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 11.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of Google users who would recommend it.

IBM Rational Build Forge

Read 2 IBM Rational Build Forge reviews

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379 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Tekton

Read 37 Tekton reviews

4,059 Views
4,059 Comparison Views

89% 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: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Rational Build Forge vs. Tekton

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

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

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

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 IBM Rational Build Forge is 0.8%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tekton is 11.5%, up from 11.4% 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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Prasad Gupta

Software Engineer at IBM Software Labs

Efficient CI/CD management with significant cost reduction and a user-friendly setup

One area for improvement is the number of CRDs created during installation. Tekton currently creates 10 to 11CRDs, which can be overwhelming. Instead, it would be better to have just one CRD that can handle all the information and create other necessary components automatically. Additionally, more integration capabilities for security, such as DAST, SAST, and IAST, should be directly built into Tekton to facilitate easier implementation of security features.

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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 cloud-native solution. It offers optimal resource consumption, allowing tasks to be run more efficiently and at a lower cost."

"I find it beneficial to show data from Tekton to another GitHub or Bitbucket pipeline."

"Tekton is customizable because with Kubernetes, we can customize on our own."

"Tekton is highly customizable, with Kubernetes, we can customize on our own and create custom builders."

"The most valuable features of Tekton include the reusability of tasks, the clean UI interface, and the binding of services and secrets."

"When you run a pipeline, all the jobs are called. It is a very valuable feature that enhances job maintenance overall."

"One of the best things I appreciate is that Tekton runs on the Kubernetes platform. This is very useful when working on a project with other team members. For instance, suppose we have a very big project that requires building a large amount of source code or running many unit tests. During the build and unit test phases, Tekton on Kubernetes allows us to have a scalable machine to handle these tasks. This scalability is the most useful aspect for me."

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

More Tekton 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."

"Improvement is needed in the documentation and the overall integration process."

"The product's version update management process needs improvement."

"Some of the tool's cons include its minimalistic dashboard, which lacks detailed information and control compared to other tools like Jenkins or GitLab. Additionally, it's primarily used by Japanese companies."

"The product's documentation is an area of concern, making it an area where improvements are required."

"The question of pipeline scalability remains unclear."

"Initially, working with YAML configuration can be challenging using the solution."

"If you are a beginner, then accessing the flexibility part can be overwhelming. We think the learning curve of the tool is steep, especially for those who are not already familiar with Kubernetes."

"It tends to occupy a significant amount of disk space on the node, which could potentially pose challenges."

More Tekton cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

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

"Tekton is an open-source tool."

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

"The product is free and open-source."

"The solution is open-source."

"The product is free of cost."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

21%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

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?

I didn't get the intention of scalability. Scalability means based on the load, it will automatically gain resources and run. The question of pipeline scalability remains unclear. It's quite easy t...

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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 31% 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

CircleCI vs Tekton

Compared 6% of the time

More Tekton Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Build Automation

July 2025

Download IBM Rational Build Forge product report

Buyer's Guide

Tekton

July 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

July 2025

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