Is Earthly or TeamCity better?

Neither clearly leads. Earthly starts at Free and TeamCity at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Earthly or TeamCity?

Earthly starts at Free and TeamCity at Free.

Does Earthly or TeamCity run on more platforms?

Earthly runs on Web, CLI. TeamCity runs on web, windows, mac, linux, api.

Can I use Earthly for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Earthly best used for?

Earthly is most often used for enforcing engineering standards across ai and human developers, automating incident response procedures across all repositories, embedding compliance requirements into development workflows, standardizing build processes with earthfiles. Of those, enforcing engineering standards across ai and human developers and automating incident response procedures across all repositories are not what TeamCity is typically brought in for.

What can Earthly do that TeamCity cannot?

Earthly covers Policy as code, Multi-stage enforcement, AI agent governance, Repository-wide policies. TeamCity covers Build Chains, Parallel Test Execution, VCS Integration, Build History & Analytics.

Developer Tools · head to head

Earthly vs TeamCity

Earthly

Developer Tools

Engineering guardrails for the AI era

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

TeamCity

Software Development

JetBrains continuous integration and delivery server

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Earthly pricing model not published; requires sales contact; TeamCity detailed pricing requires visiting a calculator and isn't transparent on the main pricing page.
They diverge on capability: Earthly covers Policy as code, TeamCity covers Build Chains.
Prices and features above were last checked on 29 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Earthly and TeamCity actually diverge.

Attributes where Earthly and TeamCity differ
Attribute	Earthly	TeamCity
Pricing model	No pricing published on website	freemium
Platforms	Web, CLI	web, windows, mac, linux, api
Category	Developer Tools	Software Development
Founded	2020	Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

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 Earthly

Policy as code
Multi-stage enforcement
AI agent governance
Repository-wide policies
Incident response automation
Compliance management
Earthfiles build tool
Satellites

Only in TeamCity

Build Chains
Parallel Test Execution
VCS Integration
Build History & Analytics
Docker & Kubernetes Support
Access Control

What people use each for

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

Earthly

Enforcing engineering standards across AI and human developersnot TeamCity
Automating incident response procedures across all repositoriesnot TeamCity
Embedding compliance requirements into development workflowsnot TeamCity
Standardizing build processes with Earthfilesnot TeamCity

TeamCity

Running build and test pipelines for enterprise software teamsnot Earthly
Self-hosting CI/CD infrastructure behind a firewallnot Earthly
Coordinating multi-stage build chains with dependenciesnot Earthly
Scaling build capacity with additional agentsnot Earthly

Where each one falls short

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

Earthly

Pricing model not published; requires sales contact
Earthly Lunar is a recent launch (2025) with limited track record
Primarily GitHub-focused; limited integration with other platforms
No public documentation on pricing or feature tiers

TeamCity

Detailed pricing requires visiting a calculator and isn't transparent on the main pricing page.
Self-hosted setup and agent management require more operational overhead than fully managed CI/CD services.
Additional build agents and users are priced incrementally, which can add up for larger teams.
The UI and configuration model have a steeper learning curve compared to YAML-first CI tools.

Pricing, plan by plan

Earthly

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Earthly review.

TeamCity

Free

Free TierFree
- Includes 3 build agents
- 100 build configurations
- On-premises or Cloud
TeamCity Cloud / On-Premises$undefined/month
- Priced per additional build agent
- Additional users on Cloud plans
- Enterprise support options

Which should you pick?

Choose Earthly if

You need policy as code.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Web, CLI.
You also want multi-stage enforcement.

Earthly review

Choose TeamCity if

You need build chains.
You want to start without paying.
You work on web, windows, mac, linux, api.
You also want parallel test execution.

TeamCity review

Questions people ask

Is Earthly or TeamCity better?: Neither clearly leads. Earthly starts at Free and TeamCity at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Earthly or TeamCity?: Earthly starts at Free and TeamCity at Free.
Does Earthly or TeamCity run on more platforms?: Earthly runs on Web, CLI. TeamCity runs on web, windows, mac, linux, api.
Can I use Earthly for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Earthly best used for?: Earthly is most often used for enforcing engineering standards across ai and human developers, automating incident response procedures across all repositories, embedding compliance requirements into development workflows, standardizing build processes with earthfiles. Of those, enforcing engineering standards across ai and human developers and automating incident response procedures across all repositories are not what TeamCity is typically brought in for.
What can Earthly do that TeamCity cannot?: Earthly covers Policy as code, Multi-stage enforcement, AI agent governance, Repository-wide policies. TeamCity covers Build Chains, Parallel Test Execution, VCS Integration, Build History & Analytics.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Earthly: What is the difference between Earthfiles and Earthly Lunar?

Earthfiles is an open-source build tool that reached 12,000 GitHub stars and is used by companies like NVIDIA, Intel, and Databricks. Earthly Lunar is a separate governance platform launched in 2025 for enforcing standards across development workflows.

Source

TeamCity: How much does TeamCity cost?

TeamCity offers a free download option but specific pricing for commercial use is not detailed on the website. Customers must contact JetBrains for licensing and pricing information.

Source

Earthly: How does Earthly Lunar enforce standards?

Lunar converts engineering standards, compliance requirements, and processes documented in AGENTS.md files, wikis, and incident postmortems into enforceable guardrails that apply consistently across repositories and development stages.

Source

TeamCity: Is TeamCity free to use?

TeamCity has a free option available for download, but full pricing and licensing details require contacting JetBrains directly.

Source

Earthly: What is the pricing for Earthly Lunar?

Pricing is not published on the website. Interested customers should contact Earthly's sales team for current pricing and feature tiers.

Source

Earthly vs TeamCity

Earthly

TeamCity

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Earthly

Only in TeamCity

What people use each for

Earthly

TeamCity

Where each one falls short

Earthly

TeamCity

Pricing, plan by plan

Earthly

TeamCity

Which should you pick?

Choose Earthly if

Choose TeamCity if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Earthly

More on TeamCity

Keep looking

Other head to heads