Free your team from Jenkins’ slow builds, plugins, and maintenance with Semaphore.

With Semaphore, you get:
🔹 No maintenance, no wasted time 
🔹 Self-hosted (CE) or fully managed (Cloud) 
🔹 Faster builds & optimized auto-scaling 
🔹 More deployments, less CI/CD overhead 
🔹 Free up developers for more valuable work

Jenkins vs. Semaphore: key differences

Jenkins pain 😖	Semaphore gain 🚀
🛠️ Complex setup & maintenance	✅ Fully managed CI/CD (Cloud) or self-hosted (CE)
⏳ Slow builds & bottlenecks	⚡ Faster builds with smart optimizations
💥 Fragmented team setups	📁 Standardized CI/CD across teams
🔄 Manual scaling & infrastructure overhead	🏗️ Auto-scaling & hybrid cloud support
❌ Outdated plugins & brittle pipelines	🏆 Modern pipelines with CI/CD as code

See full comparison

From Jenkins to Semaphore: faster builds, lower costs, no maintenance

Jenkins was slowing development—long queues, slow builds, and constant maintenance made shipping fast impossible. Semaphore eliminated the bottlenecks and made CI/CD effortless.

🚨 Before
⏳ 1-hour queues
🐢 30-minute builds
🔧 Manual scaling
💸 Uncontrolled costs

✅ After
⚡ 10-12 min builds
🚀 No queues
💰 20% cost savings
💬 Instant support

✅ Build times cut by 80-83%
✅ 20% cost savings with custom build triggers

Jenah Blitz

Software Engineer at Simply Business

Watch case study 🎬

Why teams choose Semaphore over Jenkins

No more CI/CD maintenance 💆‍♀️

Jenkins requires constant patching, scaling, and troubleshooting. With Semaphore:

✔️ No infrastructure headaches (Cloud) 
✔️ Hybrid or self-hosted flexibility (CE) 
✔️ Auto-scaling & managed security

📌 Less time fixing CI/CD, more time building.

“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

Principal Software Engineer

Faster Builds, Faster Deployments 🚀

Semaphore is built for speed – teams switching from Jenkins save 500+ hours/month on:

✔ Faster parallel testing 
✔️ Optimized pipelines 
✔️ Unlimited on-demand capacity

📌 Your developers focus on shipping features, not waiting for builds.

“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

Cloud & Security Specialist

Standardized CI/CD, No Messy Setups 🌍

Jenkins setups are often messy and inconsistent across teams. Semaphore provides:

✔️ CI/CD as code (versioned, reusable) 
✔️ Runs across multiple environments 
✔️ Granular permission controls

📌 A single, reliable CI/CD setup for your entire org.

“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

🔍 Compare Semaphore 🆚 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

- Semaphore Cloud
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
  ⓘSaaS with autoscaling resources
- ✅
  ⓘHybrid: run Semaphore agents on customer-managed infrastructure, use cloud-based UI
- ✅
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
  ⓘAuthenticate with Git provider, select repository, import repository as project
- ✅
- ✅
- 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
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
- ✅
  ⓘ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
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
  ⓘFast debugging via SSH access to both running and finished jobs
- ⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
  ⓘVia official GitHub App
- ✅
  ⓘAdmins can limit access to deployment, secrets
- ✅
  ⓘOnly SaaS version supports Okta
- ❌
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ❌
- 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
- ✅
- ✅
- 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
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
  ⓘFast debugging via SSH access to both running and finished jobs
- ⭐⭐
- ❌
- ✅
- ❌
- ❌
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
- ✅
- ❌
- ❌
- ✅
- ✅
- ⭐⭐
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ✅
- 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
- ⭐⭐
- ✅
  ⓘProvision machines for CI/CD, install Jenkins on them, install plugins for Git integration and any additional functionality
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ❌
  ⓘPiece together functionality from plugins with varying syntax, documentation, and best practices
- ❌
- ❌
  ⓘ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
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ⭐
- ❌
  ⓘEnd user maintains the machines
- ❌
  ⓘRequires dedicated person / team (SPOF)
- ❌
  ⓘEnd user maintains individual plugins with varying release cycles and support
- ❌
- ❌
  ⓘTroubleshoot plugins for interoperability and deal with breaking changes
- ⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
  ⓘJenkins can run anywhere but end user must assemble their own hardware and software stack
- ❌
- ⭐⭐
- ❌
  ⓘ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
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
  ⓘ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
- ❌
- ⭐⭐
- ❌
  ⓘ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
- ❌
- ⭐
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- Jenkins is open source and free to use, but lack of support and maintenance add to total cost of ownership

Download comparison PDF

📈 Real-world success: how companies made the switch

These teams have switched from Jenkins to Semaphore. Discover their ROI.

“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

Read case study

“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

Read case study

Stop Fixing Jenkins –
Start Building with Semaphore

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