Best Spinnaker Alternatives to Consider | Harness Blog

Are you looking for a continuous delivery solution? We break down Spinnaker alternatives so that you can evaluate all of the best options.

Continuous Delivery & GitOps

March 23, 2021

Harness

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Harness CD offers a comprehensive, enterprise-grade Continuous Delivery solution with features like auto-generated deployment scripts, machine learning-based Continuous Verification, and deep integrations, addressing the limitations of Spinnaker such as lack of support for traditional applications and secrets management. It supports both SaaS and On-Premise deployments, providing a scalable alternative for teams looking to enhance their software delivery process.

As many of you may know, Spinnaker was famously a result of Netflix building their own Continuous Delivery tool internally back in 2015. In late 2015, they released the tool in parts as open-source and released the first version of Spinnaker in 2017.

Harness has a deep respect for Spinnaker and its contributions to Continuous Delivery; it was the first open-source initiative to take on the challenge.

Like many open-source CD tools, it has its flaws. Users are excited to try Spinnaker because of its low barrier to entry, especially for those who do not want to code. Unfortunately, for many, they realize that Spinnaker may not be enough.

This wouldn’t be an objective evaluation of all Continuous Delivery platforms unless we broke down both the pros and cons of Spinnaker.

Pros of Spinnaker

Open-Source: This is probably the biggest pro for using Spinnaker. Having a free framework (with restrictions) can give internal teams a lot of development freedom to be creative with how they build their Continuous Delivery platform.

Multi-Cloud Deployments: Spinnaker is useful in a multi-cloud environment, and it can also integrate with Kubernetes.

Infrastructure Provisioners: Spinnaker, for the longest time, did not offer any integration with Terraform. Recently, they launched a Terraform integration that allows you to leverage it.

Cons of Spinnaker

Lack of Support for Traditional Applications: Spinnaker was designed to be exclusively cloud-native, and does not provide support for applications in Java or .NET.

Lack of Secrets Management: In a world where the need for cybersecurity is at an all-time high, Spinnaker does not offer a built-in secrets management tool. There are third-party integrations available, of course, but the lack of a native tool is still a negative.

On-Prem Only: Spinnaker does not provide a SaaS option and is restricted to those who are looking for an on-prem solution.

Our Evaluation Methodology

There are many different things to consider when choosing the right CD tool that fits your needs. We want to give you as much information and enough resources so that you can make an informed decision. With that in mind, we evaluated the tools below for the following:

User Experience, Analytics, & Reporting
Platform Support & Integrations
Continuous Delivery Concepts & Capabilities
Deployment Strategies
Deployment Verification & Health Checks
Integration with Major Cloud Providers
Automated Rollback Functionality
Microservices Deployment Flow Control & Impact Analysis
Test Automation Functionality
Security
Support

Following our analysis, we have provided the top 6 Spinnaker alternatives that we believe are worth checking out in your exploration for the next Continuous Delivery platform.

Alternatives of Spinnaker

Harness CD

Harness provides the industry’s first commercial and enterprise-grade Continuous Delivery solution for resource-strapped teams looking for a powerful and simple platform, preventing the need to do the heavy lifting through open-source tooling.

Harness auto-generates all deployment scripts based on built-in or custom deployment templates. It also has machine learning-based Continuous Verification that ensures before-and-after performance and functionality. It comes with deep integrations with standard monitoring systems, and notifications (alerts) can be sent to your organization’s chat tool of choice, such as Slack or Hipchat.

Harness also has a huge focus on compliance and governance, boasting fine-grained RBAC, integrated secrets management, and more. You can also create compliance rules regarding security, performance, and quality, then automatically enforce them in your CD pipelines, and gain a full audit trail documenting every step of the process.

The Harness software delivery platform has Continuous Delivery, Continuous Integration, and Cloud Cost Management modules, allowing you to build, test, deploy, and verify on-demand. Harness is also heavily invested in the open source community with its acquisition of Drone. Lastly, Harness now fully supports Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and AWS.

Features

SaaS & On-Premise
Cloud-Native App Support
Full GitOps Functionality
RBAC & Secrets Management
Accelerate Metrics & Reporting

See a more in-depth Spinnaker vs. Harness comparison.

Argo CD

In 2018, Intuit acquired a company called Applatix, which is the original creator of Argo. Since then, they have rolled out 3 new projects: Argo CD, Argo Rollouts, and Argo Events.

Argo CD is an open-source GitOps Continuous Delivery solution for Kubernetes. It automates Kubernetes deployments and has support for multiple configuration management tools. It provides automated continuous deployment and SDLC management.

Where Argo CD thrives is its GitOps functionality. It uses a Git repository as the source of truth when defining the state of an application. Argo CD provides a declarative GitOps-based deployment of any Kubernetes resource, including Argo Events, services, and deployments across multiple Kubernetes clusters.

Argo CD’s modern features may become an impediment - the biggest one being Argo CD’s auto-deploy capability. It may require changes in how deployments are triggered: Argo CD “watches” your Docker and Helm chart repos and it can auto-deploy when changes are detected. It can be a great thing for advanced engineers, but beginners will have a big learning curve ahead of them.

Argo CD is definitely a more advanced CD tool. Additionally, Argo CD lacks native secrets management, instead relying on third-party integrations, like HashiCorp Vault. Lastly, you’ll need to integrate with a Continuous Integration tool such as Harness CI or CircleCI, as Argo CD does not solve for CI.

Features

On-Premise Only
Extensive Kubernetes Support
Full GitOps Functionality
Kubernetes RBAC
REST API for Insights & Reporting

See a more in-depth Argo CD vs. Harness comparison.

GitLab

Gitlab is a complete DevOps platform that provides source code management, CI/CD, security, value stream management, GitOps, and more. Its roots were as a source code management tool and Git repository. Their Continuous Delivery tool helps accelerate and efficiently improve the software release process. They have an end-to-end DevOps solution, which positions them as a flexible pipeline management system.

GitLab supports all of the major cloud providers, including AWS, Azure, and GCP. They also support container orchestration tools, such as Kubernetes and ECS. They recently released an integration with Terraform.

GitLab has a beautiful UI, but where it lacks is its ease of use. There is definitely a learning curve to utilize the platform. They do not have any Continuous Verification capabilities, but can integrate with tools such as Prometheus - however, that is the only tool they integrate with to increase visibility.

Similarly, they do not have native secrets management capabilities, but do integrate with Hashicorp Vault. They do, however, have good governance and compliance features available on their enterprise-level plans.

Features

SaaS & On-Premise
Cloud-Native & Traditional App Support
Terraform Infrastructure Provisioners
Full GitOps Functionality
Manual Canary Deployments

See a more in-depth GitLab vs. Harness comparison.

Azure DevOps

Back in 2005 (yes, 15 years ago), Microsoft Azure began its initial investment into DevOps in order to provide assistance to software development teams who wanted to make software changes with high velocity.

In late 2018, they announced Azure DevOps, which includes a variety of tools for CI/CD, reporting, artifacts, Git repos, testing, and more. They have a wide variety of plugins and extensions, like Slack, that work with the platform.

As a CD tool, Azure DevOps is pretty flexible and provides customizable pipelines. The one (pretty large) downside to Azure DevOps Pipelines is that it requires a high amount of scripting in the setup and configuration process. They do, however, have pipeline templates and triggers that improve the setup process.

Azure DevOps provides support for Azure, Kubernetes, and VM-based resources. Their GitOps functionality is for pipelines only, not for releases. They lack any verification capabilities, and rollbacks are achieved using a plugin. You can view software delivery metrics such as build history and deployment status, but are limited to determining deployment velocity.

Features

SaaS & On-Premise
Cloud-Native & Traditional App Support
Limited Infrastructure Provisioners
Limited GitOps Functionality
Granular RBAC & SSO

See a more in-depth Azure DevOps vs. Harness comparison.

Octopus Deploy

Octopus Deploy is a Continuous Delivery tool that works hand-in-hand with your build server to manage releases and automate deployments. From a functionality perspective, it packs a big punch with a lot of deployment strategy options, good support, and it integrates with most Continuous Integration tools/servers.

From a usability perspective, it is relatively easy to navigate, which can be very attractive for newer development teams. The features are relatively basic - for example, no YAML. They are coming out with configuration-as-code functionality to provide version control in Git repositories.

The simplicity can turn from providing a basic tool that gets the job done to a tool that lacks the features that advanced development teams need to get ship done. There is no observability functionality and the tool lacks useful reporting and metrics.

In the Continuous Delivery space, they are definitely an up-and-coming player to look out for. They have over 450 integrations and are focused heavily on providing a low code tool to teams with little development experience. They have good documentation and support, and they provide regular updates in response to customer needs.

Features

SaaS & On-Premise
Cloud-Native & Traditional App Support
Manual Configuration of Deployment Workflows
Manual Rollbacks
Basic RBAC & SSO

See a more in-depth Octopus Deploy vs. Harness comparison.

Armory

Armory is built upon Spinnaker, but boasts extended functionality through Armory’s many modules. It is unfortunately a paid platform, so if you are looking for an open-source alternative to Spinnaker, this is not the right choice for you.

The extended Armory modules include functionality for observability, secrets management, pipelines as code, and expanded governance. Because this is an enterprise build of Spinnaker, you also get support and training, which is something that Spinnaker users frequently mention as lacking.

Because it is built on Spinnaker, it tends to still have similar issues that are experienced on the open-source platform. High maintenance costs and difficult usability make it so that anywhere between 2-4 full-time engineers are needed to keep the platform running - this includes the initial setup and configuration, and ongoing maintenance. Armory Spinnaker also lacks flexibility.

All of this together, it is an expensive solution, and we are unsure if the price is worth the extensibility of the open-source Spinnaker.

Features

Enterprise Support
Up-to-Date with Spinnaker
Governance & Secrets Management
Pipelines as Code
Terraform Integration

Other Tools You May Hear About

There are many other tools available that you may hear about in your search for your next software delivery platform. For the most part, these tools are looped into the CI/CD category but are primarily CI-focused.

Jenkins

Jenkins is another popular open-source platform that many would consider as a popular Spinnaker alternative. It is primarily a CI tool that requires much scripting and toil to extend to CD, and there are Jenkins Alternatives that you should consider as well. Jenkins is getting old in the CI/CD space and we believe that you would be better off with one of the other listed tools above.

See a more in-depth comparison of Harness vs Jenkins.

CircleCI

Another tool in the CI/CD space that is frequently mentioned is CircleCI. As the name mentions, their expertise is in continuous integration as a CI tool, although they do have some functionality as a CD tool.

See a more in-depth comparison of Drone vs CircleCI.

Migrate from Spinnaker to Harness

If you are struggling to deliver your software or to build your software delivery solution, it may be time to consider a SaaS solution like Harness. You are looking for alternatives to Spinnaker, so be sure that you invest in a tool that is going to scale as you do. Harness software delivery platform packs a punch with modules for Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, and Cloud Cost Management. Build, test, verify, and deploy on-demand with Harness - start your free trial of Harness today.

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Continuous Delivery & GitOps

Comparing Harness and Jenkins

December 15, 2021

Harness Team

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Time to Read

Our original comparison in 2018 came at the request of many customers who use/used Jenkins and wanted to provide a write-up for their internal discussions. Harness was a new player in the space, and naturally, we were going to be compared to the most popular tools. At the time, we were CD-focused. We never minced words in saying CI and CD are distinct processes and should be treated as such. Jenkins was a CI tool, Harness was a CD tool, and there was little overlap between the core competencies of the two products in 2018.

Fast forward several years, and we have moved into the CI space by acquiring Drone.io as well as launching Harness CI Enterprise. We moved all our operations from Jenkins to our own product.

This is Harness vs. Jenkins, 2021 edition!

Getting Up and Running

For most, DevOps is a means to an end. Getting your software into the hands of your users is the goal. Outside of a short list of very experienced Jenkins practitioners, it takes anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours to get your first builds up and running, assuming you have the infrastructure in place to begin with. There’s a long list of plugins to add, settings to adjust, and finally infrastructure to incorporate before you can simply run a ‘hello world’ build.

In contrast, after signing up for an account in Harness, you can start running pipelines in less than 15 minutes. Sign up, add your target infrastructure, and artifact server to start building and deploying in minutes. There’s a whole section in our documentation dedicated to quickstarts on various infrastructure types, zero plugins required.

CI vs. CD

This is one we will shout from the mountaintops until the end of time. Much of what has been called CD over the years has been CI tools with scripts piled atop. Jenkins is, by far, the leader in this category. While plugins and solutions have been added after the fact to reduce the need for scripting, it is still a CI tool at heart. For common/conventional use cases, Jenkins can in fact achieve CD. However, it all ultimately falls on your DevOps staff to stand up and maintain your Jenkins infrastructure, update plugins, and troubleshoot when things go wrong.

Harness CD was purpose-built to solve the specific challenges involved in delivering software to a wide variety of infrastructure while maintaining a high level of configurability. Harness has 150+ integrations for every aspect of CD, from connecting to your infrastructure to integrating with change management. Ultimately, it ensures a closed loop by tying in APM/logging tools to proactively detect issues with releases. All these integrations require no maintenance or upkeep by our customers. Moreover, security and governance are first-class citizens in Harness CD. In the world of deployments, poorly-configured access or lack of auditability can result in fines, or worse yet, headlines.

Two paragraphs hardly do this point justice, so I will point you to the below four articles for more. Suffice to say, Harness has enabled customer after customer to level up their CD game.

What’s The Difference Between Continuous Integration (CI) & Continuous Delivery (CD)?

What Is CI/CD? Everything You Need To Know

10 Signs You Don’t Do Continuous Delivery

Continuous Delivery Vs. Continuous Deployment: What’s The Difference?

Maintenance

One of the most common problems we hear from our customers when it comes to Jenkins is maintenance. Regardless of how well their setup works, very few view it as sustainable and scalable due to the time and effort it takes to maintain. These challenges include maintaining and updating the underlying infrastructure, plugins, various scripts, security updates, etc. And that’s before they deal with downstream effects of making those changes.

In the end, Jenkins itself becomes an internal software product that has to be maintained, versioned, and tested. The maintenance work is one challenge, but finding the people to do the work adds a layer on top. Software is taking over the world and the job market is expanding faster than the pool of developers. Throwing more bodies at a problem like maintenance is a solution that does not scale. Furthermore, every developer working on delivery is not working on delighting your customers.

In contrast, Harness CI/CD is lightweight for maintenance (a story told by our customers Luma, intelliflo, BetterCloud - ok I’ll stop, you get the point), allows for self-service while maintaining strong guardrails, and avoids the pitfalls of plugin sprawl that range from developer overhead, to security, to performance hits. The infrastructure footprint for Harness is also considerably smaller, requiring minimal upkeep.

Continuous Integration

Once upon a time, merely centralizing scripts and coordinating workers was a game changer. Then, declarative pipelines came along, and an adjustment was made. Then came containerized builds. Then test optimization.

As with most software solutions that start their life in one place and evolve with the times, and be everything to everyone, there is a tendency for bloat and brittle.

A shortlist for a modern approach to CI includes:

Declarative pipelines
Containerized steps
Test optimization
AI/ML to increase efficiency
Security
Tight integration to source control

Harness’ CI solution was built from the ground up, accounting for the needs of modern software development. We started with a container-based build system to stave off dependency hell and add extensibility. After, we added test optimization using machine learning to reduce test cycles. Additionally, we implemented a managed Git experience for pipeline development. Finally, we wrapped everything up in enterprise-grade security and governance, like secrets management, audit trails, and RBAC. Sounds interesting? Amazing perhaps? Read the details on Harness CI Enterprise.

Flexibility

Give the Butler his due here, Jenkins is endlessly flexible. There’s a plugin for everything, there are ways to script around every use case, and there are many different configurations you can deploy in. There are legitimate concerns about scaling this approach, but with the right DevOps engineers and a good design, this can work - and has worked for many organizations.

Harness integrates out-of-the-box with several different constructs that allow for customization for unique use cases. In Harness CD, the template library, shell steps, and custom deployment types make nearly any use case possible. Harness CIE provides a container-based plugin system for a lightweight way to fulfill any use case you can dream up.

Summary

Jenkins is a very useful tool, and it does many things well. There’s a reason we used it for a long time at Harness. But ultimately, as you scale up, you start seeing the limitations of the approach of building anything on top of Jenkins in the form of maintenance, toil, and outages.

When we discuss Jenkins, the most important thing we want to highlight is return on investment and total cost of ownership. If you’re a small company with a handful of services, Jenkins can be a great return on investment. When you start scaling up use cases, services, developers, and more, your return on each hour invested tends to decrease at an exponential rate.

Finally, consider how much the solution actually costs when you do all the math. Previously mentioned here were a number of cases where our customers saved considerable sums of money moving off a “free” solution like Jenkins. When you consider all the costs for infrastructure and developers, the word “free” absolutely belongs in quotes.

What’s next? You can read more about our technical journey in Migrating From Jenkins To Harness CIE: A Journey, why we felt CI needed a fresh approach… and of course, you can get hands-on and try the tech for yourself!

Checkout Jenkins vs Drone

Read about Modernizing Jenkins CI/CD Pipelines

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