Difference Between Jenkins vs. GitLab CI

Organizations increasingly rely on DevOps to streamline business processes in the software-dense world. Meanwhile, their success with DevOps, in turn, can be attributed to the principles of continuous integration and continuous delivery. And the reason is — the best CI/CD tools efficiently use the power of automation to create a streamlined software delivery pipeline.

CI/CD introduces continuous monitoring and continuous testing throughout the lifecycle of applications. So choosing a proper tool is essential, whether it’s reducing the complexity of tasks in continuous delivery pipelines, building automation in workflows, or efficiently managing code changes and bugs.

Although there are a plethora of tools available in the market, today, we will focus on two of the most popular CI/CD tool available in the market — Jenkins and GitLab. Let’s understand the tools in depth and know the key differences between them so that you can make a more informed decision while picking up the right tool. You can read the full article if you want to learn about all the other types of CI/CD tools. Without further ado, let’s proceed. 

Overview of Jenkins

A widely known open-source automation tool, Jenkins is suitable for the CI/CD pipelines of all sizes of businesses.  The app manages the organization's CI/CD pipeline by adding repositories, multiple programming languages, pipelines, etc. The beauty of Jenkins is that it makes it feasible to integrate any type of automation. 

Advantages

• Offers a huge plugin library 

• Self-hosted, i.e., complete control over workspaces

• Complete workspace control due to easy debugging

• Easy to set up nodes

• Easy to deploy code

• Very good credentials in management

• Quite flexible and versatile with its features

• Supports different languages

• Very intuitive

Disadvantages

• Plugin integration is cumbersome

• You have to set up small projects manually

• It does not provide analytics to track the pipeline

Overview of GitLab CI

GitLab is one of the newest and most admirable tools.  It is an open-source code management platform designed to support the DevOps lifecycle through its web-based services. Repositories are another feature that GitLab CI/CD offers, making integration easy and uncomplicated. When utilizing GitLab CI/CD, the phase command consists of a number of steps that must be carried out or executed in a specific order. Each work is depicted and configured with a variety of choices after implementation.

Advantages

• Supports seamless Docker integration

• Scaling runners are pretty easy

• Features parallel job execution

• Easy to create and handle job execution

• Impeccable security policies

Disadvantages

• Each job requires manual uploading and downloading of artifacts

• Tests cannot be performed prior to branch merging

• Does not support phases within stages

Jenkins vs. GitLab CI

Installation

Jenkins is a simple tool to set up in terms of installation. JRE must already be installed on your computer. Platforms for Windows, Unix, and Mac are supported. It works with Docker and may be executed as a Java servlet in GlassFish, Apache Tomcat, or any other Java container. All you have to do is download the file and proceed with the installation as usual.

Similar to Jenkins, installing GitLab is also a fairly simple process. But it only works with Unix-based operating systems, like CentOS, Linux, OpenSUSE, RedHat Linux, Debian, Ubuntu, and so on. It does not support Windows or Mac operating systems. There is a complicated method that must be followed in order to run GitLab on these platforms. 

GitLab updates are quite straightforward. All that is required to update everything is to modify the docker image.

Plugin Support

Jenkins provides a comprehensive collection of plugins for all CI/CD tasks. Users get access to more than 1700 plugins that are simple to configure. The plugins are updated frequently. These plugins can also be integrated with other DevOps tools. Jenkins' extensive plugin library makes it extremely extensible. 

Compared to Jenkins, GitLab’s plugin support is limited. However, the point to be noted here is that GitLab has access to all the necessary plugins to support every stage of your DevOps journey.

Total Branch Control

GitLab CI/CD is used not just for writing code but also for inspecting or reviewing code. With simple merge requests and merge management solutions, collaboration is improved. GitLab supports full control of git repositories with total branch control. 

In the case of Jenkins, you can control repositories to a few extents. However, complete control of all the branches is not feasible. 

Work Distribution

Jenkins enables you to distribute workloads like builds, tests and deploys across several machines, platforms, and regions. It features shorter time frames and quicker lifecycles because of distributed workloads and parallel execution.

In the case of GitLab, it allows the configuration of parallel execution based on the availability of runners. GitLab allows distributed workload scaling that allows you to scale your builds over various hardware platforms.

Support

The Jenkins community is ready to assist with any task right from installation. It provides documentation and assistance from the open source community. However, the SLA doesn't include any technical help.

In the case of GitLab, they offer paid users round-the-clock service. However, free users get free access to self-support documents as part of the SLA. 

Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery

Although Jenkins doesn't have a built-in CI feature, it does offer a simple method for setting up pipelines for different code repositories and languages to enable continuous integration and deployment. You may integrate the full development technology stack to produce goods more quickly and effectively.

By leveraging GitLab's built-in CI/CD capability, you can rapidly set up CI/CD pipelines. Software delivery is made simple, effective, and automatic with the help of a strong GitLab feature known as Auto DevOps. It employs established default CI/CD templates that automatically build, test, and deploy jobs after scanning your code language. The project is proactively checked for vulnerabilities, licensing problems, security faults, and so on, through vulnerability testing and security auditing.

Jenkins vs. GitLab: Which Should You Choose? 

Now, the final question arises — which tool to pick? The truth is, it depends. Both the tools have their pros and cons. But your final choice should be based on your project requirements and specifications. In this article, I have briefed about the tools and compared the two based on their potential. Let me know if you have any questions in mind.