500-1000
2016
$425M
Harness is categorized as:
Continuous Integration
Continuous Delivery
Cloud Cost Management
Cloud Cost Optimization
Feature Flags
Service Reliability Management
Security Testing Orchestration
Chaos Engineering
Software Engineering Insights
Cloudbees Enterprise is an end-to-end automated software delivery system that allows companies to balance governance & developer freedom.
501+
2010
121.2m
Cloudbees is categorized as:
Continuous Integration
CloudBees CI is a commercial product that builds on top of Jenkins, an open-source automation server that is commonly used for CI. CloudBees extends Jenkins through proprietary java-based plugins, aiming to solve challenges enterprises face when using Jenkins at scale and running many Jenkins controllers (provisioning controllers, managing RBAC, centrally managed allowed plugins, etc). While doing a decent job providing an enterprise solution on top of Jenkins, it is still constrained by Jenkins outdated architecture and user experience, making it harder to use and administer Cloudbees CI.
Harness CI has all the features that make it easy to scale for the largest organizations while empowering developers with the autonomy they need to ship the best features quickly, efficiently, reliably, and securely.
Jenkins pipelines, and therefore CloudBees pipelines, are typically heavily-scripted groovy-based pipelines, which requires high technical skills to author, debug and maintain. CloudBees pipelines are typically defined in a file in a source repository, and edited as text. There are currently no meaningful editors to assist in pipeline authoring (Blue Ocean project is limited and inactive).
Harness pipelines are easy for any developer to use. Harness offers a human-readable Declarative YAML pipeline, reducing complexity by abstracting away the underlying scripting language. Harness pipelines are typically stored As-Code in a Git repository. Advanced built-in Visual and YAML editors fully integrated with Git, along with stater pipelines for common programming languages and build tools, help developers onboard applications in minutes.
CloudBees (and Jenkins) plugins are not containerized. They are tightly coupled to the Jenkins infrastructure and require specific configurations and dependencies, resulting in brittle experience such as community plugins breaking following CloudBees upgrades.
Harness CI is open and extensible. Harness supports containerized plugins giving you portability, flexibility, and isolation. Harness CI allows users to run native steps, as well as leverage a large number of community plugins through Drone Plugins, GitHub Actions and Bitrise Steps, unlocking over 5,000 community integrations.
Harness Cloud can run builds up to 4x faster than every CI tool on the market. We do this through a mix of proprietary technologies like Test Intelligence with Automatic Tests Splitting, Cache Intelligence and Harness Cloud, our hosted builds solution. When using Harness Cloud users can build any application on Windows, Linux, or Mac without worrying about maintaining and managing infrastructure.
CloudBees helps to alleviate some of the pain associated with using Jenkins at scale. Other than support, Cloudbees offers a fully-tested version of Jenkins that offers more stability and enterprise features such as provisioning Jenkins Controllers at scale, central plugin management, and templates and built-in RBAC. That said, users still have to cope with the many downsides of the Grandfather of CI (e.g. heavily scripted pipelines, plugin incompatibility) making administrating and using CloudBees CI a time consuming task with a steep learning curve.
Harness offers a modern Software Delivery Platform with out of the box enterprise capabilities such as governance controls with OPA based policies, custom dashboards, full audit trails, support for external secret managers, templates to enforce guardrails, and fine grained/customizable RBAC for the entire SDLC.
Jenkins, and therefore Cloudbees, is one of the most maintenance-intensive CI tools on the market, which is expected from a project that was started in 2004. From our clients’ data, we’ve extrapolated that Jenkins requires between 2-5 FTEs to maintain and administer every year. That time is spent writing scripts, provisioning controllers, maintaining and updating plugins, etc. Cloudbees Enterprise still requires those 2-5 FTEs, but it does make life a bit easier compared to using Jenkins. For one, they offer support, which results in quicker time to resolve issues than by frantically googling questions and hoping someone has run into the same problem before.
Harness CI, on the other hand, has a little administrative overhead requiring .25 FTEs (that’s not a typo). Our SaaS platform doesn't require user maintenance, and administrative tasks (onboarding users, RBAC, etc) are so simple it doesn't require an expert to manage.
Cloudbees Enterprise’s total cost of ownership is quite high when you take into consideration that it’s not just the cost of the software – it’s the cost of those 2-5 FTEs as well. Let’s say your average engineer costs you $180,000 – that’s almost a million dollars per year dedicated to a single piece of software – without even accounting for the software itself! Harness CI, however, only “costs” .25 FTEs – at a lower cost compared to CloudBees.
CloudBees vs Harness CI | Harness
Updated
March 23, 2023
Free & Paid
24800
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Vault/KMS/3rd
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Lightweight
<yes><yes>.25 FTE
<yes><yes>
<yes><yes> Per User
Free & Paid
500
<with><with>
<no><no>
<no><no>
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
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<no><no>
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Heavyweight
<no><no> 2-5 FTE
<no><no>
<yes><yes> Free
<yes><yes> SaaS, Hybrid, and On-Premises
With Harness you can choose between using Harness Cloud (Harness hosted builds), using a SaaS platform with self-hosted build environment, or a fully self-hosted solution
<with><with> Self-Managed only
CloudBees CI is fully self-hosted
<yes><yes> SaaS, Hybrid, and On-Premises
With Harness you can choose between using Harness Cloud (Harness hosted builds), using a SaaS platform with self-hosted build environment, or a fully self-hosted solution
<with><with> Self-Managed only
CloudBees CI is fully self-hosted
<yes><yes> Cloud-Native
Harness CI offer modern Cloud-Native enterprise-ready CI solution
<with><with> Based on Jenkins
CloudBees CI is based on Jenkins, a traditional automation server, carrying many downsides of the Grandfather of CI such as security vulnerabilities, heavily scripted pipelines, etc
<yes><yes> Cloud-Native
Harness CI offer modern Cloud-Native enterprise-ready CI solution
<with><with> Based on Jenkins
CloudBees CI is based on Jenkins, a traditional automation server, carrying many downsides of the Grandfather of CI such as security vulnerabilities, heavily scripted pipelines, etc
<yes><yes>
<yes><yes>
<yes><yes>
<yes><yes>
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<yes><yes>
Declarative Yaml
Declarative, readable and easy to use yaml syntax that enabled any developer to create and maintain pipelines.
<with><with> Scripted (most common)
While declarative yaml is available, most users use Groovy-based domain specific languages with complex scripting, and use scripted templates.
Declarative Yaml
Declarative, readable and easy to use yaml syntax that enabled any developer to create and maintain pipelines.
<with><with> Scripted (most common)
While declarative yaml is available, most users use Groovy-based domain specific languages with complex scripting, and use scripted templates.
<yes><yes> Built in Visual Editor
Built-in visual editor that is fully integrated with Git, allowing anyone to easily author pipelines.
<no><no> Inactive Blue Ocean Plugin
Pipelines are typically defined in a file in a source repository, and edited as text. There is a community project Blue Ocean that provides limited visualization but is no longer maintained.
<yes><yes> Built in Visual Editor
Built-in visual editor that is fully integrated with Git, allowing anyone to easily author pipelines.
<no><no> Inactive Blue Ocean Plugin
Pipelines are typically defined in a file in a source repository, and edited as text. There is a community project Blue Ocean that provides limited visualization but is no longer maintained.
<yes><yes> Built in YAML Editor
IDE-like built-in yaml editor with auto-complete and schema validation, makes it easy to author pipeline as code. The editor is fully integrated with Git
<no><no>
<yes><yes> Built in YAML Editor
IDE-like built-in yaml editor with auto-complete and schema validation, makes it easy to author pipeline as code. The editor is fully integrated with Git
<no><no>
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
<yes><yes> Multiple types of Community plugin
Harness allows you to leverage many types of community plugins: Drone plugins, Github Actions and Bitrise integrations
<with><with> Community + Proprietary plugins
CloudBees CI includes proprietary plugins designed for large organizations, and supports Jenkins Community plugins.
<yes><yes> Multiple types of Community plugin
Harness allows you to leverage many types of community plugins: Drone plugins, Github Actions and Bitrise integrations
<with><with> Community + Proprietary plugins
CloudBees CI includes proprietary plugins designed for large organizations, and supports Jenkins Community plugins.
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<no><no>
<yes><yes> Native and Simple
Open Policy Agent (OPA) based pipeline policies integrated in the platform, allowing you to meet security needs
<no><no> with scripted pipelines
Scripted pipelines are dynamic in nature, making it challenging to set pipeline policies.
<yes><yes> Native and Simple
Open Policy Agent (OPA) based pipeline policies integrated in the platform, allowing you to meet security needs
<no><no> with scripted pipelines
Scripted pipelines are dynamic in nature, making it challenging to set pipeline policies.
Flexible & Intuitive
<with><with> Limited & Complex
Flexible & Intuitive
<with><with> Limited & Complex
Free & Paid
Harness CI is licensed per developer. Credits for Harness hosted builds are available as add-on.
<with><with> Paid
Free & Paid
Harness CI is licensed per developer. Credits for Harness hosted builds are available as add-on.
<with><with> Paid
<yes><yes> Native and Simple
<with><with> Complex Configuration
<yes><yes> Native and Simple
<with><with> Complex Configuration
<yes><yes> Native and Simple
<with><with> Complex Configuration
<yes><yes> Native and Simple
<with><with> Complex Configuration
<yes><yes> Low efforts (if any)
Our SaaS platform take this burden of the customer, while upgrading our self-managed solution require low efforts
<with><with> Efforts intensive
<yes><yes> Low efforts (if any)
Our SaaS platform take this burden of the customer, while upgrading our self-managed solution require low efforts
<with><with> Efforts intensive
<yes><yes> with paid plans
<yes><yes>
<yes><yes> with paid plans
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*Please note: Our competitors, just like us, release updates to their products on a regular cadence. We keep these pages updated to the best of our ability, but there are bound to be discrepancies. For the most up-to-date information on competitor features, browsing the competitor’s new release pages and communities are your best bet.
See how Harness stacks up against these other tools.
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