Best CI/CD Tools To Optimize Your DevOps Workflows In 2024

Fast and high-quality software delivery has become the new norm in development.

To meet this standard, DevOps and CI/CD tools are now essential for optimizing business processes and maximizing efficiency in a software-centric environment.

These tools enable continuous monitoring and testing throughout the application lifecycle, which is vital for simplifying tasks, automating workflows, and effectively managing code changes and bugs. In fact, 44% of developers report using CI/CD tools regularly.

This article presents a highly recommended list of CI/CD tools to establish a smoother path to production and enhance speed.

What is CI/CD?

CI/CD is a DevOps method that automates software development by combining Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD).

CI merges code changes frequently, triggering automated testing. CD automatically deploys tested code to production, enabling quick updates like bug fixes and features.

This approach Speeds up the delivery process, reduces errors, and improves efficiency by ensuring thorough testing and minimal manual work.

A Quick Overview

Top 5 CI/CD Tools For 2024

Here’s a shortlist of the best CI/CD tools to address complex development needs for continuous integration and delivery:

1. Jenkins

Jenkins is an open-source automation server that helps to make the software development process easier by automating tasks like building, testing, and deploying. It works on macOS, Windows, and Linux. It tests and reports on code changes in real time and connects with a cloud service.

A widely used CI/CD tool, with over 1 million active users and over 200,000 active installations worldwide.

Jenkins Key features:

• It can be expanded with over 1900 community-made plugins.
• There are many plugins that connect Jenkins with different software testing tools.
• Jenkins can use plugins to work with major cloud services, such as Google Cloud, Amazon EC2, Atlassian Cloud, and VMware vSphere.
• Jenkins can send real-time alerts and notifications.

Who should use it: 

Jenkins is an excellent choice for developers and teams seeking a highly customizable open-source CI/CD tool with plugin options.

Who uses Jenkins?

Facebook, Netflix, LinkedIn, Instacart, Robinhood, Twitch, Udemy.

Pros:

1. Extensive plugin support for customization and enhancement.
2. Easy to use with a versatile API suite for customized data fetching and simple webhooks.
3. Popular among developers, with a large talent pool and supportive community for easy assistance.

Cons:

1. Jenkins lacks built-in governance, collaboration features, and user accountability, leading to tracking and collaboration challenges in code management.
2. It lacks analytics and reporting capabilities, making extracting meaningful insights from Jenkins’s data challenging.

2. CircleCI

CircleCI is a continuous integration & continuous delivery tool, It offers cloud-managed and on-premise options for different projects. Its web interface allows users to automate their development pipeline, from code creation to deployment.

With its YAML syntax, CircleCI makes setting up automated workflows for building, testing, and deploying code easy. Key features include real-time build monitoring, end-to-end testing, and strong security with FedRAMP and SOC II compliance.

CircleCI has a market share of 2.29% in the DevOps market.

CircleCI Key Features:

• Use custom commands to upload packages.
• speeds up deployments with features like parallelism, test splitting, dependency caching, and Docker image optimization.
• Supports many programming languages right away.
• Uses SSH to investigate the build problems.

Who should use:

CircleCI is excellent for businesses of all sizes that want efficient and reliable CI/CD. Its managed service is ideal for teams that don’t want to maintain their CI/CD setup, offering cloud and on-premise options for different security needs.

Who uses CircleCI?

Condé Nast, Samsung, Nextdoor

Pros:

1. CircleCI seamlessly integrates with platforms like Slack and GitHub, enhancing team communication and simplifying code commit and merge workflows.
2. CircleCI enables efficient parallel testing by running unit tests in shared containers across all branches.

Cons:

1. CircleCI runs Golang, Haskell, Java, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Scala out of the box, requiring additional setup for other languages.
2. Setting up CircleCI can be challenging due to poor documentation, making it less user-friendly for new users.
3. CircleCI competes with CI/CD tools like Jenkins, GitHub, CloudBees CodeShip, BitRise, and GitLab.

3. TeamCity

TeamCity is a commercial tool that works as a server for continuous integration. It offers an easy setup and great tools for source control, building history, and building chains. TeamCity runs in a Java environment, usually on an Apache Tomcat server, but it can also be installed on Windows and Linux servers.

15,790 companies use TeamCity. They’re mainly in the United States and work in Information Technology and Services.

TeamCity Key features:

• Creating the initial pipeline requires only 2 minutes, using a simple UI without coding.
• Offers pre-tested commits and remote run features.
• Excellent Docker support and integration with cloud providers like AWS, GCP, Azure, and VMware.
• Pipelines are defined using a Kotlin-based DSL (Domain Specific Language).
• Allows running historical builds, viewing test history reports, pinning, tagging, and adding builds to favorites.

Who should use:

TeamCity is excellent for teams needing a powerful, flexible CI/CD tool with advanced features for complex workflows and build tools.

Who uses TeamCity?

Citibank, HP, Nike, Ubisoft,Teradata, Ferrari, BNP Paribas

Pros

1. Supports integrating third-party reports that produce HTML output.
2. Allows easily extending functionality and adding new integrations using Java API.
3. Provides a powerful build chain/pipeline feature using a Kotlin-based DSL.

Cons:

1. Upgrading TeamCity can be a long and manual process.
2. Lacks a SaaS-based solution, requiring users to host and maintain their own TeamCity server and build agents.
3. It can take time to get used to the project hierarchy structure of TeamCity.

4. Bamboo

Bamboo by Atlassian is a continuous integration (CI) server that can automate software application release management, creating a continuous delivery pipeline.

It works well with other Atlassian tools like Jira and Bitbucket. Bamboo speeds up building, testing, and deploying software. It can handle multiple projects simultaneously, making managing and controlling the development process easier.

Bamboo had 300,000 users as of January 2022, with 20% active daily users.

Bamboo Key features:

• It can use up to 100 remote build helpers to do builds and tests simultaneously.
• It can build projects in Java, Ruby, Python, and Go.
• 15-minute configuration with simple and informative UI/UX.

Who should use:

Bamboo is for web developers who want an easy-to-use CI/CD tool, especially for web projects.

Who uses Bamboo

Airbnb, Cisco, Siemens, Spotify, EA Sports, Intel, etc.

Pros

1. Bamboo supports various languages, platforms, and tools for diverse developer needs.
2. Seamless integration with Jira and Bitbucket streamlines collaboration in the development ecosystem.
3. Seamless integrations with other Atlassian products like Jira and Bitbucket.

Cons:

1. Bamboo’s pricing structure, based on agents rather than users, can be a drawback for budget-conscious development teams, especially when compared to free open-source tools like Jenkins.
2. Bamboo works perfectly with Atlassian tools, but it may not integrate well with non-Atlassian tools, which can be a limitation for some developers.

5. GitLab

GitLab offers robust continuous integration & continuous deployment capabilities directly without needing any third-party application or integration.  It runs tests and deploys code automatically with each push or commit. It manages projects well with a user-friendly interface.

GitLab has over 30 million registered users, including 1 million active licensed users.

GitLab Key features:

• Runs the builds simultaneously to make them faster and shares cached data between branches.
• Offers robust security features like container scanning and code analysis to keep applications safe and compliant.
• Auto-scales GitLab CI runners to cut EC2 costs by 90%, which is crucial for parallel testing.
• Customize templates or create pipelines from scratch.

Who should use:

GitLab is for teams who want everything in one place for software development, from planning to CI/CD and security.

Who uses GitLab?

Goldman Sachs, UBS, Siemens, Nvidia, T-Mobile, Cloud Native Computing Foundation.

Pros

1. GitLab is designed to scale with team and project size, offering reliable performance even for large-scale deployments.
2. GitLab stands out with its easy-to-use interface and strong monitoring features for precise analysis during software development.
3. GitLab ensures security with role-based access control and compliance certifications for sensitive projects.

Cons:

1. GitLab’s all-in-one design and built-in CI/CD can be resource-intensive for large projects, requiring more hardware and potentially causing performance issues.
2. Upgrading GitLab can be challenging, requiring careful planning to ensure a smooth transition and avoid project disruptions.
3. GitLab supports plugins like Jekyll for deployment but offers fewer customization options and efficiency compared to Jenkins.

Why Are CI/CD So Important?

• Automate the build, test, deploy, and monitor process using a single CI/CD tool.
• Minimize human error to speed up time-to-market.
• Allow engineers to focus on creative tasks rather than repetitive work.
• Configure the optimal environment for software to run at its best.
• Support collaboration between distributed teams.
• Ensure only high-quality, secure code is pushed to production.
• Serve as version control, knowledge management, or cost management tools.

Key Considerations for Choosing a CI/CD Tool:

Easy Installation

• The tool should be simple to install, without complex dependencies or lengthy setup processes.
• On-premises installation and specialized services for unique use cases may be necessary.

Developer-Centric

• The tool should prioritize developer needs and provide a code repository for them.

Broad Services and Support

• It offers features like GitHub integration, CI for single apps, build automation and testing capabilities.
• Supports a scalable DevOps approach.

Handles Multiple Projects

• Able to manage many development projects simultaneously.

Built-In Security

• Provides the level of security required for DevOps.

Best Practices for CI/CD Optimization:

• Automate Build and Deployment Processes: Use tools that automatically handle building and putting your software into place. It helps to avoid mistakes and ensures that everything works the same way every time.
• Version Control: Use a strong version control system to handle code changes well. It helps developers keep track of edits, work together easily, and go back to earlier versions if needed.
• Test Automation: Use automated testing frameworks to check if your applications work well, are fast, and are safe. This saves time, checks more things, and maintains quality.
• Parallel Testing: Use parallel testing to run tests simultaneously, making testing faster. This saves time and helps get feedback quickly, making it easier to make changes faster.

Conclusion

In 2024, the top CI/CD tools will help to make software development and delivery faster and smoother by improving teamwork and productivity in the tech industry.

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