JRebel is a build automation tool developed by Estonian company ZeroTurnaround, acquired by Rogue Wave Software in 2017, and then acquired (and now supported by) Perforce since that company's 2019 acquisition of Rogue Wave. The vendor says users of JRebel saves Java teams a month of coding time per year on average.
Mostly it is very suitable for any product based company who wants to add a CI system for their products. This tool is perfectly suitable for a company which releases builds very frequently. By using this tool they can reduce a tremendous amount of manual effort. If company's budget is not high and if they can not afford the premium plan then this tool won't be suitable for them because the basic version of this tool won't provide much functionality
I recommend JRebel for Java developers, it will remove the time needed for redeployment, it will increase the focus on the task at hand (without being distracted by the redeployment) and will make them happier. I recommend JRebel for Java Development Managers, they should purchase this for their teams - it will increase productivity, decrease the product's time to market, and it will save money for the company. The ROI can be calculated upfront and presented to higher level management for approving this, if needed.
First thing is this tool is scalable which is the biggest advantage of this tool. It won't take much time in setup and making it ready. It has a very good user interface.
This tool has almost every source code repository support like Git, SVN, Microsoft Foundation Server etc. Moreover, it has very good support for various build tools like Visual Studio, MSBuild etc., which makes it even batter.
We can trigger multiple builds at a time with the Premier subscription.
It allows users to apply many deep levels of configurations which make the whole system even easier.
Deploys all layout changes consistently (when Instant Run was initially available, you couldn't tell if the change you made to a layout was actually being tested or not).
Doesn't require a full build as often as Instant Run when changing code.
Works with compile time annotation libraries like Realm, etc.
Mostly I don't have much more recommendation for improvement because this tool provides almost everything which would be required in any continuous integration system. But still I would suggest improvement in the reporting system. The build report is a field where they can make improvement by adding more information if they want.
The performance of JRebel is great. It is enabling the Java team to do hot re-deployments and it has to be transparent and fast for the user, otherwise the whole purpose of reducing wasted time with re-deployments doesn't make sense. Also the User Interface for License Server management and analytics loads fast and the navigation through pages is quick.
In my previous company I have used Jenkins for maintaining their CI system. Even this tool is also very good. The good thing about this tool is it’s an open source project. So in terms of pricing, we can consider this tool as an alternative to continua CI. One has to compare both of the products before going to use any one because both have their own benefits and drawbacks.
Hot code swapping doesn't have many players...it's mainly JRebel. We use JRebel a lot in our backend code development where it minimizes our development cycle (20min down to 30sec). For Android, the competitor is Android Studio's Instant Run which works fairly well now. For smaller apps, Instant Run is faster deploying but needs more full builds. With JRebel, you hardly ever need to do a full build.
Basically, this tool will reduce manual effort of creating, deploying and testing software products. So ultimately it will reduce manpower which would otherwise be required for such things.
It is time saving and improves the overall performance of the entire team and system.
