GitLab vs. Jenkins: Which Is the Best CI/CD Tool in 2023?

A CI/CD tool is defined as a software solution that supports DevOps by automating the entire process of building, testing, and deploying software applications.Â
This article compares GitLab and Jenkins, the top two tools used for software development for continuous integration and delivery in 2023.

What Is a CI/CD Tool?
Comparative Overview of Features Offered by GitLab and Jenkins
Features Review of Jenkins and GitLab

What Is a CI/CD Tool?

A CI/CD tool supports DevOps by automating the entire process of building, testing, and deploying software applications. CI/CD tools facilitate advanced software development with frequent and reliable code changes, ensuring quick and reliable delivery from development to the production stage.Â

It allows developers to work on code changes without having to worry about integration issues and ensures that the code is always ready to be deployed. It also automates the deployment process, which helps reduce the risk of human error and makes it easier to roll back changes if necessary.

Let’s review two very popular CI/CD tools â€” GitLab and Jenkins â€” based on their features, strength, and usage.

GitLab

GitLab is a famous web-based Git repository that offers a broad range of open, free, and private repositories. With its dedicated DevOps platform, it automates all crucial tasks of a software development project. From proper project planning to source code monitoring, management, and security, it takes care of everything through a dedicated solution.

CI Setup on GitLab

GitLab CI (continuous integration) helps automate and speed up the process of testing, building, deploying, and delivering applications. GitLab CD (continuous deployment) is a feature of the GitLab platform that enables software developers to automate the deployment process of their applications to various environments.

GitLab has over 100,000 users, including leading organizations such as Sony, Goldman Sachs, IBM, and NASA, to name a few.

Jenkins

Jenkins helps faster and more efficient program development and product delivery. Jenkins is an open source automation server that lets you build CI/CD environments easily. Not only does it provide a compact platform, but it also offers a range of solutions, automation tasks, and languages for simple pipeline creation and accommodating the CI/CD requirements of a business.

A Glance at CI/CD Jenkins

Over 3,000 companies use Jenkins, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Udemy, Instacart, and Twitch, to name a few.

See More: DevOps vs. Agile Methodology: Key Differences and Similarities

Comparative Overview of GitLab and Jenkins

Feature/Parameter	Jenkins	GitLab
Scalability	High scalability due to customization of open-source software	Moderate scalability due to being partially open source
Key Features	Internal hosting Large number of available plugins Easily integrable Supports build pipelines Strong documentation	80+ concurrent jobs run depending on the plan Cache individual layers of Docker images Ticket-based support on paid plans Success engineers and SLAs available on paid plansÂ
Builders	Ant Maven 2 Kundo CMake Gant Gradle Grails Phing Rake Ruby SCons Python Shell Script Command Line	Maven Gradle SSH Shell VirtualBox Parallels Docker Kubernetes
Installation	Easy to install with an installer package and configure using a web interfaceÂ	Easy to install and use; offers a single installer package
Supported Platforms	Windows, MacOS vibrant, Linux	Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, Redhat Linux, Scientific Linux, OpenSUSE, Oracle, Linux
Prerequisites	Java Runtime Environment (JRE)	Node.JS, Git, Ruby, Go
License	Open source and free	Open source and available in three editions: Free, Professional, Ultimate
Plugin Support	1,700+ plugins that are regularly updated	Limited plugin support
Extensible	Highly extensible for all types of DevOps tasks	Moderate to high extensibility
Language	Java	Ruby
Issue TrackingÂ	Doesn’t have this functionality	Offers various features for issue tracking and management
Community Support	Vibrant community that is always helpful	Good community support
Technical Support	There is no technical support for SLA, extensive documentation, and open source community support available for every CI/CD task	24Ã—5 dedicated support is available for paid users, while free users can go through the documentation and take community support

See More: What Is DevOps Lifecycle? Definition, Key Components, and Management Best Practices

Features Review of Jenkins and GitLab

Based on our extensive research, below is the features review of Jenkins and GitLab.

1. Core functionality

Jenkins is highly sought-after by enterprises and developers due to its high level of automation and seamless CI/CD functionalities. It’s written in Java and launched under the MIT license. From planning and developing a product to crucial integration and product release, Jenkins offers an all-in-one solution that automates and streamlines repetitive tasks, improving the overall efficiency of the development and delivery process.

Jenkins is considered highly reliable for DevOps testing and ensures high-quality product development without the need to monitor the entire deployment process like other CI/CD tools. This makes it more unique and competitive in the market.

GitLab comes with a dedicated Git repository management solution. As a mostly free and self-hosted CI/CD tool, GitLab has a high adoption rate across diverse industries. Be it extensive code reviews, critical issue tracking, or building an automated testing pipeline fast and easily, GitLab can ensure all these without much hassle. Even a single GitLab CI/CD server can manage more than 25,000 users and works seamlessly with multi-active servers, so its demand is high among developers.

Conclusion: GitLab wins for more efficient CI/CD functionality.

2. Plugin support

Jenkins is popular for supporting a plugin ecosystem and is highly sought-after among other CI/CD tools. Equipped with 1,700+ plugins, this ecosystem makes Jenkins even more efficient for product development and delivery. Be it facilitating high levels of customization or accommodating the requirements of language-specific development tools, the robust plugin support of Jenkins simplifies everything. It also offers simple Jenkins Plugin integration compatible with a diverse range of DevOps testing tools.Â

GitLab, on the other hand, supports the Jekyll plugin to simplify the deployment process. This plugin is a static website generator that offers robust support for diverse GitLab pages. The several advantages of the Jekyll plugin make end users prefer GitLab, such as low server maintenance, high speed, reduced risks, and simple theming, to name a few.

GitLab’s compact plugin support for Jekyll lets developers build highly static sites based on their preferred layouts. Furthermore, Jekyll settings are easily configurable and can easily accommodate the plugin and theme requirements of a website and facilitate live interactive Jekyll testing. However, despite these advantages, its overall plugin support and efficiency are not as competitive compared to Jenkins.

Conclusion: Jenkins wins for a wider range of robust plugin support.

3. Structure and control of repositories

Jenkins is equipped with its own Artifactory binary repository to distribute diverse core plugins and library releases as per requirements. This type of repository is famous for storing binary artifacts as well as relevant metadata in a well-defined directory structure. The purpose of this stored metadata is to describe the binary software artifact and provide crucial information such as versioning, promotion building, and dependencies, to name a few.

While Jenkins allows you to control repositories to a certain extent, it doesn’t let you have complete control over the branches and different facets.Â

Gitlab offers a well-structured, extensive repository where you can easily store various codes and change or customize them as per your requirements without any ambiguities. While Omnibus GitLab stores the Git repository data by default, different types of repositories are stored in the subfolder named repositories. GitLab repositories are considered as a central location in GitLab where aggregation of the latest and relevant codes are stored and can be managed and utilized for diverse collaborative development or upgrading tasks.

One of the exclusive perks of GitLab CI/CD is that you can have complete control over the GitLab repositories, including branches and diverse facets. Not only does it let you enjoy higher authority on everything, but it also ensures high security for your codes from different threats.

Conclusion: Gitlab wins for better repository control and safety.

4. Code reviews and merge requests

Be it code reviewing, changing codes, or documenting, Jenkins lets you do all this by integrating Reviewboard. To do a code review in Jenkins, you need to create a multibranch pipeline item and then select Gerrit type as the branch source. You can scan the pipeline, both, by an external trigger or even manually. While reviewing, testing, and reporting the results can all be done easily with Jenkins, it is not that efficient in terms of executing complex code reviews and merging requests through an in-built solution.

GitLab offers an end-to-end solution for efficient code reviews and merge requests. Its powerful code-reviewing property comes with simple merge requests and merge management solutions. You can review codes and create merge requests by following simple steps such as writing codes, pushing them to a separate branch, and waiting for your code to get accepted or declined. Extensive support for diverse environment buildings is available in GitLab, which simplifies the tasks of developers. You can easily expand GitLab CI/CD through its range of collaborative initiatives per your requirements.

Conclusion: GitLab wins for better and more competitive code reviews and merge request feature.

See More: What Is CI/CD? Definition, Process, Benefits, and Best Practices for 2022

Takeaway

Jenkins and GitLab are both famous for their own exclusive sets of properties, features, and solutions. Based on your development and delivery requirements, application, or use case, you need to pick the one that is more suitable. Before you make a decision, it is recommended that you assess your requirements and how relevant and efficient the features of any CI/CD tool are.

Jenkins is typically used for:

Deploying projects
Running tests
Scanning for bugs
Analyzing static code
Analyzing static deployment
Development process optimization

GitLab is typically used for:

Automated software delivery
Source code management
Cloud transformation
Security & governance
Digital transformation

Did this article help you understand the comparative features of Jenkins and GitLab? Which CI/CD tool will you prefer among these? Let us know on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!

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