IBM Rational Build Forge vs TeamCity comparison

IBM and JetBrains are both solutions in the Build Automation category. IBM is ranked #23, while JetBrains is ranked #9 with an average rating of 6.8. IBM holds a 0.8% mindshare in BA, compared to JetBrains’s 7.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of JetBrains users who would recommend it.

IBM Rational Build Forge

Read 2 IBM Rational Build Forge reviews

434 Views
331 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

TeamCity

Read 28 TeamCity reviews

2,185 Views
1,937 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

IBM Rational Build Forge

TeamCity

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

IBM Rational Build Forge and TeamCity are competitors in the build automation tools category. TeamCity seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive features and greater perceived value.

Features: IBM Rational Build Forge is noted for its automation capabilities and scalability. TeamCity is distinguished by its continuous integration capabilities, extensive plug-in ecosystem, and superior version control system integration, offering more flexibility and extensibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Rational Build Forge offers a structured deployment model with robust customer service. TeamCity provides a quicker setup process with extensive documentation and responsive support.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Rational Build Forge has a competitive pricing structure focused on reduced operational costs. TeamCity's perceived higher initial setup cost is justified by its comprehensive features, offering a better ROI due to its feature-rich platform and flexibility.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Rational Build Forge vs. TeamCity Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Rational Build Forge vs. TeamCity

April 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

IBM Rational Build Forge

Ranking in Build Automation

23rd

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

TeamCity

Ranking in Build Automation

9th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of IBM Rational Build Forge is 0.8%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TeamCity is 7.6%, up from 6.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Build Automation

Featured Reviews

Amy DeLorge

CRM Program Release Manager at Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center

Great reporting features and very functional

The solution could be more user friendly. Trying to train somebody on it can be difficult. If you're in this field, you kind of learn the tools, but trying to show a PM how to find report sheets to pull data was difficult. I had to show them how to write the queries and pull the data that they needed. It's not a layman's solution. If you're working with a programmer or with an architect, you won't have issues trying to relay how to utilize the tool. It was for those who cut the checks where there were problems enabling them to pull the data they required. I guess the answer is DevOps, but it depends on your environment. Just being able to sign into dashboards and get accurate results was my biggest thing with my PMs on my projects. They like charts and pie graphs, the ability to see things at a glance data where they could make decisions on the fly.

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Omakoji Idakwoji

Software Engineer at Home Depot

Build management system used to successfully create full request tests and run security scans

I find the TeamCity backend easily accessible. Users can login to the Linux servers that TeamCity is installed on and perform operations. Also I find the ability to template solutions using the meta runner a good feature as well as the user management feature. There is a display that shows which user made recent changes to a branch on GitHub, including the time the changes were made and the particular agent that ran the job. This is also a very useful feature. The metrics and audit available for projects, pipelines and jobs come in handy when debugging.

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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

"Very good reporting features."

"All features are useful. Our customer doesn't have any complaints about the tool. It works pretty well for what they want and what they need to do."

"One of the most beneficial features for us is the flexibility it offers in creating deployment steps tailored to different technologies."

"TeamCity's GUI is nice."

"TeamCity is more structured and user-friendly than other vendors."

"VCS Trigger: Provides excellent source control support."

"TeamCity is very useful due to the fact that it has a strong plug-in system."

"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."

"We would like to see better integration with other version controls, since we encountered difficulty when this we first attempted."

"Good integration with IDE and JetBrains products."

More TeamCity pros

Cons

"Its logging can be improved. When something goes wrong, it is not always very easy to find the problem. It is hard to identify whether the problem is because of low memory in the server or some configuration in Rational Build Forge. The error logs are not very detailed, and they should provide more information. It should also have more integration with third-party tools. It would be great to have more integration with third-party tools."

"Not user friendly for the layman."

"REST API support lacks many features in customization of builds, jobs, and settings."

"Their online documentation is fairly extensive, but sometimes you can end up navigating in circles to find answers. I would like them (or partner with someone) to provide training classes to help newcomers get things up and running more quickly."

"The integration between other solutions and TeamCity could be smoother."

"I would suggest creating simple and advanced configurations. Advanced configurations will give more customizations like Jenkins does."

"Last time I used it, dotnet compilation had to be done via PowerShell scripts. There was actually a lot that had to be scripted."

"The UI for this solution could be improved. New users don't find it easy to navigate. The need some level of training to understand the ins and the outs."

"We've called TeamCity tech support. Unfortunately, all their tech support is based in Europe, so we end up with such a big time crunch that I now need to have one person in the US."

"The upgrade process could be smoother. Upgrading major versions can often cause some pain."

More TeamCity cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"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

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

No data available

Financial Services Firm

25%

Computer Software Company

18%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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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 different technologies.

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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.

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What needs improvement with TeamCity?

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 ...

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Comparisons

Jenkins vs IBM Rational Build Forge

Compared 100% of the time

More IBM Rational Build Forge Competitors

GitLab vs TeamCity

Compared 37% of the time

GitHub Actions vs TeamCity

Compared 16% of the time

Harness vs TeamCity

Compared 16% of the time

Tekton vs TeamCity

Compared 9% of the time

Jenkins vs TeamCity

Compared 8% of the time

More TeamCity Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Build Automation

April 2025

Download IBM Rational Build Forge product report

Buyer's Guide

TeamCity

April 2025

Download TeamCity product report

Also Known As

Rational Build Forge

No data available

Overview

IBM Rational Build Forge is an adaptive execution framework that helps automate and standardize the software assembly process. Rational Build Forge helps teams standardize repetitive tasks, improve software quality and manage compliance mandates. This software scales to 25 seats. Rational Build Forge delivers:
Flexibility - gives developers self-service access to preconfigured build processes from within their integrated development environment (IDE). You can add IBM Rational software products to further enhance automation, reporting and integration.
Productivity - accelerates build and release cycles through iterative development, parallel processes and efficient use of hardware.
Compliance - simplifies compliance management with self-documenting audit trails and role-based security.
Compatibility - increases team efficiency with centralized build and release management using the tools you have today.

IBM

TeamCity is a Continuous Integration and Deployment server that provides out-of-the-box continuous unit testing, code quality analysis, and early reporting on build problems. A simple installation process lets you deploy TeamCity and start improving your release management practices in a matter of minutes. TeamCity supports Java, .NET and Ruby development and integrates perfectly with major IDEs, version control systems, and issue tracking systems.

JetBrains

Sample Customers

Cars.com

Toyota, Xerox, Apple, MIT, Volkswagen, HP, Twitter, Expedia

Buyer's Guide

IBM Rational Build Forge vs. TeamCity

April 2025

Free Report: IBM Rational Build Forge vs. TeamCity

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