GitLab vs Jenkins comparison

GitLab and Jenkins are both solutions in the Build Automation category. GitLab is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while Jenkins is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.2. GitLab holds a 14.5% mindshare in BA, compared to Jenkins’s 10.3% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of GitLab users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Jenkins users who would recommend it.

GitLab

Read 85 GitLab reviews

19,768 Views
4,547 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Jenkins

Read 92 Jenkins reviews

3,555 Views
3,484 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

GitLab

Jenkins

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

Jenkins and GitLab both compete in the CI/CD tools category. Jenkins holds an advantage due to its vast library of plugins and strong community support, while GitLab offers an integrated platform with robust security features.

Features: Jenkins is celebrated for its extensive plugin ecosystem that allows for significant flexibility and customization. It provides a wide array of plugins for automating complex tasks across different platforms. GitLab combines source control and CI/CD in one platform, providing a seamless experience with strong security measures. It includes built-in tools that support comprehensive DevOps processes.

Room for Improvement: Jenkins users seek improvements in its outdated interface and plugin stability. Enhancing cloud features and integration capabilities is also desired. GitLab could improve tool integration, expand documentation, and enhance UI for easier navigation. Users would appreciate more flexibility in pipeline configurations and stronger security features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Jenkins offers versatile deployment options across on-premises, public, and private cloud environments, with strong community support. GitLab matches this versatility but provides more structured support options, which are beneficial for enterprises needing dedicated assistance. Both have supportive communities, with GitLab often commended for its support infrastructure.

Pricing and ROI: Jenkins is primarily open-source and free, with an enterprise version offering additional features at a cost, making it cost-effective for companies avoiding proprietary tools. GitLab operates on a tiered pricing model with a free community edition. Though its premium tiers are costlier, they are appealing for enterprise needs due to their abundant features. Both provide good value, with Jenkins leading in cost efficiency due to its open-source nature.

To learn more, read our detailed GitLab vs. Jenkins Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. Jenkins

July 2025

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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

GitLab

Ranking in Build Automation

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (11th), Release Automation (2nd), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (7th), Rapid Application Development Software (10th), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (5th), Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (2nd), Fuzz Testing Tools (2nd), DevSecOps (1st)

Jenkins

Ranking in Build Automation

4th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Build Automation category, 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

Featured Reviews

Rohit Kesharwani

Manager, Engineering at 7-Eleven

Improved agility and time to market with CI/CD enhancements

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.

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Annamalai Pts

DevOps Engineer at Tech Mahindra Limited

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

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…

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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

"It is very flexible and easy because you can store data on cloud."

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

"I have found the most valuable features of GitLab are the GitClone, GitPush, GitPull, GitMatch, GitMit, GitCommit, and GitStatus."

"We like that we can have an all-encompassing product and don't have to implement different solutions."

"They incorporate new features every September, and they have introduced their own code editor and AI features."

"It's a great toolbox where the CI/CD pipeline is the fundamental component, but there are so many other features that you can pull from, which makes it a very powerful tool. My current client is using AWS, and they can, of course, use AWS CodePipeline, but GitLab is much more mature than that, and it also gives you the freedom to decide to go to another platform or have a multi-cloud strategy and things like that. That freedom for me is also very valuable."

"I recommend GitLab for DevOps engineers."

"It is a speedy platform compared to the others I have used. I have also enjoyed using the platform as this solution offers a good user experience."

More GitLab pros

"The auto-schedule feature is valuable. Another valuable feature is that Jenkins does not trigger a build when there is no change in any of the systems. Jenkins also supports most of the open-source plug-ins."

"We significantly reduced build times of large projects (more than 80k lines of Scala code) using build time on Jenkins as a time sample. It reduced the developer write-test-commit cycle time, and increased productivity."

"The most valuable aspect of Jenkins is pipeline customization. Jenkins provides a declarative pipeline as well as a scripted pipeline. The scripted pipeline uses a programming language. You can customize it to your needs, so we use Jenkins because other solutions like Travis and Spinnaker don't allow much customization."

"The initial setup is pretty simple."

"Jenkins's automation and orchestration features have significantly improved workflows by automating various processes. Initially, it did not support YAML manifesting or GitOps, but recent versions have introduced these capabilities. Now, the tool supports importing manifest files from Git repositories, enabling the implementation of GitOps pipelines. Compared to other tools like GitLab, it has become a mature tool for running CI/CD pipelines."

"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."

"Also, the ability to customize these plugins is valuable. Its user-friendliness stands out, especially in its user interface which allows easy installation and configuration."

"It's very useful when you want to automate different processes from beginning to end."

More Jenkins pros

Cons

"I would like to have some features to support peer review."

"Perhaps the integration could be better."

"We are having a few problems integrating with Jira at the moment, which is something that our IT department is investigating."

"The initial setup was quite challenging because it takes some time to understand how to pull out or push the code."

"GitLab would be improved with the addition of templates for deployment on local PCs."

"I would like to see AI support in GitLab."

"GitLab should work on improving their user interface for GitOps as it is lagging behind."

"The pricing model of GitLab is an issue for me."

More GitLab cons

"Jenkins takes a long time to create archive files."

"Improvement-wise, I would want the solution's user interface to be changed for the better. In short, the solution can be made more user-friendly."

"Centralized user management would be helpful."

"Jenkins could have better cloud functionality. Currently, we are using the existing legacy model, but we are moving toward the cloud, so it would be great if they could improve in that area. In the future, I would like more cloud features and related training materials, like a video tutorial."

"The UI must be more user-friendly."

"Jenkins can improve by continuing to add additional plugins for all the new solutions that are coming out within the cloud sphere."

"The support for the latest Java Runtime Environment should be improved."

"There are some issues with Jenkins, especially with the SIP job."

More Jenkins cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price is fine. It is on the cheaper side and not expensive. You have to pay additionally for GitLab CI/CD minutes. Initially, we used the free version. When we ran out of GitLab minutes, we migrated to the paid version."

"GitLab is an open-source solution."

"The solution is based on a subscription model and is reasonably priced."

"GitLab is highly priced for smaller teams, but it's okay if considering a user base of thousands."

"The solution's standard license is paid annually. They have changed the pricing model and it used to be better. There is a free version available."

"We are currently using the open-source version."

"In total, I believe we have more than 300 licenses spread over about 100 users, though I can't comment on the costs involved."

"We are using its free version, and we are evaluating its Premium version. Its Ultimate version is very expensive."

More GitLab pricing and cost advice

"The solution is open source."

"Some of the add-ons are too expensive."

"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."

"I used the free OSS version all the time. It was enough for all my needs."

"The open-source version is free, but small companies would not be able to afford the cloud-based version."

"It's free software with a big community behind it, which is very good."

"Jenkins is an open-source platform."

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…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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 provide us with a clear view of changes and help us manage requests efficiently.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with GitLab?

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

See all answers

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 requirements and use cases in mind. Tekton deployment is complex and it is not very e...

See all answers

What do you like most about Jenkins?

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

See all answers

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 proprietary tools.

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs GitLab

Compared 31% 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

Veracode 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

Tekton vs Jenkins

Compared 7% of the time

JFrog Pipeline vs Jenkins

Compared 7% of the time

TeamCity vs Jenkins

Compared 7% of the time

More Jenkins Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitLab

August 2025

Download GitLab product report

Buyer's Guide

Jenkins

August 2025

Download Jenkins product report

Also Known As

Fuzzit

No data available

Overview

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.

GitLab

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

Jenkins

Sample Customers

1. NASA 2. IBM 3. Sony 4. Alibaba 5. CERN 6. Siemens 7. Volkswagen 8. ING 9. Ticketmaster 10. SpaceX 11. Adobe 12. Intuit 13. Autodesk 14. Rakuten 15. Unity Technologies 16. Pandora 17. Electronic Arts 18. Nordstrom 19. Verizon 20. Comcast 21. Philips 22. Deutsche Telekom 23. Orange 24. Fujitsu 25. Ericsson 26. Nokia 27. General Electric 28. Cisco 29. Accenture 30. Deloitte 31. PwC 32. KPMG

Airial, Clarus Financial Technology, cubetutor, Metawidget, mysocio, namma, silverpeas, Sokkva, So Rave, tagzbox

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. Jenkins

July 2025

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