IBM Rational Build Forge vs Tekton comparison

IBM and Google are both solutions in the Build Automation category. IBM is ranked #24, while Google is ranked #2 with an average rating of 7.8. IBM holds a 0.8% mindshare in BA, compared to Google’s 12.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Google users who would recommend it.

IBM Rational Build Forge

Read 2 IBM Rational Build Forge reviews

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285 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Tekton

Read 36 Tekton reviews

4,437 Views
2,094 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

IBM Rational Build Forge

Tekton

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

IBM Rational Build Forge and Tekton compete in build automation and CI/CD tooling. Tekton has the upper hand with its open-source nature and Kubernetes integration, aligning well with modern DevOps practices.

Features: IBM Rational Build Forge provides pre-built automation frameworks supporting diverse platforms, handles complex builds with configurable scripts, and offers extensive platform environment support. Tekton focuses on cloud-native and Kubernetes workflows, efficient pipeline customization, scalability, and seamless DevOps tool integration.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Rational Build Forge typically deploys on-premises with comprehensive support and consultancy services. Tekton offers easier deployment in cloud-supported environments through containerization. IBM provides detailed customer service, while Tekton benefits from community-driven assistance and ongoing open-source improvements.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Rational Build Forge involves higher setup costs but provides structured ROI through robust deployments. Tekton, being open-source, lowers initial expenses and offers cost-effectiveness, especially for cloud infrastructure-focused organizations. ROI with Tekton is tied to driving cloud-native application innovation and agility.

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

Buyer's Guide

IBM Rational Build Forge vs. Tekton

June 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

24th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Tekton

Ranking in Build Automation

2nd

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of IBM Rational Build Forge is 0.8%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tekton is 12.0%, up from 11.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Build Automation

Featured Reviews

it_user1330545

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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AjayKrishna

Senior Software Engineer at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees

If you're dealing with many applications and need a reliable, scalable, and efficient system, I'd recommend this solution

Tekton's most important feature is its cloud-native nature. Unlike Jenkins, which may not scale as efficiently, Tekton's CI pipeline can automatically scale up to handle increased workload demands without needing manual adjustments. Another important aspect is the level of customization offered by Tekton. Each task in the CI pipeline can be customized independently, allowing developers to write code in various languages like shell scripting, Java, or Python and incorporate them into the pipeline as needed. This level of abstraction and customization greatly benefits developers in creating efficient CI pipelines. Also, it can be challenging to understand the logs and troubleshoot issues without clear guidance. It's not always easy to reach technical support and get immediate answers. In my opinion, improvement in this area would be beneficial.

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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."

"Tekton is a stable product."

"The ability to scale is valuable."

"The platform's most valuable feature is its cloud-native and Kubernetes-ready design."

"Its seamless integration with Kubernetes, being built on top of it and utilizing Custom Resource Definitions, ensures a smooth experience within Kubernetes environments exclusively."

"Tekton allows you to categorize tasks according to your needs and minimizes the amount of code needed."

"I like the branching and visualization tools for the pipeline."

"We can make a lot of customizations, and data sharing between tasks using workspaces is very convenient."

"It enables enterprises to build a flexible framework atop Tekton, making it easier to define workflows with standard inputs and outputs."

More Tekton pros

Cons

"Not user friendly for the layman."

"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."

"I'm a bit worried about scaling Tekton from the point of view of big CI/CD processes."

"Compared to traditional tools like Jenkins, Tekton lacks a lot of features. It's not efficient in managing conflicts between multiple pipelines."

"When we started with Tekton around 2021 or early 2022, the community support was somewhat limited, which posed challenges when dealing with issues or debugging. We had to rely on Red Hat OpenShift support to overcome these challenges. However, I believe that these issues will naturally improve over timeas the developer community grows stronger. From a technical perspective, I haven't had the opportunity to deeply evaluate the product end-to-end, especially in the past year or so, when I've been less involved with it."

"Improvements could include introducing a UI-based pipeline development feature, such as drag and drop, which would help individuals with limited technical knowledge start building pipelines."

"The stability issues can be there."

"Tekton lacks sufficient documentation"

"RBAC is really needed for Tekton."

"Tekton could improve by adding better documentation."

More Tekton cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The product is free of cost."

"The tool is open-source and free to use."

"It is entirely open source and free of charge."

"The solution is open-source."

"Tekton is an open-source tool."

"The product is free and open-source."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

22%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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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...

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What do you like most about Tekton?

Its seamless integration with Kubernetes, being built on top of it and utilizing Custom Resource Definitions, ensures a smooth experience within Kubernetes environments exclusively.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Tekton?

Regarding areas for improvement in Tekton, I have not encountered significant issues. It works well for our use case. However, incorporating AI could be a potential enhancement in the future.

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Comparisons

Jenkins vs IBM Rational Build Forge

Compared 100% of the time

More IBM Rational Build Forge Competitors

GitHub Actions vs Tekton

Compared 33% of the time

GitLab vs Tekton

Compared 25% of the time

Harness vs Tekton

Compared 8% of the time

Jenkins vs Tekton

Compared 7% of the time

Bamboo vs Tekton

Compared 6% of the time

More Tekton Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Build Automation

June 2025

Download IBM Rational Build Forge product report

Buyer's Guide

Tekton

May 2025

Download Tekton 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

Tekton is a powerful yet flexible Kubernetes-native open-source framework for creating continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) systems. It lets you build, test, and deploy across multiple cloud providers or on-premises systems by abstracting away the underlying implementation details.

Google

Sample Customers

Cars.com

The Home Depot, PayPal, Target, HSBC, McKesson, Oncology Venture

Buyer's Guide

IBM Rational Build Forge vs. Tekton

June 2025

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