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CircleCI vs Jenkins vs TeamCity comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 April 2026, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of CircleCI is 3.6%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Jenkins is 7.3%, down from 10.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TeamCity is 5.8%, down from 7.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Build Automation Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Jenkins7.3%
TeamCity5.8%
CircleCI3.6%
Other83.3%
Build Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Manas Kashyap - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at Elevenxcapital
Automated parallel pipelines have accelerated deployments but complex configs still need simplification
CircleCI can be improved by making it less costly, as it is very expensive. The config complexity, like the YAML config, can become messy in complex projects. Making it simpler, much like having a Docker Compose YAML or Kubernetes YAML, is necessary from that perspective. Rather than keeping it a SaaS project, they can think of it through a Jenkins approach, where we can also self-host it into our environment, but it is acceptable. It is very expensive, and many organizations cannot afford it. The config complexity, like the YAML configs, can become messy in complex projects. A better DevOps person can only handle it, not a normal person. For that reason, I chose a rating of seven. It is quite expensive, to be honest. As mentioned, many organizations cannot afford it because of the parallel execution prices as well as the config complexity.
Mahdi Mallaki - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Devops Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Has a community of plugin providers but needs improvement in Kubernetes integration
Integrating Jenkins with other tools or solutions has presented some challenges. For instance, when attempting to integrate Jenkins with Kubernetes, I encountered numerous errors, which took several days to resolve. In Jenkins, adding a feature typically involves incorporating the repository feature separately. Jenkins lacks built-in Git repository functionality, necessitating an external Git repository to store Jenkins manifests. In contrast, GitLab offers an integrated Git repository and pipeline runner, streamlining the process. One improvement for Jenkins could be integrating a Git server, simplifying the management of CI/CD pipelines. Currently, with Jenkins, modifying pipeline manifests requires navigating to a separate Git repository. In GitLab, however, manifest changes can be made directly within the repository.
RG
IT Professional at NatWest Group
Versatile agent support boosts builds but UI and setup costs need refinement
TeamCity's user interface could be improved; specifically, the tree structure on the homepage is not clear, making it difficult to search for projects. Moreover, there are some limitations related to the version we were using. For instance, there were issues with agent specifications for particular build jobs and a timeout issue where jobs running longer than three hours would fail automatically.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"The solution offers continuous integration and continuous delivery."
"Since I am an automation developer, I use selenium a lot; it is quite easy to run the tests in CircleCI, which comes with pre-installed Chrome/chrome driver and Firefox, is fast to set up, and has a shorter learning curve than Jenkins and TeamCity."
"The automation workflow in CircleCI related to third-party applications is very good and allows standardization of applications."
"It's a stable product."
"Some of the most valuable features include container-based builds, integration with Bit Bucket and being able to store artifacts."
"CircleCI has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to build quicker and do things quicker."
"Different types of jobs, such as Pipeline, Build, Freestyle, Maven, etc."
"We have started to integrate Pipelines as a part of a build, and built a library of common functions. It simplified and made our build scripts more readable."
"I love Jenkins. I like that you work on anything, and you make anything. Jenkins is very important for my team. I am satisfied with the product."
"Jenkins is stable, user-friendly, and helps with continuous integration."
"Jenkins is a great tool for continuous integration."
"Jenkins has been instrumental in automating our build and deployment processes."
"I can install Jenkins for integration from multiple developers and automate application delivery, staging, and production environments."
"Jenkins is a great solution if you're looking at automation because it reduces manual work and improves performance."
"TeamCity's GUI is nice."
"TeamCity is a very user-friendly tool."
"The most valuable aspect of the solution is its easy configuration. It also has multiple plugins that can be used especially for building .net applications."
"Good integration with IDE and JetBrains products."
"When we discovered TeamCity, it totally speeded up our workflow."
"With Teamcity, our build/packaging process and the ensuing deployment via Octopus Deploy takes less than half an hour."
"Using TeamCity and emailing everyone on fail is one way to emphasize the importance of testing code and showing management why taking the time to test actually does saves time from having to fix bugs on the other end."
"I have not yet implemented the remote build feature, but this will be a big plus. We want to be able to build legacy products on a build agent without developers needing to have obsolete tool sets installed on their local PC."
 

Cons

"The price of CircleCI could be less expensive."
"There needs to be some improvement in the user interface of CircleCI."
"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."
"CircleCI can be improved by making it less costly, as it is very expensive."
"The solution’s pricing could be better."
"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."
"For half year we have used circleCI, then we go back to jenkins."
"Some kind of SaaS product would be helpful in providing organizational structure."
"I think an integrated help button, that respected the context of the change/work in hand, would be a worthwhile improvement."
"I would like to have an integrated dashboard on top of it and a better UX to look at. The dashboard could be better in terms of integration with other tools. We should be able to have a single pane of glass across all the tools that we use where Jenkins is the pipeline. This can be a very good upgrade to it."
"Logging could be improved to offer a clearer view."
"We would like to see the addition of mobile simulators support to this solution, as part of its open-source offering."
"The UI of Jenkins could improve."
"For automation tests, Jenkins nodes some times experience instability."
"The onboarding of Jenkins should be smoother, and it should have more pipelines available as it's deployed on many different servers."
"The UI for this solution could be improved. New users don't find it easy to navigate; they need some level of training to understand the ins and the outs."
"REST API support lacks many features in customization of builds, jobs, and settings."
"I would suggest creating simple and advanced configurations. Advanced configurations will give more customizations like Jenkins does."
"I need some more graphical design."
"We would like to see better integration with other version controls, since we encountered difficulty when this was first attempted."
"If there was more documentation that was easier to locate, it would be helpful for users."
"If there was more documentation that was easier to locate, it would be helpful for users."
"I would suggest creating simple and advanced configurations. Advanced configurations will give more customizations like Jenkins does."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of CircleCI could be less expensive."
"​It is free.​"
"The tool is open-source."
"This is an open-source solution for the basic features. However, if an organization wishes to include specific functionality, outside of the basic package, there are extra costs involved."
"Some of the add-ons are too expensive."
"It could be cheaper because there are many solutions available in the market. We are paying yearly."
"We use the tool's open-source version which is free. There is an enterprise version which is expensive but comes with better support."
"We are using the free version of Jenkins. There are no costs or licensing."
"The solution is open source."
"Start with the free tier for a few build configs and see how it works for you, then according to your scale find the enterprise license which fits you the most."
"The licensing is on an annual basis."
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Comparison Review

it_user184734 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise57
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CircleCI?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that I only used CircleCI on the free tier.
What needs improvement with CircleCI?
CircleCI can be improved by making it less costly, as it is very expensive. The config complexity, like the YAML conf...
What advice do you have for others considering CircleCI?
My advice to others looking into using CircleCI is to just not get overwhelmed by the complexity, particularly the co...
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 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...
What needs improvement with Jenkins?
I do not have any notes for improvement.
What do you like most about TeamCity?
One of the most beneficial features for us is the flexibility it offers in creating deployment steps tailored to diff...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TeamCity?
Compared to new technologies, TeamCity is more expensive and is an older tool compared to tools like GitLab.
What needs improvement with TeamCity?
TeamCity's user interface could be improved; specifically, the tree structure on the homepage is not clear, making it...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Shopify, Zenefits, Concur Technologies, CyberAgent
Airial, Clarus Financial Technology, cubetutor, Metawidget, mysocio, namma, silverpeas, Sokkva, So Rave, tagzbox
Toyota, Xerox, Apple, MIT, Volkswagen, HP, Twitter, Expedia
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