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AWS CodePipeline vs CircleCI comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 11, 2025

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
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
CircleCI
Ranking in Build Automation
13th
Average Rating
6.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
AI Software Development (200th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of AWS CodePipeline is 3.3%, down from 6.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CircleCI is 3.5%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Build Automation Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
AWS CodePipeline3.3%
CircleCI3.5%
Other93.2%
Build Automation
 

Featured Reviews

JR
Head of Development at Abyss
Employs advanced deployment strategies and manages CI/CD workflow efficiently
Blue-green deployment has been incredibly beneficial for handling complex deployments in AWS CodePipeline. It allows me to test changes in an isolated environment before deploying them to the entire user base. Additionally, the CI/CD support provided by AWS simplifies the integration process by adding YAML files to projects, enabling AWS to manage the entire CI/CD workflow.
RA
Global Head - DevOps and AIOps Startegist at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Automated CI/CD pipelines have transformed deployment speed and collaboration for my teams
CircleCI offers fast parallel builds, easy integration with GitHub, and the ability to deploy applications on Kubernetes pods, which are amazing features. Fast parallel builds and GitHub integration have definitely helped my team reach faster time to market for our applications. Previously, our deployment used to take a couple of hours when doing it manually, but with CircleCI pipeline, our hours-long job has been converted to a couple of minutes. Its simplicity, fast pipeline execution, and strong GitHub and GitLab integrations are definitely unique advantages I discovered while using CircleCI. Time saved is one of the key aspects I have seen since using CircleCI. I have noticed fewer deployment errors, and it has helped me with easy debugging. Time saved is directly proportional to the cost and effort saved. CircleCI has positively impacted my organization by integrating directly with my Git repositories as a fully managed SaaS platform. CircleCI has a great impact on my team's collaboration and communication, with around 25 to 40 developers and DevOps engineers using it daily across multiple repositories and environments, helping us use it at scale. CircleCI has significantly increased our release frequency and deployment speed compared to before I started using it. CircleCI improves security for my organization by enforcing automated checks in the pipeline and securely managing secrets through environment variables while providing auditable deployments. CircleCI integrates seamlessly with my DevOps toolchain by connecting directly to GitHub, container registries, and my cloud platform AWS, allowing the entire CI/CD flow from code commit to deployment and monitoring with minimal manual effort.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Another big advantage is observability."
"The notification and approval approach in the production environment are very useful."
"The management of CodeBuild and CodeDeploy on a three-point trigger basis is an important feature."
"In AWS, the Cloud DevOps is a managed service from CodeCommit and this has removed the need for a lot of manual steps."
"The product is a one-stop solution that you can use to integrate, deploy and host your application."
"The integrations are good."
"Code deployment is the best feature."
"I prefer using CodePipeline and CodeBuild in AWS due to their integration with AWS services, like directly deploying to ECS using Cloud Deploy."
"The ability to automate the build process in a seamless way and run workflows effortlessly. It supports parallel builds so it can scale well. Also, it covers the basics of any build and integration tool, including email notifications (especially when tests are fixed), project insights, etc."
"CircleCI has significantly reduced build and deployment times, saving substantial engineering hours and effort for me, which has directly improved my productivity and release velocity, reflecting incredible ROI."
"The solution offers continuous integration and continuous delivery."
"CircleCI has positively impacted my organization by bringing in faster deployments, which means we can release faster, receive quicker feedback, and enhance collaboration and communication across the entire team."
"CircleCI has positively impacted the organization, as it has been used for many years and serves as the main source for application deployment."
"It's a stable product."
"Enables us to detect exactly which build failed and why, and to push multiple builds to our production environment at a very fast rate."
"The automation workflow in CircleCI related to third-party applications is very good and allows standardization of applications."
 

Cons

"In the next release, I would like to see fewer timeout errors."
"From my perspective, some in-built capabilities could be enhanced."
"AWS CodePipeline is quite a simple tool mostly for management and creating automation."
"AWS CodePipeline doesn't offer much room for customization."
"The migration process from one source code to another needs improvement."
"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."
"In AWS CodePipeline, we can only use certain tools for which AWS provisions plugins."
"One downside in AWS is that when you attempt to push a change in, it misses that part, or it could be because some variables are not set correctly."
"I rated CircleCI six out of ten because I think they need more transparency in pricing, as there are instances of unclear network data transfer and storage costs related to caching and workspaces."
"Billing is a mess."
"I believe debugging complex pipelines and managing credits can sometimes be challenging, especially for large workflows, so these areas can be improved."
"A return on investment with CircleCI has not been observed, and no relevant metrics such as time saved or fewer employees needed can be shared."
"Integration with Microsoft Azure is one area for improvement. Azure is growing in its user base, and supports various cloud infrastructure components such as Service Fabric, App Service, etc. Some of Azure’s deployment models (like Kudu) require a steep learning curve, but if CircleCI would come up with such features (deployment to App Service) out of the box, it would be amazing."
"The solution’s pricing could be better."
"There needs to be some improvement in the user interface of CircleCI."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 pricing is manageable."
"The product is quite expensive compared to other solutions."
"Compared to other cloud services, AWS CodePipeline falls a bit more on the pricey side. I see that the price of the product has been increasing for the past few years."
"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."
"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."
"AWS offers free business or enterprise support services."
"The price of the product depends on how many times you run it. The tool offers a pay-as-you-go model."
"The price of CircleCI could be less expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
University
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS CodePipeline?
AWS CodePipeline's pricing is reasonable, and it is not too expensive. I estimated it costs around $5 monthly. On a scale from one to ten, where one is very cheap and ten is very expensive, I would...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CircleCI?
There is not much experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing because that is managed by the legal team.
What needs improvement with CircleCI?
CircleCI's Orbs are not as easy to use as they could be. If CircleCI implemented a function approach similar to GitHub Actions, it would be significantly better. CircleCI could be improved if it co...
What advice do you have for others considering CircleCI?
For others looking into using CircleCI, study thoroughly about CircleCI's Orbs because they are quite complicated. The overall review rating for CircleCI is 6 out of 10.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

CodePipeline
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Shopify, Zenefits, Concur Technologies, CyberAgent
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS CodePipeline vs. CircleCI and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.