CircleCI vs GitLab vs Jenkins comparison

Read 85 GitLab reviews

19,768 Views
4,547 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Read 92 Jenkins reviews

3,555 Views
3,484 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

CircleCI

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between CircleCI, GitLab, and Jenkins based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about GitLab, Google, GitHub and others in Build Automation.

To learn more, read our detailed Build Automation Report (Updated: August 2025).

Build Automation

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Helped 866,286 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of CircleCI is 3.3%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GitLab is 14.5%, down from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Jenkins is 10.3%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Build Automation Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
GitLab	14.5%
Jenkins	10.3%
CircleCI	3.3%
Other	71.9%

Build Automation

Featured Reviews

reviewer0972521

Chief Technology Officer at Kyberlife

Unhelpful support, unclear billing, and has offers ability to track usage

We've had occasional connectivity issues with cloud resources and build failure due to its own internal system setup and environment. That costs us credits. Support engineers do not thoroughly read and understand issues when emailing them. They reply to me with a totally different context about the problem. Just yesterday, my web applications failed to 'yarn build' after I downgraded the resource class from extr-large to large. I contacted support and got no reply. Billing is a mess. There is duplicate information in the bill downloaded from their website and when I asked for a consolidated bill, they just answered that they didn't have it. There is no transparency on how many billed minutes and credits I spent each day both on their website and the monthly bill which makes it difficult to understand when the monthly bill contains many refill item charges. It is difficult or impossible to track usage and burndown of my subscription and to gain total outstanding refill amounts on a daily basis. Their website doesn't provide sufficient information on credits allocated/calculated for my extra-large resource class.

Improved agility and time to market with CI/CD enhancements

Rohit Kesharwani

Manager, Engineering at 7-Eleven

The CI/CD pipelines in GitLab are highly valuable. Another important feature is the single source of repository, allowing efficient repository management and source code management. GitLab provides manageability by allowing us to manage source code effectively through separate repositories. Additionally, GitLab enables the creation of individual CI/CD pipelines for each repository, making software more agile. By integrating GitLab as a DevOps platform, we have enhanced agility, improved our time to market, and different teams can work collaboratively on various projects.

Streamlined CI/CD pipelines with powerful integration and an easy setup

Annamalai Pts

DevOps Engineer at Tech Mahindra Limited

I use Jenkins as a CI/CD tool. We create pipelines using Jenkins, with stages for Maven builds, Docker image builds, SonarQube integration, and deploying the image to a Kubernetes cluster, AWS EKS Jenkins has made the developers' work very easy. They commit to the remote repository, and…

More GitLab pricing and cost advice

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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 solution offers continuous integration and continuous delivery."

"It's a stable product."

"The automation workflow in CircleCI related to third-party applications is very good and allows standardization of applications."

"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."

"Some of the most valuable features include container-based builds, integration with Bit Bucket and being able to store artifacts."

"The CI/CD pipeline with Helm has significantly improved deployment speed and efficiency."

"GitLab integrates well with other platforms."

"The most valuable feature of GitLab is its security."

"CI/CD is very good. The version control system is also good. These are the two features that we use."

"The CI/CD pipeline with Helm has significantly improved deployment speed and efficiency."

"I like GitLab's security and SAS tools."

"The SaaS setup is impressive, and it has DAST solutioning."

"The most valuable feature of GitLab is its convenience. I am able to trace back most of my changes up to a far distance in time and it helps me to analyze and see the older version of the code."

More GitLab pros

"The most valuable feature of Jenkins is its open source."

"Very easy to understand for newcomers."

"Jenkins is a CI/CD tool and is the most robust tool."

"Distributed execution of build and test jobs."

"It is very useful for us to be able to collect and manage automatic processing pipelines."

"The initial setup is pretty simple."

"Continuous Integration. Jenkins can integrate with almost any systems used for application development and testing, with its plugins."

"Configuration management: It is so easy to configure a Jenkins instance. Migrate configuration to a new environment just by copying XML files and setting up new nodes."

More Jenkins pros

Cons

"There needs to be some improvement in the user interface of CircleCI."

"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."

"Billing is a mess."

"The solution’s pricing could be better."

"The only thing our company is really waiting on in terms of features is the development of metrics."

"The solution should again offer an on-premises deployment option."

"There is room for improvement in GitLab Agents."

"I'm new to GitLab, so I would appreciate more documentation about the code and commands."

"There are missing search features, particularly when searching repositories or applying filters. Additionally, I have encountered issues with the deployment of CI/CD pipelines, especially dealing with variable environments."

"GitLab can improve by integrating with more tools, such as servers with Docker."

"Based on what I know so far, its integration with Kubernetes is not so good. We have to develop many things to make it work. We have to acquire third-party components to work with Kubernetes."

"There is a need to improve or adopt AI into the ecosystem like a co-pilot, which Microsoft has done with GitHub."

More GitLab cons

"The solution's UI can use a facelift and the logs can use more detailed information."

"Developer documentation for plugins, plugin development, integrations: Sometimes it’s tricky to do pretty obvious things."

"This solution would be improved with the inclusion of an Artifactory (Universal artifact repository manager)."

"For this solution to be a 10, it has to be a lot more stable. Maybe the public version of Jenkins is stable, but in our case it's not stable."

"Its schedule builds need improvement. It should have scheduling features in the platform rather than using external plug-ins."

"I would like to see even more integrations included in the next release."

"Logging could be improved to offer a clearer view."

"Jenkins should adopt the Pipeline as Code approach by building a deployment pipeline using the Jenkins file."

More Jenkins cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of CircleCI could be less expensive."

"It is very expensive. We can't bear it now, and we have to find another solution. We have a yearly subscription in which we can increase the number of licenses, but we have to pay at the end of the year."

"GitLab is cheap."

"I'm not sure if they have some kind of discount. I've been negotiating with them on prices before, and I believe they weren't too happy to give discounts, but list prices are $19 per user, per month for Premium and $99 per user, per month for Ultimate. So, the difference between Premium and Ultimate is a bit bigger, and in most companies, you need to build some type of business case."

"I think that we pay approximately $100 USD per month."

"Regarding pricing, I would rate GitLab as moderately priced, maybe around a seven or eight out of ten. It could be more flexible for clients but generally offers good value."

"GitLab is an open-source solution."

"GitLab's pricing is good compared to others on the market."

"The solution is based on a licensing model that includes technical support and is paid annually."

"It is an open source."

"Jenkins is an open-source platform."

"We are using the free version of Jenkins. There is not a license required to use the solution because it is open-source."

"Jenkins is open-source, so it is free."

"It could be cheaper because there are many solutions available in the market. We are paying yearly."

"The solution is open source."

"Jenkins is open source and free."

"The pricing for Jenkins is free."

More Jenkins pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user184734

Systems Administrator at Facebook

Jan 22, 2015

I generally find TeamCity a lot more intuitive than Jenkins.

Moving to TeamCity from Jenkins At work, we’re slowly migrating from Jenkins to TeamCity in the hope of ending some of our recurring problems with continuous integration. My use of Jenkins prior to this job has been almost strictly on a personal basis, although I pretty much only use Travis…

What do you like most about CircleCI?

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	35
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	42

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	28
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	56

Questions from the Community

The solution offers continuous integration and continuous delivery.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CircleCI?

Beware of skyrocketing bills as CircleCI does not provide transparency into how they charge refills. Their monthly bi...

What needs improvement with CircleCI?

We've had occasional connectivity issues with cloud resources and build failure due to its own internal system setup ...

What do you like most about GitLab?

I find the features and version control history to be most valuable for our development workflow. These aspects provi...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GitLab?

The pricing and cost are on par with other tools and are neither too expensive nor cheap.

What needs improvement with GitLab?

Regarding improvements, making task management is something that GitLab can potentially make easier, similar to what ...

How does Tekton compare with Jenkins?

When you are evaluating tools for automating your own GitOps-based CI/CD workflow, it is important to keep your requi...

What do you like most about Jenkins?

Jenkins has been instrumental in automating our build and deployment processes.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Jenkins?

Jenkins is used in many companies to save money, especially within R&D divisions, by avoiding the expenses of pro...

GitHub Actions vs CircleCI

Comparisons

Tekton vs CircleCI

Compared 22% of the time

TeamCity vs CircleCI

Compared 18% of the time

Compared 13% of the time

Harness vs CircleCI

Compared 11% of the time

Bamboo vs CircleCI

Compared 5% of the time

More CircleCI Competitors

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs GitLab

Compared 32% of the time

GitHub CoPilot vs GitLab

Compared 14% of the time

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs GitLab

Compared 5% of the time

TeamCity vs GitLab

Compared 5% of the time

Black Duck vs GitLab

Compared 2% of the time

More GitLab Competitors

Harness vs Jenkins

Compared 16% of the time

Bazel vs Jenkins

Compared 8% of the time

JFrog Pipeline vs Jenkins

Compared 8% of the time

Tekton vs Jenkins

Compared 7% of the time

More Jenkins Competitors

Product Reports

Build Automation

Download CircleCI product report

Download GitLab product report

Download Jenkins product report

Also Known As

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Overview

CircleCI is a leading platform for automating continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD), valued for its capability to manage software updates efficiently. With an easy-to-configure system using YAML files and robust Docker support, CircleCI streamlines backend updates, frontend developments, and mobile app testing across devices. Its parallelism feature and insightful dashboard reduce processing times and improve workflow visibility, respectively, enhancing team collaboration and productivity while maintaining high-quality outputs across development stages.

CircleCI

GitLab offers a secure and user-friendly platform for CI/CD pipeline management, code repository control, and collaboration, enhancing development speed and efficiency. It facilitates automation with extensive customization and tool integration, ideal for DevOps processes.

GitLab supports source code management, version control, and collaborative development. It's frequently used in CI/CD processes to automate builds and deployments while integrating DevOps practices. GitLab allows companies to manage repositories, automate pipelines, conduct code reviews, and maintain development lifecycles. The platform supports infrastructure and configuration management, enabling efficient code collaboration, deployment automation, and comprehensive repository handling. Many organizations commit and deploy developed code using GitLab's capabilities.

What are GitLab's most valuable features?

CI/CD Pipeline Management: Streamlines development through automated testing and deployment.
User-Friendly Interface: Ensures ease of collaboration and task automation.
Code Merging and Branching: Facilitates smooth code integration and version control.
Security Platform: Provides strong security features for safe development.
Tool Integration: Enhances functionality with diverse tool integration.

What benefits should users evaluate?

Development Speed: Accelerates processes through automation.
Collaboration Ease: Simplifies team interactions and workflow.
Customization Options: Offers extensive personalization for specific needs.
Comprehensive Documentation: Provides detailed guidance for users.
Secure Platform: Maintains integrity with robust security features.

In specific industries, GitLab serves as a backbone for source code management and CI/CD implementation. Companies leverage its capabilities for infrastructure management and deployment automation, thus streamlining project delivery timelines. Its ability to handle configuration management and code repositories effectively aids in maintaining development lifecycles, making it a preferred choice for organizations committed to enhancing their DevOps practices.

Jenkins is an award-winning application that monitors executions of repeated jobs, such as building a software project or jobs run by cron.