CircleCI vs Spacelift comparison

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CircleCI

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 11, 2025

CircleCI and Spacelift compete in the CI/CD and infrastructure automation category. While CircleCI is favored for its pricing and support, Spacelift is seen as having the upper hand due to its robust features and infrastructure capabilities.

Features: CircleCI offers powerful integration capabilities, versatile build configurations, and a streamlined pipeline setup. Spacelift excels with advanced infrastructure management features, policy as code capabilities, and seamless multi-cloud integration.

Room for Improvement: CircleCI could expand its infrastructure management features and enhance multi-cloud integration for better scalability. Spacelift can improve its user interface for simplicity, optimize deployment speed, and offer more competitive pricing models to attract a broader audience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CircleCI ensures straightforward deployment and is supported by efficient customer service, making it ideal for teams new to CI/CD. Spacelift provides a robust deployment model with knowledgeable customer service, suitable for complex infrastructure needs.

Pricing and ROI: CircleCI presents cost-effective pricing with a scalable model that delivers a satisfactory ROI for organizations. Spacelift, despite higher initial costs, offers substantial ROI with its comprehensive automation features that enhance infrastructure efficiency.

To learn more, read our detailed CircleCI vs. Spacelift Report (Updated: December 2025).

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CircleCI vs. Spacelift

December 2025

Helped 881,114 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:

Categories and Ranking

CircleCI

Ranking in AI Software Development

200th

Average Rating

6.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Build Automation (13th)

Spacelift

Ranking in AI Software Development

18th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Management (20th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the AI Software Development category, the mindshare of CircleCI is 0.1%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Spacelift is 0.4%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

AI Software Development Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Spacelift	0.4%
CircleCI	0.1%
Other	99.5%

AI Software Development

Featured Reviews

RahulArora

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.

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Sudheer Kumar Jamjam

Technical Lead Cloud DevOps Engineer at Deloitte

Everything can be visibly managed, scheduling and state management features are pretty good

We've integrated it with source control management tools like GitLab and Bitbucket. The scheduling and state management features are pretty good using Spacelift. It integrates with tools like Terraform and Kubernetes for policies, but we haven't worked on the compliance part. Spacelift streamlines collaboration among our development and operations teams. We use it for CI/CD as well. It can handle automation strategies. Whenever you put your YAML files and integrate them with Spacelift, it will scan the code and show where you need to make changes.

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

"CircleCI has positively impacted the organization, as it has been used for many years and serves as the main source for application deployment."

"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."

"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 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."

"Enables us to detect exactly which build failed and why, and to push multiple builds to our production environment at a very fast rate."

"Spacelift is like an extension of Terraform, where everything can be visibly managed."

"I appreciate that I just have to connect to my AWS account with my credentials, and Spacelift handles the rest."

"One key feature is the Spacelift policies, which we can attach to deployments to ensure compliance with our standards."

"A valuable feature of Spacelift is that you can attach labels, and it is a modernized tool for infrastructure deployments. It is pull request-based, and you can see all the Terraform plan and apply logs on the pull request itself, which is not available across any other CI/CD tools."

"Knowing the HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) makes it easier to use without issues."

Cons

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

"The solution’s pricing could be better."

"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."

"Billing is a mess."

"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."

"In the free version, there's no straightforward way to be notified once a deployment is finished."

"If you are a small enterprise organization, below 500 people, I would not recommend it."

"Spacelift currently lacks features that can help with complex type deployments and coordination for major deployments."

"Synchronization can be difficult when using older and newer versions with Kubernetes and HashiCorp."

"The self-hosted version does not have a lot of features compared to the SaaS version, such as cloud integrations for Azure and GCP."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of CircleCI could be less expensive."

"It is a bit expensive product."

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881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

University

10%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	5

No data available

Questions from the Community

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.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Spacelift?

I've never checked the pricing because I enjoy using it for free. Besides the notification feature, I haven't needed any paid features.

What needs improvement with Spacelift?

There are a few areas for improvement. For instance, getting notification webhooks is not easy. In the free version, there's no straightforward way to be notified once a deployment is finished. Spa...

What is your primary use case for Spacelift?

I use Spacelift to deploy my applications, particularly AWS applications and infrastructure to my personal AWS account.

GitHub Actions vs CircleCI

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Product Reports

Download CircleCI product report

Build Automation

January 2026

Download Spacelift product report

January 2026

Overview

CircleCI is a continuous integration and delivery platform that automates software development, streamlining the process for engineers and developers. It's valued for its ability to enhance development speed while maintaining high software quality.

Known for its robust CI/CD capabilities, CircleCI supports a wide range of programming languages and integrations, allowing teams to build and deploy code with efficiency and reliability. Its flexibility and automation features help teams quickly adapt to changing project requirements. CircleCI's cloud-based architecture ensures scalability and accessibility, making it an attractive option for modern development environments.

What are CircleCI's key features?

Continuous Integration: Automates code integration with testing to catch errors early.
Continuous Deployment: Simplifies the process of deploying code to production environments.
Customizable Workflows: Offers flexibility in defining build, test, and deployment stages.
Parallel Execution: Speeds up builds by running multiple tasks at once.
VCS Integration: Seamlessly integrates with platforms like GitHub and Bitbucket.

What benefits can users expect when using CircleCI?

Increased Efficiency: Streamlines development workflows, reducing the time to market.
Improved Code Quality: Early error detection through automation increases overall quality.
Scalability: Ability to handle growing workloads as development needs evolve.
Enhanced Collaboration: Facilitates teamwork through shared visibility and control over development processes.

In tech-driven industries, CircleCI enables efficient software development pipelines. Its ability to run automated tests and manage deployments effectively is particularly beneficial in fast-paced, innovation-driven fields like fintech, mobile app development, and SaaS platforms. Offering tools that meet high-demand environments, it supports teams in delivering timely and quality software products.

CircleCI

Spacelift provides a sophisticated infrastructure management platform with key features such as Drift Detection and Terraform integration, simplifying complex deployments and enhancing user workflows through an intuitive interface.

Spacelift excels in modernizing infrastructure management by integrating smoothly with Terraform, using a pull request-based approach for visibility into logs. It automates change detection using GitOps from GitHub and supports AWS connectivity with credential management. Despite its strengths, some users find room for improvement in supporting smaller enterprises and offering more seamless cloud integrations with self-hosted versions. Handling of HashiCorp Vault secrets and cumbersome notification webhooks may require additional setup effort.

What are the most valuable features?

Drift Detection: Ensures user edits are managed effectively, reducing configuration discrepancies.
Terraform Integration: Seamless compatibility with Terraform for robust infrastructure management.
GitOps: Automates change detection from GitHub, ensuring efficient workflows.
Compliance Policies: Helps maintain infrastructure within regulatory guidelines.
Stack Execution: Enables runs with label attachments for organized operations.

What benefits or ROI can users expect?

Improved Deployment Control: Default plan prompts support structured and controlled deployments.
Streamlined Terraform Management: Enhanced visibility into logs aids in transparent and efficient operations.
Efficient AWS Interactions: Credential management simplifies connections, making operations more fluid.
Dynamic Infrastructure Handling: Supports significant projects by replacing tools like Terraform Enterprise.

In specific industries, Spacelift is primarily utilized for infrastructure management and deployment across platforms like AWS, Azure, and GCP. In banking architecture, it replaces Terraform Enterprise, ensuring secure and efficient operations. Projects like Google Fiber benefit from its capability to import and manage data effectively, engaging users with HashiCorp Language and GitHub for CI/CD integration.

Sample Customers

Shopify, Zenefits, Concur Technologies, CyberAgent

Information Not Available