Jenkins vs Vectr

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.

Vectr offers a free plan with 1GB storage, basic tools, and limited AI credits for essential vector editing. Paid Plus and Premium plans provide additional storage, AI credits, and concurrent sessions.

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.

Yes, Vectr features built-in real-time collaboration with live workspace sharing through custom URLs and integrated chat for team communication, enabling distributed creative teamwork.

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.

Yes, Vectr requires constant internet connection as it is cloud-based. It does not have offline capabilities, which can be limiting for users in areas with unreliable connectivity.

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.

Vectr supports exporting in SVG, PNG, JPG, and Vectr SVG formats. Compared to other vector graphics software, export options are somewhat limited.

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.