Continuous integration (CI) has become a cornerstone of modern software development. There are many continuous integration benefits, including its role in enabling teams to deliver high-quality software faster and more efficiently.
There are many agile and continuous integration tools on the market to supplement your software development process. By utilizing continuous integration as a strategy, you save your business time and money.
In fact, you will notice that continuous integration and agile development share similar end goals. And that is for good reason.
Iterative processes and frequent updates make for better code and better software products overall. To learn more about continuous integration and the tools that empower the practice, stick around!
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14 Best Continuous Integration Tools
Continuous integration tools can complement a robust ecosystem of software tools that help meet your business needs. Look below to see what continuous integration tools can fortify your software development.
1. Jenkins
Jenkins is one of the most popular open-source tools on the market for automating your projects. Deployed on a standalone continuous integration server, this highly extensible CI tool can bolster scalability for your business by automating testing and finding defects quickly.
Its popularity likely stems from its rich features and plugins – the plugin ecosystem is massive – and easy installation through a WAR file. Jenkins is also free and thus widely accessible.
It is ideal for teams looking for a free, highly extensible CI tool.
2. CircleCI
CircleCI is a continuous integration tool that directly competes with the Jenkins CI/CD platform. Both Circle and Jenkins are notably popular and claim to do the same things.
However, CircleCI is a cloud-based CI/CD platform that guarantees faster builds, simplified maintenance, and shorter feedback cycles.
With CircleCI, you can scale up to 80x concurrency (parallel builds), meaning you can execute multiple tasks simultaneously. CircleCI is free, with paid plans starting at $30 per month.
Costs for CircleCI are as follows:
- Free – $0.
- Performance – $15 a month.
- Scale – $2,000 a month.
It’s perfect for teams seeking fast feedback cycles and minimal maintenance.
3. Travis CI
Travis CI is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) cloud technology for open-source projects, enabling development teams to test and ship their apps efficiently.
This continuous integration platform was actually the first of its kind to offer its service for free. And despite the costs, you get more than what you pay for.
The CI tool supports multiple languages and platforms, parallel testing, and seamless GitHub synchronization.
- Usage Based – $15 a month.
- Unlimited Plan – $73+ a month.
- Self-hosted – $34 a month.
Travils CL is best for small teams and open-source contributors.
4. Bitbucket Pipelines
Bitbucket Pipelines and Bamboo are both Atlassian products. Though Bamboo was discontinued some time ago, the name is still used interchangeably with BitBucket Pipelines, which offers similar key features.
BitBucket Pipelines extends both continuous integration and continuous deployment. As a result, you do not have to manage servers, synchronize repositories, or configure user management for your development projects.
BitBucket Pipelines also integrates with Jira, a software product for bug tracking and agile project management.
‘Pipelines’ is a reference to the automated processes DevOps professionals employ towards efficient deployment. A standard deployment pipeline includes version control, acceptance tests, independent deployment, and production deployment.
- Free – $0 for up to 5 users.
- Standard – $3,30 per user per month.
- Premium – $6.60 per user per month.
Overall, it is a great option if you are already using Atlassian’s ecosystem.
5. TeamCity
TeamCity is a product of JetBrains, a Czech software development company that is well-known for building popular integrated development environments (IDEs) like PyCharm and IntelliJ.
It is well known for offering advanced build management and version control.
Of course, JetBrains does much more than develop IDEs. For instance, TeamCity is a powerful CI solution that you can use for free for your first 100 build configurations.
TeamCity’s feature set warrants complete control over your production environments. Whether you want to run three builds alongside each other or import source code from two separate version control systems (VCSs), TeamCity can do it all.
Costs for TeamCity Pipelines start from $15 a month for three committers. TeamCity Enterprise starts at $45.
TeamCity is truly the best option if you are an enterprise with complex CI needs.
6. GitLab CI/CD
GitLab is, first and foremost, a DevOps platform that improves cycle time with features like issue tracking and reporting.
On the other hand, GitLab CI/CD is a web application attached to a friendly user interface that allows you to manage projects, keeping the principles of continuous integration in mind.
It is popular as it is fully integrated with GitLab repositories.
One much-appreciated facet of GitLab CI/CD is the ability to create intricate API integrations through the platform, given that GitLab provides APIs for most, if not all, of its features. This allows you to create custom workflows.
- Free – $0
- Premium – $29
- Ultimate – Individual pricing
This is a great option if you are already using GitLab for version control.
7. GoCD
GoCD is largely open-source and can model complex workflows via an intuitive interface for your CD pipelines. Your team can even visualize workflows for pipelines and use tools like Value Stream Map for end-to-end workflow monitoring.
User authentication, authorization, and secure deployment to production are other benefits of the platform. A plethora of custom plugins enhance the functionality of this tool.
All of this makes GoCD the best option for teams managing complex workflows.
8. CodeShip
CloudBees CodeShip is a SaaS CI solution that optimizes CI and CD in the cloud. Both small and scaling businesses can gain from using CodeShip.
Some of CodeShip’s notable advantages in the CI tool market are centralized team management dashboards, easily accessible debug builds, and extensive customizability for workflows.
In addition, CodeShip simplifies the process of pushing code to your repository with automated workflows.
- Starter – $49 per month
- Essential – $99 per month
- Power – $399 per month
Overall, it’s a great option if you are a small and scaling business.
9. Buildbot
Buildbot, in its own words, is a ‘job scheduling system.’ Automation is always the focus, no matter if you’re using the framework for automating a build, automating tests, or even automating deployment.
To put it simply, Buildbot is a utilitarian CI framework for automating compilation testing and other processes that take place in your software development life cycle.
It is most popular for job scheduling and flexible configurations.
To boot, Buildbot is open-source as well, meaning it’s easy to access for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) looking for a cost-effective CI tool.
10. CruiseControl
CruseeControl is an extensible continuous integration tool with a large variety of source controls and builds technologies. Like many other options we have looked at, it is free to use.
Integration with VCSs supports VSS, CSV, SVN, git, HG, perforce, ClearCase, filesystem, and other diverse systems.
What’s more, CruiseControl’s notification systems span from email to instant messaging.
It is usually the option recommended to teams requiring VCS compatibility.
11. Wercker
Wercker is another free tool. It utilizes Docker and microservices architecture to accomplish its goals. The main goal of Wercker is, naturally, to ease the development process.
To elaborate, Docker characterizes several software services, namely Docker containers. Docker containers are standardized, isolated units for bundling software.
Microservices work similarly, whereas every function of a software product is encapsulated within a distinct service. APIs work to bring these services together.
With these tools, developers use Wercker to create automated pipelines that they can execute from a command-line interface. Parallel testing and numerous integrations are only a few of Wercker’s perks.
We’d recommend Wercker if you are focusing on containerized applications.
12. Semaphore CI
Semaphore CI is cloud-based software that developers prize for its speed and simplicity. With Semaphore, you can build and run custom tests for dependencies, security, code styles, and more.
In addition, Semaphore CI is equipped with automatic parallel testing, native integration with favored VCSs like GitHub and Bitbucket, and speedy executions.
There are three main pricing modfels:
- Free – $0
- Startup – Pay-as-you-go
- Scaleup – Custom pricing
It’s one of the best options if you need fast, cloud-based testing.
13. UrbanCode
IBM UrbanCode Deploy is a continuous integration tool for configuring and running software builds. It is generally targeted at enterprise-grade projects.
Dependency management, security administration, and role management are a couple of the platform’s noteworthy advantages.
UrbanCode can also aid your team in creating templates and identifying project variability.
- Trial – $0 for 60 days.
- Monthly – $71,30 per agent.
It’s a good option to consider for enterprises prioritizing security and scalability.
14. Buddy
Buddy is an incredibly user-friendly, web-based CI/CD tool that — like CircleCI — sees Jenkins as its biggest competitor.
To counter Jenkin’s visibility in the market, Buddy supplies security audits, cloud configuration, and weekly updates to its users.
Additionally, Buddy promises optimized performance via container, enhanced maintenance through an intuitive user interface and user experience, and simplified pipeline setups.
Buddy’s pricing is as follows:
- Free – 0 euros.
- Pro – 19 euros per user per month.
- Enterprise – 35 euros per user per month.
Overall, you should be looking into it further if you have a small to medium-sized team that needs something easy to use.
What Is Continuous Integration?
Let’s cover the basics before we delve into more detail: what is CI/CD? When should you be using continuous integration vs. continuous deployment?
Continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment are all closely related terms. Here’s a breakdown of their distinct, contextual meanings:
- Continuous integration — a means of regularly merging new code changes to the main branch of source code. CI ensures that when multiple developers push code simultaneously, potential conflicts are caught early.
- continuous delivery — a software engineering approach encouraging teams to produce software in short, intermittent cycles
- continuous deployment — a software release process that relies heavily on automated testing; each change must pass through all the stages of the software development life cycle
Think of CI as merging and testing code frequently, CD as automating the release process, and continuous deployment as automating releases entirely.
CI/CD is a shorthand that conveys the aforementioned terminology with ease. The phrase is regularly used within the software realm.
The main idea of these concepts is that making constant adjustments to a software project will mean stricter error checking and unbridled improvements along the way.
What Are Continuous Integration Tools?
Continuous integration tools are able to assess the stability and correctness of new code for integration.
There are many benefits of CI tools. Let’s look at some of the biggest advantages of CI tools and see how they improve development.
- CI tools prevent merge conflicts such as bugs and duplicate code, making for cleaner code. In doing so, they prevent bigger issues down the line, like conflicts escalating into larger bugs.
- CI tools decrease code review time and ultimately speed up development time.
- CI tools reduce the project backlog.
- CI tools automate time-consuming tasks. This automation allows developers to focus on higher-priority tasks.
- CI tools allow for continuous feedback. This real-time feedback is essential for improving code quality, meaning you’ll have faster and more reliable software delivery and a better software product overall.
In general, CI tools increase engineering teams’ capacity to build high-quality software by yielding developers’ code views, integration tests, and other useful tooling.
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Which Continuous Integration Tool Is Right For Your Business?
After a brief overview of 14 highly rated continuous integration tools, you’re probably wondering what CI tool is best for you.
There is no easy answer to that question. In reality, you should carefully analyze your business goals and resources to better understand which tool will suit your needs best.
Here are some points to consider:
- Team size and experience.
- Budget constraints (free vs. paid tools).
- The complexity and scale of the project.
Of course, the most qualified advisors will be software professionals who use CI tools every day and know how they work.
At Trio, we help businesses navigate the complexities of CI tool selection and implementation. Our pre-vetted South American developers can seamlessly integrate CI/CD pipelines tailored to your needs.
Tio combines software mastery with access to offshore and nearshore developer talent. Meet our elite Argentinean developers, Chilean developers, and Brazilian developers for excellence in outsourcing.
Trio developers know just how to tackle these types of conversations. And they’re just as qualified to build your project, too. Whether you’re adopting CI tools for the first time or optimizing your existing pipeline, we can help you achieve your goals.
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