Add GitLab CI vs. Jenkins to comparison page

PROS:

• Version controlled configuration in the form of .gitlab-ci.yml means:
  1. You know how a commit was tested
  2. People can easily learn the configuration from other projects
  3. New features (branches) can change the testing
  4. When pushing an old branch it uses the old tests
  5. You don't need to find your 'build person' to change the configuration
• Closely integrated into the GitLab UI so you can quickly check the build results.
• No need to do any setup for a new project.
• GitLab prevents you from executing tests on the CI machine. You need to run a separate process to encourage this best practise.
• Jenkins can become a plugin hell, with GitLab it's simple
• From https://blog.trainline.eu/12703-building-on-gitlab-ci:
  • Reliable dockerized builds
  • it scales
  • Easier to control
  • Tests on merge requests
  • Better UI

CONS:

• Jenkins has a huge ecosystem with a lot of plugins and integrations
• Jenkins has a UI for configuration

PLEASE ADD MORE

/cc @ayufan @grzesiek @tmaczukin @Haydn

Also see https://about.gitlab.com/2013/12/19/gitlab-ci-with-parallel-builds-and-deployments/

I think it would be helpful to have a comparison section for other CI tools as well (Travis and Bamboo)

Assignee removed

cc @markpundsack

Jenkins is releasing 2.0 very soon. We should get cracking with this! https://jenkins.io/2.0/

@amara this might be a good start of a separate comparison page.

Looks like Jenkins 2.0 may have (some) configuration in a Jenkinsfile which presumably is in version control, which may reduce some of the benefits above.

@JobV I agree that a separate comparison page may make sense. I'll evaluate while updating the existing comparison pages.

@markpundsack what if we created a comparison page and linked from https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-ci/, where we speak to GitLab CI compared to all the competition our there.

Yeah, it's about time we had a CI comparison page.

Great post on someone switching from Jenkins to GitLab CI: https://blog.captaintrain.com/12703-building-on-gitlab-ci

@amara What do you think about getting https://blog.captaintrain.com/12703-building-on-gitlab-ci as a guest cross-post?

Main points from that post:

• Reliable dockerized builds
• It scales
• Easier to control
• Tests on merge requests
• A slick UI

Will share in Competitive channel

@markpundsack Sure, we can add on our blog as well. I have a tweet scheduled to go out about it in 7 minutes. I also asked the Captain Train team for an interview to create an in depth case study. We are going to meet in early August. Want to join that call, Mark?

That would be great, thanks @amara.

The Benefits of Generic Runners - I just talked to a customer and one of the reasons they like GitLab CI is that we use Generic Runners so we work with lots of (or is it all???) languages? Anyway, Lua is one of their languages and it didn’t work with Jenkins but works with GitLab CI.

I get asked for this document all the time. Particularly in Price-sensitive areas like India, China, and Brasil

Reassigned to @SeanPackham

Website updates will be handled by Amara's team (will check with her).

Reassigned to @amara

These are mostly pro-Jenkins but may have some helpful details and be good to add to later: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37429453/gitlab-ci-vs-jenkins, https://www.slant.co/versus/2477/2482/~jenkins-blue-ocean_vs_gitlab-ci

assigned to @scornille

@scornille the summit would be a good time to get this page off the ground while you have so many people who know these differences in one place.

added comparison page label

changed milestone to %Feb 10, 2017

changed milestone to %Make www-gitlab-com better - iteration 1

changed milestone to %Comparison page iteration 2

@regisF @amara we need to have the following to help customers understand our Jenkins integration and how our CI tool is different.

1. Documentation on how to set up Jenkins within GitLab
2. Documentation on what customers using Jenkins with GitHub/Bitbucket do not get within GitLab. Is there functionality that our integration does not provide?
3. Short Video showing what the Jenkins integration looks like with GitLab, how to use Jenkins within the GitLab workflow
4. Short video showing workflow with Jenkins and then workflow with GitLab CI. Highlighting advantages and disadvantages of using our CI.

assigned to @regisF

Couldn't agree more. I continue to face an uphill battle in getting people to give GitLab CI a try rather than going with the more well known Jenkins.

@ChadMalchow @JobV and I chatted about this style of product content and agreed that it should be managed by the technical writing team.

Should we assign this to Sean to manage/delegate?

@amara Indeed. @SeanPackham at your convenience.

removed assignee

added Sales Enablement label

We should talk about how we use GitLab CI at scale for GitLab. Talk about the number of DO instances we run per hour, per day. How many Runners we run. Then also talk about how much CI we run on demand on .com and on .io.

@amara I've updated the body of the issue to reflect the different comparisons from the thread.

Thanks @regisF, implementing the comparison page sits with the technical writing team. Assigning this issue to @SeanPackham

assigned to @SeanPackham

Since this issue is about the comparison page. I created a new issue to capture Chad's point on helping customers and prospects understand this important integration: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/issues/1170

mentioned in issue #1134 (closed)

@amara created https://about.gitlab.com/comparison/gitlab-vs-jenkins.html

closed