continuous_integration.md

good Opinion Articles

• https://code-maze.com/top-8-continuous-integration-tools/
• https://www.guru99.com/top-20-continuous-integration-tools.html
• https://www.katalon.com/resources-center/blog/ci-cd-tools/

Most article I looked at had Jenkins, Buddy, CircleCI or a combination of the three in it.

Circle CI

Pros:

1. Well documented
2. Easy to set up
3. Many options
4. Built in docker images that developers can use instead of creating their own custom docker instances.
5. Hosted through CircleCI

Cons:

1. There is a lot of documentation, and it isn't always clear. Probably woouldn't be an issue for an experienced devops person.
2. Debugging isn't clear, and it can go down every once in a while. This makes it hard to repair sometimes.
3. Apparently, it's a little slow (unsure what compared to).
4. Once usage hits a certain point it will no longer be free. However, the basic performance plan starts at $30 per month. Custom Enterprise power & support plans can be purchased for prices starting at $3K a month. :O

Circle CI payments

Jenkins

Pros:

1. Well documented
2. One of the most widely used. It's open source, so the project is continually being improved.
3. Many options, integrations, API's and plugins.
4. Free
5. Works well with other tools. i.e. git, docker/kubernetes, build tools, etc

Cons:

1. Needs to be hosted on your own server/local machine (has system requirements)

Jenkins Install

2. Unpredictable costs on your servers: not easy to predict the load of a jenkins instance on your servers.
3. Jenkins’ management is generally done by a single user and that leads to tracking and accountability problems with the pushed code.
4. No analytics - nit picky.
5. Sometimes needs special attention and a dedicated developer to care for it.
6. Steep learning curve.

Buddy

Pros:

1. Makes Automation easy
2. Reported to be quite fast.
3. No hardware requirements if desired.
4. Intuitive UI
5. Great documentation

Cons

Costs:

1. Cloud: Pricing starts at $75 dollars - you get 3GB's and 2 CPU's for every run. Can run one action in one concurrent/parallel pipeline. 10 Gb cache storage. If you choose to increase any of those values, then you will start in the hyper plan pricing - starting at $200/month and going up depending on your specifications.
2. Self-serve: It can be hosted on your own infrastructure! Pricing based on users. Lowest is 5 users for $175/month.
3. Free for open source.

Buddy Pricing

Conclusions

I think any of these three are acceptable options. Jenkins and Buddy CI are the best CI tools on the web.