CI/CD platforms, in detail
Build, test and deploy on every push. Comparing CI/CD prices is tricky because everyone bills differently — plain minutes (GitHub, GitLab), credits (CircleCI), GB-minutes (Buddy), or parallel jobs (Azure DevOps). This table normalizes the eight platforms teams actually shortlist, including the enterprise and Atlassian options that didn't fit the overview.
| Tool | Free tier | Entry price | Billing unit | Watch out for | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Actions | 2,000 private Linux min/mo; public repos free | Team $4/user/mo | Per user + per-minute overage | Rates cut Jan 2026 (Linux $0.006/min) — macOS still ~10× Linux | Code already on GitHub; biggest action marketplace |
| Buddy | 300 pipeline GB-min/mo, 1 concurrent | Pro €29/mo | Flat plan + GB-min overage | GB-minutes scale with machine size — heavier machines burn quota faster | Visual pipeline editor + 150+ prebuilt actions |
| GitLab CI/CD | 400 compute min/mo (5-user group cap) | Premium $29/user/mo | Per user + compute minutes | Premium rose $19→$29 in Apr 2023; AI add-ons pushed since | One app for repo + CI + security scanning |
| CircleCI | 30,000 credits/mo | Performance from $15/mo | Credits (10/min medium Linux) | Credit math obscures real cost — model your workload first | Fast hosted CI with strong caching, repo-agnostic |
| Bitbucket Pipelines | 50 build min/mo | Standard $2/user/mo (500 min) | Per user + build minutes | Bitbucket Server hit EOL Feb 2024 — cloud is the only path | Atlassian shops with Jira-native workflows |
| Azure DevOps Pipelines | 1 MS-hosted job, 1,800 min/mo (first 5 users free) | Basic $6/user/mo | Per user + $40/parallel job | New orgs must request the free hosted job and wait 2–3 business days | Microsoft-stack teams; Boards + Repos + Pipelines bundle |
| Jenkins | Unlimited — self-hosted OSS | $0 license | Your infra + maintenance time | Plugin security advisories are a steady stream; needs an owner | Maximum control and plugins on your own metal |
| Harness | Limited free CI/CD tier | Quote-heavy (list ~$30/dev/mo) | Per developer / per service | Heavy AI repositioning 2024–25; pricing is sales-led | Enterprise CD governance: OPA policies, verification |
Pricing models and free tiers change often — check each vendor for current terms. Compiled July 2026; the most volatile figures verified on official pricing pages.
Official pages: GitHub Actions · GitLab CI/CD · CircleCI · Bitbucket Pipelines · Azure DevOps Pipelines · Jenkins · Harness
Entry price at a glance
Cheapest paid plan, USD per month — per-user plans shown for a single seat. Hatched bars are usage-based or quote-only; values marked ~ are approximate.
Notes & recent changes
- GitHub cut Actions runner rates in January 2026: Linux 2-core to $0.006/min, Windows $0.010, macOS $0.062 — macOS CI remains the big cost driver for mobile teams.
- GitLab's Premium price rose from $19 to $29/user/mo in April 2023, and the free tier is capped at 5 users per top-level group — the two most-cited reasons teams migrate.
- Azure DevOps disabled free hosted parallelism for new organizations: you must file a grant request and wait a few business days before your first pipeline runs.
- Jenkins is free only in license: budget real engineering time for upgrades, plugin audits and runner infrastructure.
Which one should you pick?
- Your code is on GitHub and you want zero setup → GitHub Actions.
- You want pipelines a whole team can read and edit visually → Buddy.
- You want repo + CI + security scanning from one vendor → GitLab.
- You need raw build speed on big projects and can model credits → CircleCI.
- You live in Jira → Bitbucket Pipelines; in the Microsoft stack → Azure DevOps.