Plenty of worthy CI/CD solutions provide advantages (and disadvantages) that differ from Harness.io
Traditional app development is on its way out. Instead, teams have increasingly turned to continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD). Using these techniques, developers continually bring new code into a central repository. There, it's automatically tested, verified, and deployed to predefined environments. That leads to faster app improvements, better code, and lots of time saved.
Rather than build those automations yourself, you can use a CI/CD platform. Harness.io is one prominent option, but there are lots of Harness.io competitors that can provide similar functionality. They may even be better fits for your use case. If you’re looking for your perfect match, here are some alternative CI/CD platforms to consider.
What Is Harness.io?
Harness.io is an end-to-end CI/CD platform that simplifies what can become a complicated process. Its tools aim to be easy to use without sacrificing depth, and its automated governance and guardrails help streamline compliance efforts.
Harness has become a leader in the CI/CD space. But no solution is perfect for every business. As is often the case when a product has a high standard for out-of-the-box usability, Harness limits how much users can customize its user interface. And though developers can try the platform out using a free tier, getting unlimited access — even to just a few features at a time — can quickly become expensive.
Here are some other options.
Harness.io Competitors and Alternatives
1. DuploCloud
DuploCloud is a DevOps and DevSecOps platform with robust CI/CD capabilities. On the CI front, DuploCloud makes it easy to merge changes to the main branch, validate those integrations automatically, and thus cut down on bugs that reach production. Moving to CD, engineers can use automatic deployments to reduce human error, accelerate release cycles, and more quickly incorporate feedback. And if you have pre-existing CI/CD workflows, the DuploCloud platform supports a wide variety of integrations to minimize disruption.
By using a low-code/no-code interface, DuploCloud makes it easy to execute both CI/CD functions and cloud infrastructure provisioning — even without a technical background. Plus, compliance guardrails prevent compromised code from reaching production.
2. AWS CodePipeline
As it’s one of the biggest companies in cloud technology, it’s no surprise that you can find Amazon Web Services on the list of Harness.io competitors. Its solution, AWS CodePipeline, is a fully managed CI/CD service for automating release pipelines. Setting it up is relatively easy, as it’s a web-based solution. If you’re already in the AWS ecosystem, adopting CodePipeline makes sense. If not, you can still use the service with several third-party solutions such as GitHub, BitBucket, and Jenkins.
AWS CodePipeline offers two different classes of pipelines. V1 pipelines contain standard pipeline, stage, and action-level parameters. V2 adds additional configuration sections such as triggers and variables. You’ll usually be able to get by with V1 pipelines, which is good news as V2 pipelines are more expensive.
AWS CodePipeline Pricing
AWS CodePipeline charges according to usage, making it easy to scale up or down. It also offers a Free Tier that allows one active V1 pipeline per month, plus 100 free action execution minutes per month in V2 pipelines. To get a sense of what your use case will cost, Amazon offers a calculator.
- $1 per month per active V1 type pipeline
- $0.002 per action execution minute in a V2 pipeline
3. Jenkins
Any DevOps team investigating Harness.io competitors is going to run into the question of Harness.io vs. Jenkins. The two solutions take very different approaches to the same issue. Where Harness.io provides ease of use at the cost of customization, Jenkins offers a free, open-source CI server with unparalleled flexibility. With a robust plugin ecosystem and extensive community resources, it can empower developers to meet every niche need they have.
But Jenkins has its drawbacks. Jenkins X, the company’s CI/CD solution, is essentially just a pre-fab combination of Jenkins and other open-source tools such as Helm, Docker, Nexus, and KSync. Its user interface lacks polish, and working it into the configuration your team wants takes a lot of upfront time and effort. And its single-server architecture places limits on usable resources, which can make scaling to larger environments challenging.
Jenkins Pricing
- Free
4. GitLab
If you’re looking for a polished, comprehensive DevSecOps platform, GitLab may be the right choice for you. It’s full of automations that accelerate building and testing your app, and it’s very easy to use. It even has a natural language processing (NLP) AI bot called ChatOps that lets you perform CI/CD work through Slack.
GitLab is highly flexible, integrating with external repositories such as GitHub and BitBucket Cloud. It works with most of the top languages and frameworks. Plus, it’s full of useful features such as security guardrails and rigorous scanning for containers and dependencies.
GitLab Pricing
- Free: Provides five users per namespace, 5GB of storage, 10GB transfer per month, and 400 monthly units of compute. Only allows GitLab-hosted repositories.
- Premium: $29 per user/month. Adds functionality for external repositories, CI/CD pipeline dashboards, and other CI/CD features.
- Ultimate: $99 per user/month. Adds a wealth of advanced features such as container and dependency scanning.
5. CircleCI
CircleCI began as a continuous integration platform, but over time it’s added continuous delivery features to its cloud-based platform. It now claims to have the fastest-running CI/CD workflow of any tool on the market, and it allows users to automate builds across multiple environments. Where its native feature set falls short, CircleCI leans on a healthy range of integrations to ensure users get the functionality they need.
One potential shortcoming is that CircleCI uses configuration files to build pipelines. This makes it more flexible but less intuitive than low-code and no-code interfaces.
CircleCI Pricing
- Free: Includes 6,000 build minutes and up to five active users per month, with limited access to key features.
- Performance: $15 per user/month.
- Enterprise, on-premises, and private cloud options: Contact sales.
Boost Your CI/CD Efficiency with DuploCloud
If you're looking for an efficient and flexible CI/CD solution, consider DuploCloud. Automation is our area of expertise, and our platform can fit into any DevOps workflow. With DuploCloud, you can build, test, validate, and deploy faster than ever. Plus, compliance guardrails can help ensure your app stays secure at all times. Contact us to schedule a free demo today.
