Jenkins vs. Kubernetes

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Jenkins
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Jenkins is an open source automation server. Jenkins provides hundreds of plugins to support building, deploying and automating any project. As an extensible automation server, Jenkins can be used as a simple CI server or turned into a continuous delivery hub for any project.N/A
Kubernetes
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Kubernetes is an open-source container cluster manager.N/A
Pricing
JenkinsKubernetes
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
JenkinsKubernetes
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
JenkinsKubernetes
Considered Both Products
Jenkins
Chose Jenkins
The big difference between Jenkins and other alternative tools is that Jenkins is open source and it’s free. Jenkins is very much about simple functionality. It’s a general CI tool that offers basic automation. It’s the most common CI tool on the market with a large community …
Chose Jenkins
Travis is on open source it provides great flexibility with github and open source projects. However, jenkins have more plugins available
Chose Jenkins
Jenkins immense flexibility and its large and impressive selection of available community-driven plugins makes it ideal choice for solving non-traditional problems.

However, for CI/CD - consider the benefit of modern tools that enforce reusable, infrastructure as code design …
Kubernetes
Chose Kubernetes
We already had an enterprise Kubernetes 8 set up, so once we got our namespace it took me about 2 weeks to go from not knowing anything to having a self-contained jar in a container, running on Kubernetes 8. In comparison, it took me two weeks to install Java on a blank server …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
JenkinsKubernetes
Container Management
Comparison of Container Management features of Product A and Product B
Jenkins
-
Ratings
Kubernetes
7.8
1 Ratings
0% above category average
Security and Isolation00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Container Orchestration00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Cluster Management00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Storage Management00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Resource Allocation and Optimization00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Discovery Tools00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
Update Rollouts and Rollbacks00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
Analytics, Monitoring, and Logging00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Best Alternatives
JenkinsKubernetes
Small Businesses
GitLab
GitLab
Score 8.7 out of 10
Portainer
Portainer
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
GitLab
GitLab
Score 8.7 out of 10
Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
GitLab
GitLab
Score 8.7 out of 10
Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
JenkinsKubernetes
Likelihood to Recommend
7.9
(72 ratings)
9.0
(16 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.9
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.6
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
JenkinsKubernetes
Likelihood to Recommend
Open Source
Jenkins is a highly customizable CI/CD tool with excellent community support. One can use Jenkins to build and deploy monolith services to microservices with ease. It can handle multiple "builds" per agent simultaneously, but the process can be resource hungry, and you need some impressive specs server for that. With Jenkins, you can automate almost any task. Also, as it is an open source, we can save a load of money by not spending on enterprise CI/CD tools.
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Kubernetes
K8s should be avoided - If your application works well without being converted into microservices-based architecture & fits correctly in a VM, needs less scaling, have a fixed traffic pattern then it is better to keep away from Kubernetes. Otherwise, the operational challenges & technical expertise will add a lot to the OPEX. Also, if you're the one who thinks that containers consume fewer resources as compared to VMs then this is not true. As soon as you convert your application to a microservice-based architecture, a lot of components will add up, shooting your resource consumption even higher than VMs so, please beware. Kubernetes is a good choice - When the application needs quick scaling, is already in microservice-based architecture, has no fixed traffic pattern, most of the employees already have desired skills.
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Pros
Open Source
  • Automated Builds: Jenkins is configured to monitor the version control system for new pull requests. Once a pull request is created, Jenkins automatically triggers a build process. It checks out the code, compiles it, and performs any necessary build steps specified in the configuration.
  • Unit Testing: Jenkins runs the suite of unit tests defined for the project. These tests verify the functionality of individual components and catch any regressions or errors. If any unit tests fail, Jenkins marks the build as unsuccessful, and the developer is notified to fix the issues.
  • Code Analysis: Jenkins integrates with code analysis tools like SonarQube or Checkstyle. It analyzes the code for quality, adherence to coding standards, and potential bugs or vulnerabilities. The results are reported back to the developer and the product review team for further inspection.
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Kubernetes
  • Complex cluster management can be done with simple commands with strong authentication and authorization schemes
  • Exhaustive documentation and open community smoothens the learning process
  • As a user a few concepts like pod, deployment and service are sufficient to go a long way
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Cons
Open Source
  • The UI could be slightly better, it feels kind of like the 90s, but it works well.
  • An easier way to filter jobs other than views on the dashboard.
  • An easier way to read the console logs when tests do fail.
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Kubernetes
  • Local development, Kubernetes does tend to be a bit complicated and unnecessary in environments where all development is done locally.
  • The need for add-ons, Helm is almost required when running Kubernetes. This brings a whole new tool to manage and learn before a developer can really start to use Kubernetes effectively.
  • Finicy configmap schemes. Kubernetes configmaps often have environment breaking hangups. The fail safes surrounding configmaps are sadly lacking.
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Likelihood to Renew
Open Source
We have a certain buy-in as we have made a lot of integrations and useful tools around jenkins, so it would cost us quite some time to change to another tool. Besides that, it is very versatile, and once you have things set up, it feels unnecessary to change tool. It is also a plus that it is open source.
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Kubernetes
No answers on this topic
Usability
Open Source
Jenkins streamlines development and provides end to end automated integration and deployment. It even supports Docker and Kubernetes using which container instances can be managed effectively. It is easy to add documentation and apply role based access to files and services using Jenkins giving full control to the users. Any deviation can be easily tracked using the audit logs.
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Kubernetes
No answers on this topic
Performance
Open Source
No, when we integrated this with GitHub, it becomes more easy and smart to manage and control our workforce. Our distributed workforce is now streamlined to a single bucket. All of our codes and production outputs are now automatically synced with all the workers. There are many cases when our in-house team makes changes in the release, our remote workers make another release with other environment variables. So it is better to get all of the work in control.
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Kubernetes
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Open Source
As with all open source solutions, the support can be minimal and the information that you can find online can at times be misleading. Support may be one of the only real downsides to the overall software package. The user community can be helpful and is needed as the product is not the most user-friendly thing we have used.
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Kubernetes
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Open Source
It is worth well the time to setup Jenkins in a docker container. It is also well worth to take the time to move any "Jenkins configuration" into Jenkinsfiles and not take shortcuts.
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Kubernetes
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Open Source
Overall, Jenkins is the easiest platform for someone who has no experience to come in and use effectively. We can get a junior engineer into Jenkins, give them access, and point them in the right direction with minimal hand-holding. The competing products I have used (TravisCI/GitLab/Azure) provide other options but can obfuscate the process due to the lack of straightforward simplicity. In other areas (capability, power, customization), Jenkins keeps up with the competition and, in some areas, like customization, exceeds others.
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Kubernetes
Most of the required features for any orchestration tool or framework, which is provided by Kubernetes. After understanding all modules and features of the K8S, it is the best fit for us as compared with others out there.
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Return on Investment
Open Source
  • Faster Time-to-Market: Jenkins automate the build, testing, and deployment process, enabling faster feedback and continuous improvement.
  • Improved Quality: Jenkins automatically run unit tests and integration tests, ensuring that code changes meet the necessary quality standards.
  • Cost Savings: Jenkins is an open-source tool that is free to use
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Kubernetes
  • Because of microservices, Kubernetes makes it easy to find the cost of each application easily.
  • Like every new technology, initially, it took more resources to educate ourselves but over a period of time, I believe it's going to be worth it.
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