Compare
Migrate your CI/CD from Jenkins to Semaphore
- ✔️ Host your own open-source CI with Semaphore Community Edition
- ✔️Cloud (SaaS) version available for those who want a CI that just works
- ✔️ Modernize aging code delivery processes
- ✔️ Accelerate deployment frequency with faster builds
- ✔️ Free up developers’ time for more valuable work
Open-Source CI/CD 🛣️
Choose between Semaphore Cloud, the autoscaling, managed platform, or Semaphore Community Edition for a self-hosted open-source alternative to Jenkins.
- ✔️ Semaphore Community Edition is an modern open-source, self-hosted alternative to Jenkins
- ✔️ Fully hackable: released under Apache-2 license
- ✔️ Clutter-free UI
- ✔️ Effective pipeline visualizations
Eliminate heavy lifting 💆🏻♂️
There are entire books written about running Jenkins, and for a reason. It’s free to use but puts the burden of managing, securing, and scaling CI/CD squarely on your team. With Semaphore, you get:
- ✔️ Easy on boarding
- ✔️ Freedom: auto-scaling, hybrid cloud, or fully self-hosted solution options
- ✔️ Focus on building great products
- ✔️ No maintenance (Semaphore Cloud)
- ✔️ 24/365 support (Semaphore Cloud and Enterprise)
Increased productivity 💪
The data is in: after switching to Semaphore, an average team of a dozen engineers saves over 500 human hours per month (see whitepaper). The reason? Faster builds, infinite on-demand capacity to test in parallel, and smart pipeline.
- ✔️ Saves +500 human hrs/mo
- ✔️ Faster builds
- ✔️ Capacity to test in parallel
- ✔️ smart pipeline optimization
Standardize CI/CD 👨💻
Jenkins adoption is typically fragmented, with each team having their unique instance with challenges that include brittle configuration and outdated plugins. With Semaphore, you get:
- ✔️ CI/CD config as code
- ✔️ Runs on multiple environments
- ✔️ Permission management
“I’ve been doing CI/CD for more than 15 years. Semaphore is hands-down the best product I’ve used. An incredibly flexible platform, but without the open-ended bloat of Jenkins. It’s extremely intuitive and easy to navigate.”
Ben Peterson
Principle Software Engineer
Compare Semaphore vs. Jenkins
- Product type
- SaaS
- Hybrid
- Fully on-premises
- Features
- Standard project set up in a few clicks
- GitHub support
- Bitbucket support
- Gitlab support
- Standardized product
- Graphical pipeline configuration
- Standardized configuration language
- Command-line interface
- Dashboards
- Test reports
- Flaky test detection
- Monorepo support
- Promotions
- Preflight checks
- Parameterized promotions
- Deployment targets
- Ease of Maintenance
- No maintenance required for hardware
- No maintenance required for platform software
- No maintenance required for user-facing product
- Declarative configuration of services
- Hot upgrades without downtime
- Operating system support
- Linux, macOS
- Windows, ARM
- Performance
- Guaranteed desktop-grade performance
- Autoscaling parallelism
- Allocate more CPUs and RAM to complex jobs
- Each job runs in a pristine, isolated environment
- Scalable dependency cache
- Built-in artifacts store
- Built-in Docker registry
- Debugging feedback loop
- Permission management
- Mirror permissions from GitHub
- Role-based access
- Okta / SAML for LDAP integration
- Declarative configuration of permissions
- Security
- Application-level security
- Runtime isolation
- IP allow list
- Audit logs
- ISO 27001 certificate
- SOC 2 certificate
- Support
- Email-based support
- Video call support
- Support SLAs
- Custom solution engineering
- Dedicated customer success manager
- Private Slack channel
- Community support via Discord
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- Semaphore Cloud
- ✅ⓘSaaS with autoscaling resources
- ✅ⓘHybrid: run Semaphore agents on customer-managed infrastructure, use cloud-based UI
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ⓘAuthenticate with Git provider, select repository, import repository as project- ✅
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- Pending
- ✅
ⓘAll users use the same product maintained by Semaphore- ✅
ⓘWorkflow Builder: point-and-click interface to create and edit pipelines- ✅
ⓘDeclarative YAML configuration for all features- ✅
ⓘCLI can manage projects and do everything the UI can.- ✅
ⓘTrack perfromance and project health with dashboards. Define dashboards to track development metrics.- ✅
ⓘProvides a unified dashboard for failures across all runs in a project- ✅
ⓘDetects flaky tests and provides interface to track and manage them- ✅
ⓘSupport for big monorepo repositories- ✅
ⓘCreate branching workflows for complex CI/CD- ✅
ⓘEnsure user-defined conditions are met before deploying the application- ✅
ⓘUse parameters inside your pipelines for greater flexibility- ✅
ⓘSecure your deployments by defining who and when deployment jobs can run- ✅
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ⓘOfficial VMs and Docker images are refreshed weekly, include popular OSS tools out-of-the-box- ✅
ⓘAll UI, including real-time and historical pipeline visualizations, logs, and test results is made and continuously improved by Semaphore- ✅
ⓘSupported via CLI- ✅
ⓘUse new product features as soon as they are released- ✅
- ✅
ⓘVia self-hosted agents- ✅
ⓘIn SaaS version- ✅
ⓘServerless model- ✅
ⓘChange one line of configuration- ✅
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ⓘFast debugging via SSH access to both running and finished jobs
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ⓘVia official GitHub App- ✅
ⓘAdmins can limit access to deployment, secrets- ✅
ⓘOnly SaaS version supports Okta- ❌
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- ❌
- SaaS subscription: Semaphore provides a typical cloud computing pay-as-you-go plan and Enterprise plans with per-seat price
- Semaphore CE
- ❌
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅ⓘAuthenticate with Git provider, select repository, import repository as project
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- ✅
- Pending
- ✅ⓘAll users use the same product maintained by customer
- ✅ⓘWorkflow Builder: point-and-click interface to create and edit pipelines
- ✅ⓘDeclarative YAML configuration for all features
- ✅ⓘCLI can manage projects and do everything the UI can.
- ❌
- ✅ⓘProvides a unified dashboard for failures across all runs in a project
- ❌
- ✅ⓘSupport for big monorepo repositories
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌ⓘRun Semaphore on your hardware or the cloud
- ❌ⓘEnd user in charge of updating Semaphore
- ❌ⓘEnd user in charge of updating Semaphore
- ✅ⓘSupported via CLI
- ❌ⓘUpgrade in place with minimal downtime
- ✅
- ✅ⓘVia self-hosted agents
- ❌
- ✅ⓘAWS autoscaler is supplied
- ✅ⓘVia self-hosted agents
- ✅ⓘBoth epehemeral and non-ephemeral environments are supported
- ✅
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- ✅ⓘFast debugging via SSH access to both running and finished jobs
- ❌
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- ❌
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- Open-source and free to use. Must be installed on your hardware or cloud. Licensed under Apache 2 model. Support is provided on a best effort basis and we support a community Discord server to collaborate on support and development.
- Jenkins
- ❌ⓘSaaS with autoscaling resources
- ✅
- ✅ⓘFully hosted and configured by the end user
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ⓘProvision machines for CI/CD, install Jenkins on them, install plugins for Git integration and any additional functionality- ✅
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- ❌
ⓘPiece together functionality from plugins with varying syntax, documentation, and best practices- ❌
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ⓘMultiple DSLs: pipelines are defined in one of two Groovy-based domain specific languages, one for simple declarative tasks, and one for more complex scripting.- ❌
ⓘCLI limited to managing Jenkins instances- ❌
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ⓘEnd user maintains the machines- ❌
ⓘRequires dedicated person / team (SPOF)- ❌
ⓘEnd user maintains individual plugins with varying release cycles and support- ❌
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ⓘTroubleshoot plugins for interoperability and deal with breaking changes- ✅
ⓘJenkins can run anywhere but end user must assemble their own hardware and software stack- ❌
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ⓘDepends on user’s choice and plugins- ❌
ⓘManually add/remove machines and installations to scale capacity- ❌
ⓘManually tweak plugins or upgrade machines to increase performance- ❌
ⓘJobs share disk space which may cause issues- ❌
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ⓘNo direct SSH access to job environment, only log inspection- ❌
ⓘAll users given full access by default- ❌
ⓘManual setup of permissions- ✅
ⓘOkta / SAML for LDAP supported via plugin- ❌
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ⓘSingle-layer of security around the fleet of Jenkins machines- ❌
ⓘAdditional security created must be created manually- ❌
ⓘDepends on end user configuration- ✅
ⓘAvailable via plugin- ❌
ⓘNo standard certification available, varying levels of security for OSS plugins, must be audited accordingly- ❌
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- Jenkins is open source and free to use, but lack of support and maintenance add to total cost of ownership
“We eliminated waiting times at the end of each sprint, which were usually very challenging as we deploy a lot of changes on the last day, with Semaphore’s automatic CI scaling. We are now paying 38% of what we would be paying somewhere else and experience is great.”
Krzysztof Szromek
CTO @ Exlabs
“It may seem that Jenkins is cheaper than Semaphore. But, after a while, the benefits are very clear: your team becomes more efficient.”
César Luiz dos Anjos
CEO na Asseinfo
Case studies
These teams have switched from Jenkins to Semaphore. Discover their ROI:
“We were using Jenkins to build the old system, and it was hard to maintain and quite painful. We looked at other hosted CI services, but they were very unreliable. When we found Semaphore, we got our application up and running pretty quickly. We now use it for all projects.”
Lukas Oberhuber
CTO at Simply Business
“Semaphore allows us to build anywhere from two to twenty branches in parallel, each one in a threaded environment. We had thousands of tests that were running for a really long time and with Semaphore we got the build to run in under 20 minutes.”
Artem Lypiy
QA Lead at 500px
“Semaphore 2.0 allows us to build, tag, push, and run Docker images easily. This makes building a powerful pipeline where we can deploy to our Kubernetes cluster fairly easily and quickly.”
Nic Cavigliano
Senior Software Engineer