

• Easy Setup

Setting up and configuring build jobs is very easy with Jenkins as it provides a web-based interface, including built-in help and error checks. Another reason it’s easy to install, manage, and troubleshoot is the extensive learning materials.

• Server-Based Security

Creating a CI/CD pipeline with Jenkins ensures the highest security for both the user and the server. Developers can restrict access to limited people using modern techniques like multifactor authentication.

• Real-Time Reporting

Jenkins offers detailed real-time reports on builds and test results. You can fine-tune and modify your code based on the data-backed information about what’s working and what’s not

• Scalability

Scalability is another reason Jenkins is one of the best CI/CD tools. Developers can set easily scale projects with increasing loads and efficiently distribute works using a master-slave configuration.

Challenges of Using Jenkins

Definitely, from a developer’s point of view, Jenkins is a highly useful tool, but it comes with its share of challenges, such as:

• Jenkins’ strength is its weakness too. Customizing and managing a large number of plugins can be pretty overwhelming.
• If not properly configured, pipelines created with Jenkins can be vulnerable to security breaches.
• Jenkins is very resource-consuming. Hence, managing resources like CPU and memory usage is a complicated process.

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Introduction to GitLab

GitLab is a comprehensive, web-based DevOps software development package, an integrated part of which is CI/CD. It’s the best option if you want a high level of documentation.

Developers also admire GitLab for its easy-to-use interface that delivers a seamless user experience even to newbies. It can either self-host this tool or access it on the cloud.

GitLab CI has a really huge community, with over 35 million registered users. This is because it offers a lot more features other than CI/CD, such as hosting, version control, source code management, etc.

Core Features of GitLab

Let's talk about the most compelling features of GitLab now:

• GitLab Runner

GitLab Runner is the main application that runs this tool as well as CI/CD workflows. This allows you to execute pipelines in a controlled environment since you have the choice to host these runners by GitLab or on your own infrastructure.

• YAML Configuration

Using a .gitlab-ci.yml file, developers can define a CI/CD pipeline configuration and specify tasks, dependencies, and job definitions. It's a powerful way to write a pipeline as code.

• Container Orchestration

Container as a Service is another great feature of GitLab. It can easily integrate with Kubernetes clusters as a result of which, developers simplify the development process and scale containerized applications.

• Artifact Management

GitLab has a pre-configured artifact management system that helps developers save and share files, such as compiled binaries while the pipeline is running. You can use them later or for final deployment.

• Docker Integration

You can integrate GitLab's base images with Docker containers to compile your app and its dependencies. This ensures consistency across different stages of the pipeline.

Challenges of Using GitLab CI

Here are some of the biggest shortcomings of GitLab:

• Since CI/CD is the sole feature of GitLab, comprehending it can be a time-consuming task for small teams or beginners.
• For self-hosted pipelines, you have to use a lot of resources, including servers and production environments. This gets especially more challenging for large-scale projects.
• GitLab is not completely free of cost. A lot of its important features require a premium subscription.

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Jenkins vs GitLab: A Head-on Comparison

So, we did our research and came up with the below-mentioned differences between Jenkins and GitLab:

Architecture

The software architecture pattern of Jenkins follows the master-slave model, which enables distributed builds across various agents.

On the other hand, GitLab follows a single-server architecture where developers get a unified platform for CI/CD and source code management.

Configuration as Code (CasC)

Traditionally, Jenkins depends on XML-based configuration files. Configuration as Code plugins are there but they’re not a core part of this CI/CD tool.

However, as we already mentioned, GitLab’s YAML-based files allow developers to create a pipeline as code. This leads to easier version control and CI/CD configurations.

Integration Capabilities

With its vast ecosystem of plugins, Jenkins allows you to integrate your pipeline with practically any other tool.

In contrast, GitLab is a self-sufficient platform that you can easily integrate with Git repositories. Many commonly used CI/CD tasks don’t need any third-party plugins.

Containerization

Between GitLab CI/CD vs Jenkins, Jenkins can work with containers but lacks native DevOps containerization solutions. Plugins are the tools for container orchestration.

GitLab, however, has containerization as one of its core features. It uses Docker containers to isolate jobs and integrates easily with Kubernetes.

Pricing Model

Pricing is a notable difference between GitLab and Jenkins. Jenkins doesn’t have any subscription fees. Since its inception, it has been openly accessible to all users. You just need to bear the cost of hosting servers.

On the contrary, GitLab has a premium version that provides additional functionalities to users, such as 10,000 CI/CD minutes/month, release controls, etc. The ultimate version offers 50,000 CI/CD minutes.

Technical Support

Apart from robust community support and extensive documentation, Jenkins does not have any technical support team for users.

GitLab’s paid versions offer dedicated support to users 24*7. And for free users, it offers self-support documents.

Installation

Ease of setup and installation differs between Jenkins and GitLab CI/CD. Jenkins often needs manual configuration and management, especially if you’re working on complicated projects.

GitLab CI excels in this field as it’s super simple and straightforward to install GitLab on your system. Updating is also easy as you just need to change the Docker images.

A Quick Glance at GitLab vs Jenkins

For a quick reference, we have created this table to check out the differences between a GitLab pipeline and a Jenkins pipeline:

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Jenkins vs GitLab CI: Factors to Consider Before Choosing

Here's a number of factors teams should consider before choosing Jenkins or GitLab:

Development Skills

• Choose Jenkins if your developers have strong knowledge of system administration and scripting.
• Choose GitLab if you have a small-sized team, and its main focus is the development project.

Project Size

• Jenkins is more suitable for complicated, large-scale projects with extensive customization needs.
• GitLab is the best CI/CD tool for small and medium-sized projects because it’s easy to set up and manage.

Security and Compliance

• If your organization has specific security needs and needs flexibility in implementing security measures, go for Jenkins.
• If you want a more integrated and user-friendly approach to security, GitLab is the go-to CI tool.

Jenkins vs GitLab: Developers’ Perspectives

It's not just about debating the merits and demerits of GitLab vs Jenkins CI/CD. We scoured Reddit where developers candidly share experiences and insights on this topic. Their unfiltered comments shed some light on the practical implications of choosing between Jenkins vs GitLab in the real world.

Here are some positive reviews of these two tools:

However, both tools have their downsides as well and some developers didn’t hesitate to put that forward:

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To Conclude: How Radixweb Can HelpThe choice of CI/CD tool can have a significant impact on your development workflows. It’s practically impossible now to execute a successful project without having a robust CI/CD pipeline in place.Radixweb has been a DevOps pioneer for over a decade now. We understand the critical role CI/CD plays in the success of software development initiatives. Our expertise lies in a wide array of DevOps tools, including Jenkins, GitLab, Ansible, Chef, and more.Our DevOps experts are here to optimize your DevOps practices, choose the most suitable tool for your workflows, and ensure smooth integration.Let's catch up and discuss your requirements!