Jenkins: A primer on the CI/CD tool

Jenkins is a popular, flexible, and customizable open-source automation server. It promotes CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous delivery) by automating building, testing, and deployment in software development and DevOps environments. This allows developers to increase efficiency, productivity, quality, and speed while committing more errors.

Features of Jenkins

• Continuous integration.
• Continuous delivery and deployment.
• Plugin library
• Distributed architecture.
• Pipelines.
• Reporting.
• Security.

Jenkins lets programmers continually integrate their code changes automatically. This ensures that multiple developers’ most up-to-date code is tested and merged on a regular basis. The CI/CD tool also automates building, testing, and deploying applications to multiple environments like development, staging, and production.

Developers can enjoy increased scalability and performance due to Jenkins’ distributed architecture that spreads workloads across multiple machines. They can also define their entire software delivery workflow by creating complex build pipelines in Jenkins that are highly flexible and customizable with features like conditional logic, parallel execution, manual approvals, and stages.

Perhaps Jenkins’ most notable feature is the impressive plugin library ecosystem that makes it highly extensible as a CI/CD tool. Jenkins has over 1,800 community-contributed plugins across various categories, such as platforms, user interface, administration, build management, and source code management.

Jenkins’ list of features continues with detailed reporting on code coverage, build and test results, and more. And to ensure your automation infrastructure remains secure, Jenkins works with security researchers and its core and plugin developers to quickly fix vulnerabilities.

Jenkins Pricing

Jenkins is an open-source automation server. As such, developers can download and install it for free without worrying about any licensing fees. But, while Jenkins itself is free, you will have to factor in other potential costs when using the CI/CD tool for things such as:

• Infrastructure.
• Cloud hosting.
• Plugins.

Developers that opt to run Jenkins on their own infrastructure will end up paying for hardware, servers, maintenance, and networking. Such costs will vary according to the requirements and scale of your desired Jenkins setup.

On the flip side, if you want to host your Jenkins setup on a cloud platform like Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services (AWS), that will also incur costs. What you end up paying will depend on the cloud provider you choose, plus storage, instance types, data transfer, etc. Note that whilst many of the plugins are free and sufficient for the CI/CD needs of most, you may want to pay for some premium third-party plugins with more advanced enterprise features, priority support, etc.

Advantages of Jenkins

• Open source.
• Plugin ecosystem.
• Customization.
• Strong community.

Development teams and individual developers with limited budgets will love that Jenkins is open source and allows you to enjoy its features at no cost. Its?vast plugin ecosystem?with solid documentation is another plus, making Jenkins highly flexible and extensible.

Developers can tweak Jenkins’ configuration to fit their unique needs, installing whatever features they need to complete projects. And they also have the power to create complex workflows that match their requirements. Lastly, Jenkins’ substantial open-source community lets developers enjoy solid support when they need it, plus regular updates with new features, security patches, and bug fixes.

Disadvantages of Jenkins

• Outdated interface.
• Sluggishness.
• Complexity.
• Plugin dependency.

Some may find Jenkins’ user interface outdated and in need of a significant facelift, especially compared to some other CI/CD tools with more modern aesthetics. It could also be more intuitive and user-friendly, especially for those new to CI/CD tools. Those are not the only issues with Jenkins’ user interface, however, as it can also seem sluggish and less responsive than its competitors, especially when you are loading on a local server and have many plugins installed.

Another Jenkins con is its complexity. Jenkins can have a steep learning curve, and configuring and maintaining the CI/CD tool may seem like a lot of work. And while Jenkins’ vast plugin ecosystem is a plus, it can also be a disadvantage if you heavily rely on some plugins that become outdated, lose support, and so forth.

Alternatives to Jenkins

CircleCI is a Jenkins alternative that makes sense for developers seeking something easy to use or migrate to. This CI/CD tool is fast and has a free plan. Check out our?CircleCI CI/CD tool review?for more information.

GitLab CI/CD is another easy-to-use Jenkins alternative. It is flexible and works with all of the top frameworks and languages, plus it is secure with features like security test reports and dependency and container scanning and has solid monitoring and metrics. GitLab CI/CD has a free plan with limited features. Its Premium plan starts at $24 per user, per month. Learn more at the?GitLab CI/CD website.

GitHub Actions offer a bonus of tight integration with GitHub. GitHub Actions is free to use with public repositories and has 2,000 free minutes per month with private repositories. The CI/CD tool offers added minutes with pay-as-you-go pricing. Check out the?GitHub Actions page?for more.

To sum up:

• If you do not mind its interface and are willing to invest the time and effort into understanding, configuring, and maintaining Jenkins, then it is a solid choice as a CI/CD tool
• If you are on open source fan, go for it.
• If you are looking for something more modern and easier to set up and understand, look for some of the alternatives.