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Cybersecurity · head to head

Diligent vs Jenkins

Diligent logo

Diligent

Cybersecurity

Board management and enterprise GRC platform assembled from Galvanize, Steele and Diligent Boards

From
On request
Free plan
No
Visit DiligentFull review
Jenkins logo

Jenkins

Developer Tools

A self-hosted automation server that can build almost anything, through a plugin ecosystem that is also its main liability.

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit JenkinsFull review

The short version

  • Jenkins is free; Diligent prices on request.
  • Only Diligent lists Diligent Boards; only Jenkins lists plugin ecosystem.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Diligent and Jenkins actually diverge.

Attributes where Diligent and Jenkins differ
AttributeDiligentJenkins
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelQuoteOpen-source
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, WindowsLinux, Windows, macOS, Self-hosted
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools

Not yet recorded: founded for Diligent.

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Diligent

  • Diligent Boards
  • Entity management
  • Audit and analytics
  • Risk management
  • Third-party risk
  • Ethics and compliance
  • ESG and sustainability
  • Market intelligence

Only in Jenkins

  • Plugin ecosystem
  • Distributed agents
  • Declarative and scripted pipelines
  • Shared libraries
  • Configuration as Code
  • Credentials management
  • Self-hosted anywhere
  • Multibranch and organisation folders

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Diligent

  • A listed company that wants board papers, entity records and the audit committee reporting pack produced from one governance systemnot Jenkins
  • An internal audit function moving from sampling to full-population transaction testing using the ACL heritage analytics enginenot Jenkins
  • A regulated firm consolidating a whistleblower hotline, third-party due diligence and policy attestation after an enforcement findingnot Jenkins
  • A group needing sustainability disclosure data collected with the same audit trail and controls as financial reportingnot Jenkins

Jenkins

  • Builds that must touch physical hardware, such as embedded devices, test rigs or signing modules attached to a specific machinenot Diligent
  • Air-gapped or heavily regulated environments where a hosted CI runner cannot be used at allnot Diligent
  • Toolchains that hosted CI does not support, including node-locked commercial licences for EDA, CAD or simulation softwarenot Diligent
  • Organisations with years of existing Jenkins pipelines where the migration cost currently outweighs the operational cost of stayingnot Diligent

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Diligent

  • The platform is an assembly of acquisitions, with the analytics engine from ACL, risk from Rsam, ethics and third-party diligence from Steele and the board portal from Diligent itself, so cross-module reporting and consistent user experience should be tested in a proof of concept rather than assumed
  • Pricing is unpublished and consistently at the top of the market, and organisations that need only one capability, a board portal or an audit analytics tool, generally pay less and get more from a specialist
  • Renewal leverage is weak once the board portal is embedded, because directors are the least willing user group to be migrated and that dependency is well understood by the vendor at renewal time
  • The analytics engine expects real data skills, and audit teams without an analytics-capable member typically use a fraction of what they licensed while paying for all of it
  • Module-by-module implementation means the promised single view of governance and risk usually arrives years after the first purchase, if the later modules are ever funded

Jenkins

  • The controller is stateful and, in the open source distribution, has no high availability: build history, configuration and plugin state live on one filesystem, so every plugin upgrade and core update is downtime for every team using it, and a controller disk failure is a restore-from-backup event
  • Capability comes from around 1,900 community plugins of very uneven maintenance, and the Jenkins security team regularly publishes advisories for plugins whose maintainer has gone; in some cases the advisory itself states that no fix is available and the only remedy is to stop using it
  • Plugin upgrades are coupled: one plugin can require a newer core or a newer version of another plugin, so applying a single security fix cascades into a coordinated upgrade of a dozen components on a timetable you did not choose
  • Pipelines are Groovy running under a sandbox and a continuation-passing-style transformation, so ordinary Groovy constructs sometimes fail in non-obvious ways, and the debugging skill you build transfers to no other CI system
  • It is free to licence and expensive to run: somebody must own the controller, the agents, the Java version, the credentials store and the plugin upgrade cycle, and that recurring staff cost is the usual reason organisations move to hosted CI even when Jenkins works
  • Leaving is costly by construction, because shared libraries, plugin-specific pipeline steps and accumulated freestyle jobs have no mechanical translation into GitHub Actions or GitLab CI, so the migration is a rewrite whose price grows every year you defer it

Pricing, plan by plan

Diligent

On request
  • Diligent One PlatformOn request
    • Quoted by module and user count
    • Board portal seats priced separately from GRC modules
    • Annual subscription, commonly multi-year

Jenkins

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • Unlimited builds
    • 1000+ plugins
    • Self-hosted
  • CloudBees CIOn request
    • Enterprise features
    • High availability
    • Role-based access

Which should you pick?

Choose Diligent if

  • You need diligent boards.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, Windows.
  • You also want entity management.
Diligent review

Choose Jenkins if

  • You need plugin ecosystem.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, macOS, Self-hosted.
  • You also want distributed agents.
Jenkins review

Questions people ask

Is Diligent or Jenkins better?
Neither clearly leads. Diligent starts at On request and Jenkins at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Diligent or Jenkins?
Jenkins has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Diligent and Free for Jenkins.
Does Diligent or Jenkins run on more platforms?
Diligent runs on Web, iOS, Android, Windows. Jenkins runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, Self-hosted.
Can I use Jenkins for free?
Yes. Jenkins has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Diligent starts at On request.
What is Diligent best used for?
Diligent is most often used for a listed company that wants board papers, entity records and the audit committee reporting pack produced from one governance system, an internal audit function moving from sampling to full-population transaction testing using the acl heritage analytics engine, a regulated firm consolidating a whistleblower hotline, third-party due diligence and policy attestation after an enforcement finding, a group needing sustainability disclosure data collected with the same audit trail and controls as financial reporting. Of those, a listed company that wants board papers, entity records and the audit committee reporting pack produced from one governance system and an internal audit function moving from sampling to full-population transaction testing using the acl heritage analytics engine are not what Jenkins is typically brought in for.
What can Diligent do that Jenkins cannot?
Diligent covers Diligent Boards, Entity management, Audit and analytics, Risk management. Jenkins covers Plugin ecosystem, Distributed agents, Declarative and scripted pipelines, Shared libraries.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Diligent: Is Diligent One the same product as Galvanize?

It contains it. Diligent bought Galvanize, the ACL and Rsam merger, for around one billion dollars in April 2021, and its audit analytics and risk modules are that heritage rebranded into Diligent One.

Jenkins: Why choose Jenkins over GitHub Actions or GitLab CI?

When the build needs something hosted runners cannot give you: physical hardware, an air-gapped network, a node-locked commercial tool licence, or an unusual platform. If none of those apply, hosted CI is usually less work to own.

Diligent: What does Diligent cost?

Not published. It is quoted by module and user, and board portal seats are priced differently from GRC seats. Expect an annual or multi-year enterprise agreement.

Jenkins: Can Jenkins run in high availability?

Not in the open source distribution, which runs a single active controller. High availability and active-active controllers are features of CloudBees' commercial products. Open source deployments mitigate it with fast restores and, sometimes, multiple independent controllers.

Diligent: Can you buy just the board portal?

Yes, Diligent Boards is sold on its own and is the most common entry point. The GRC modules are separate purchases.

Jenkins: How risky are the plugins?

This is the main operational risk. Many plugins have a single volunteer maintainer, and Jenkins publishes security advisories for unmaintained plugins where no fix exists. Auditing which plugins you depend on and who maintains them should be a periodic task, not a one-off.

Diligent: Does it replace a SOC 2 automation tool?

No. Diligent is aimed at enterprise audit, risk and governance, not at automated evidence collection for security certifications.

Jenkins: Do I need to know Groovy?

For declarative pipelines you can go a long way without it. Anything involving shared libraries, conditional logic or custom steps is Groovy, and it runs in a sandboxed, transformed environment where standard Groovy idioms sometimes behave unexpectedly.

Jenkins: What does it cost?

The software is free under the MIT licence. The cost is infrastructure and staff time to run controllers, agents and upgrades, plus a CloudBees subscription if you want high availability, support or centralised management of many controllers.

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