AWS CodePipeline vs Buildkite comparison

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AWS CodePipeline

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

AWS CodePipeline and Buildkite compete in the CI/CD tools category. AWS CodePipeline has the advantage in AWS-centric operations due to its tight integration with AWS services, while Buildkite provides greater flexibility for non-AWS environments.

Features: AWS CodePipeline offers seamless integration with AWS services, flexible configuration, and cost-effectiveness for AWS environments. Buildkite features YAML-based workflow management, efficient Docker caching, and flexibility with self-hosted agents.

Room for Improvement:AWS CodePipeline could enhance cross-cloud compatibility, customization, documentation updates, and build time efficiency. Buildkite may improve scaling for self-hosted agents, error pinpointing, and third-party integrations, along with plugin support and scalability options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:AWS CodePipeline is optimized for AWS environments but has room for improvement in support and cross-platform usability. Buildkite, while easy to integrate with various platforms, requires improvements in community support and documentation.

Pricing and ROI:AWS CodePipeline's pay-as-you-go model is more suited for AWS-centric operations but may be costly for extensive builds. In contrast, Buildkite offers cost-effective options for Docker-heavy operations and is more competitive for smaller businesses or non-AWS environments.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS CodePipeline vs. Buildkite Report (Updated: April 2025).

AWS CodePipeline vs. Buildkite

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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

AWS CodePipeline

Ranking in Build Automation

4th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Buildkite

Ranking in Build Automation

8th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Featured Reviews

Udhay Prakash Pethakamsetty

Data Engineer Manager at Capgemini

A fully managed service with excellent integrations and a flexible architecture

Compared to any other tools, AWS products provide better integrations. We have tools for all our needs. The integrations are good. The product is a fully managed service. We specify the various stages in the CI/CD process. We can do it without any external tools. Going through everything is usually an overhead for developers. It is like a configuration. We need to configure it only once. The integration with other AWS services has helped us. Our life as a developer is easy. We need not focus on the integration manually. If we work with third-party tools, we must consider connectivity, role management, security, authentication, and authorization. In AWS CodePipeline, if we have IAM roles configured and KMS for the credentials, we need not worry about anything else. Everything can be done within the tool. The integrations are the best part. We can track everything. The connectivity and scalability are good. The architecture is also flexible enough. We can add multiple things.

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Prabin Silwal

Senior Engineering Consultant at ASSURANCE IQ, INC.

Has an easy setup phase while also offering good documentation

The problem we are facing sometimes is that we have lots of unit testers, and we have to wait about ten minutes to complete all of those because we want to run or find a way. It's not directly due to the limitation of the tool as well, but when we are running the spec, we want to run those parallelly and decrease the downtime so that our deployment can be faster. I think that one is not possible only due to the it also depends upon the unit test framework as well we are using. When we tried with the multiple test cases in a parallel manner, there were some dependencies, and one over another kept failing. We make those sequential calls. The aforementioned area consists of the issues my company faced while using Buildkite.

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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

"The integration with other applications is fabulous."

"AWS CodePipeline offers multiple integrations and it has its own set of features in the area of code scanning and dynamic code testing."

"The most valuable feature of AWS CodePipeline is the flexibility of the configuration."

"Different applications can be enhanced with AWS CodePipeline"

"The integrations are good."

"AWS CodePipeline's most valuable feature is its seamless integration with other AWS services, making it easier to orchestrate deployment processes."

"I prefer using CodePipeline and CodeBuild in AWS due to their integration with AWS services, like directly deploying to ECS using Cloud Deploy."

"Another big advantage is observability."

More AWS CodePipeline pros

"Buildkite makes it easier to conduct deployment. When I merge a PR in Buildkite, it automatically starts the deployment process. It used to be challenging to shift code from the development branch to the testing branch because I had to follow up with multiple developers. Previously, I was dependent on the DevOps team and developers to handle deployments, but now it allows me to deploy the solutions myself.This has made it much easier for me to handle both non-production and production environments."

"You don't have to set up an agent in Buildkite like in Jenkins."

"Buildkite allows us to build automations and integration tasks effectively."

"If you join our team, it's very easy to learn Buildkite. We have our own boilerplate, so you can just clone it and add your configuration steps. Plus, we have documentation available to guide you through the process."

"The product's initial setup phase was easy."

"The documentation is quite helpful."

"They have great plugins, scalability, UI, and pipeline options. They also offer webhooks that allow integration with custom setups to send events dynamically."

"The solution can be considered as a very well-polished platform with a really great UI."

More Buildkite pros

Cons

"The documentation for AWS CodePipeline is lacking and makes it difficult to find information due to its complexity. It would be helpful to have examples in the documentation for different project types like Laravel or Django."

"If you're talking about multi-cloud, you can't use it."

"The solution could improve the documentation. Sometimes we have some issues with the documentation not updating after releasing .NET 6. We had some issues with building the code pipeline, and it was not updating the documentation. It's better to update the code documentation."

"Improved enhancements and features could make it more intuitive."

"The setup time is a bit long."

"It would be best if AWS CodePipeline provided multiple integration options directly by providing some URLs."

"AWS CodePipeline works effectively, and I haven't identified any specific areas needing improvement as it has been quite satisfying in terms of deployment needs."

"It would be a much better tool if it could be made compatible with other cloud services as well since this is an area the product currently lacks."

More AWS CodePipeline cons

"Most of our projects involve both front-end and back-end development. We write the code and then create a file to set up our process, including specifying the tests we want to run. Before deploying to production, we need to install and configure certain things. We need something like Docker Pro, but I'm unsure about that. I'm familiar with the steps for using Buildkite for this process. We start by defining which tests to run."

"As a newbie, I think BuildKite has several issues. For example, it can't get the status of a PR once it's closed. The syntax is easy to use, but updating a pipeline requires administrator settings, and viewing pipelines for others isn't straightforward."

"The solution should offer more options for installing an agent and give users the option of having a separate self-hosted or provisioned agent."

"My company has had problems with the tool's parallel running and execution time. The testing framework also has some limitations. The tool cannot do everything."

"I would like to see some improvements in the hooks implementation."

"Based on the load, the agents can be scaled up and scaled down, and while they are scaling up, sometimes they just get stuck."

"Since we were using Buildkite for the first time, we had a lot of difficulty understanding how it worked. We didn't find any documentation from third parties; only Buildkite provided documentation. As a result, we faced a steep learning curve. After some time, it became much easier to use. Initially, understanding certain features, like the R integration, was challenging."

"Buildkite has issues while creating or extending branches as only the first five builds in the user-interface can be accessed and post that one has to access the next builds by remembering branch names without pagination which can be inconvenient."

More Buildkite cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is a straightforward approach where you pay for the resources you consume as they offer a subscription-based licensing model."

"AWS offers free business or enterprise support services."

"I would rate the product's pricing a five out of ten."

"The pricing is manageable."

"AWS charges you based on the number of pipelines you have and how active they are, and I also think that the root account user knows about all the price-related metrics."

"The pricing of this solution is dependent upon your needs including how many jobs you daily and how many times the developer will be changing codes and completing deployments."

"The price of the product depends on how many times you run it. The tool offers a pay-as-you-go model."

"AWS CodePipeline is quite affordable. I've been running around four pipelines and the cost is around one dollar per month. It rarely exceeds two dollars."

More AWS CodePipeline pricing and cost advice

"For a business plan, it was 19 USD per month per user."

"The solution's per-user pricing model suits huge enterprises but is expensive for small to medium businesses."

"I don't think the tool is expensive."

"I find Buildkite cost-effective as it has definitely increased my productivity, especially on the deployment side. It saved a lot of my time and improved data management because I can handle different environments myself now."

"Buildkite is known to be cheaper than GitHub Workflows, which is considered a standard in the industry. It can be cost-effective, especially for organizations that heavily utilize Docker and containerization, because every code change triggers a new build. Its integration with AWS, particularly with ECR, and its caching capabilities with layers are powerful features."

"We used the solution’s free version."

"The self-hosted option is pretty cheap."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Manufacturing Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Which AWS solution would you choose - CodeStar or CodePipeline?

Both AWS solutions deliver solid options, with uniquely different features. AWS CodeStar allows for quick development, building, and deployments of apps. It also provides web application and web se...

What do you like most about AWS CodePipeline?

Code deployment is the best feature.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS CodePipeline?

AWS CodePipeline and its associated services do not incur significant additional charges. The cost primarily comes from deploying other AWS resources like EC2 and S3 alongside the pipeline.

What needs improvement with Buildkite?

One area that needs improvement in Buildkite is the requirement for rework of the code. There can be syntax errors when running the Buildkite pipeline, especially if someone has made manual changes...

What is your primary use case for Buildkite?

I use Buildkite for deployment tasks related to building AMI images and deploying routing profile queues into Amazon Connect. This involves using Buildkite in conjunction with GitHub. We create fil...

What advice do you have for others considering Buildkite?

With two years of experience on Buildkite, I would recommend it to others due to its manageable pipeline and the support team available for big issues. I am satisfied with it, rating its stability ...

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Product Reports

AWS CodePipeline

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Also Known As

CodePipeline

No data available

Overview

AWS CodePipeline is a fully managed continuous delivery service that helps you automate your release pipelines for fast and reliable application and infrastructure updates. CodePipeline automates the build, test, and deploy phases of your release process every time there is a code change, based on the release model you define. This enables you to rapidly and reliably deliver features and updates. You can easily integrate AWS CodePipeline with third-party services such as GitHub or with your own custom plugin. With AWS CodePipeline, you only pay for what you use. There are no upfront fees or long-term commitments.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Buildkite is a powerful CI/CD tool praised for its scalability and flexibility in automating and managing complex workflows across multiple platforms. Its integration capabilities with various systems and supports for secure, customizable environments enhance development efficiency and data privacy. The feedback highlights significant boosts in productivity and operational cost reduction, making Buildkite a strategic asset for businesses aiming to streamline development tasks and align with organizational goals.

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

Information Not Available

AWS CodePipeline vs. Buildkite