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Jenkins
A self-hosted automation server that can build almost anything, through a plugin ecosystem that is also its main liability.
As of 30 August 2026, Jenkins is free to use. Jenkins runs any build on any machine you control, with around 1,900 plugins covering tools no hosted CI supports. Softwr lists it under Technology. Jenkins is made by Jenkins Project, launched in 2011, available on Linux, Windows, macOS, Self-hosted.
Overview
What Jenkins does
Jenkins is an open source automation server licensed under MIT, created by Kohsuke Kawaguchi as a fork of Hudson in 2011 and now governed by a community board with CloudBees as its principal commercial sponsor. It is a Java application; recent releases require Java 17 or later. It runs a controller that holds configuration, credentials and build history, and distributes work to agents on any platform that can run a JVM or a container, including Windows, macOS, Linux, and hardware such as embedded test rigs. Pipelines are defined in a Jenkinsfile written in Groovy, in either declarative or scripted form, and Configuration as Code lets the controller itself be described in YAML. What distinguishes it is coverage. Around 1,900 community plugins integrate it with practically every build tool, artefact repository, deployment target, test framework, notification system and licence scanner in existence, including many that hosted CI providers have no reason to support. Combined with self-hosting, that makes it the answer whenever the build requires something a SaaS runner cannot give you: a physical device attached by USB, a mainframe, a licensed EDA or CAD tool bound to a specific host, a signing HSM, or an air-gapped network. It is not the pleasant choice; it is very often the only choice, which is why it still runs a large share of enterprise CI. Organisations that stay with it are those with hardware or regulatory constraints, or with a decade of accumulated pipelines. The trade-off is ownership. The open source controller has no built-in high availability, so upgrades and plugin restarts are downtime for everybody; plugin security advisories regularly cover components with a single volunteer maintainer and sometimes no fix; and Groovy pipelines are a skill that transfers nowhere else. The exit cost compounds, because shared libraries, plugin-specific steps and old freestyle jobs do not translate mechanically into GitHub Actions or GitLab CI.
What people use it for
- Builds that must touch physical hardware, such as embedded devices, test rigs or signing modules attached to a specific machine
- Air-gapped or heavily regulated environments where a hosted CI runner cannot be used at all
- Toolchains that hosted CI does not support, including node-locked commercial licences for EDA, CAD or simulation software
- Organisations with years of existing Jenkins pipelines where the migration cost currently outweighs the operational cost of staying
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about 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.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Jenkins
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- JenkinsvsClickUp
ClickUp: One app to replace them all
- JenkinsvsLinear
Linear: The issue tracking tool you'll enjoy using
- JenkinsvsFigma
Figma: The collaborative interface design tool
Pricing
What Jenkins costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Open Source
Free
- Unlimited builds
- 1000+ plugins
- Self-hosted
- Community support
- Full source access
CloudBees CI
On request
- Enterprise features
- High availability
- Role-based access
- Professional support
- Managed service options
Capabilities
Features
Plugin ecosystem
Around 1,900 plugins covering build tools, artefact stores, cloud providers, test frameworks and notification systems
Distributed agents
Runs builds on any machine that can reach the controller, including Windows, macOS, Linux, containers and physical test hardware
Declarative and scripted pipelines
Jenkinsfile definitions checked into the repository, with scripted Groovy available when declarative syntax is not enough
Shared libraries
Common pipeline logic packaged in a Git repository and imported by many jobs, so standards are defined once
Configuration as Code
Describes controller configuration, credentials providers and plugin settings in YAML for reproducible rebuilds
Credentials management
Stores and scopes secrets to folders, jobs and agents, with integrations for external vaults
Self-hosted anywhere
Runs entirely on your own infrastructure, including air-gapped networks with no outbound internet access
Multibranch and organisation folders
Discovers branches and repositories automatically and creates pipelines for each without manual job creation
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Behind it
Who makes Jenkins
- Company
- Jenkins Project
- Based in
- Open Source
Keep looking
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Jenkins, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
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