AWS CodeBuild vs AWS CodePipeline: What are the differences?

Introduction

AWS CodeBuild and AWS CodePipeline are two popular services provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that are used for building and deploying applications. While both services are used in the software development lifecycle, there are key differences between CodeBuild and CodePipeline.

1. Development Workflow: AWS CodeBuild is a fully managed build service that compiles source code, runs tests, and produces ready-to-deploy artifacts. It provides a flexible environment to build, test, and deploy applications. On the other hand, AWS CodePipeline is a fully managed continuous delivery service that orchestrates the different stages of the application release process. It allows you to define a workflow with multiple stages, each performing specific actions like building, testing, and deploying.

2. Integration with External Tools: AWS CodeBuild integrates with various tools such as AWS CodeCommit, GitHub, and Bitbucket for source code management. It also supports integration with other AWS services like Amazon S3, Amazon ECR, and AWS Elastic Beanstalk. In contrast, AWS CodePipeline integrates with CodeBuild as one of the possible actions/stages in the workflow. CodePipeline can also integrate with other tools such as AWS CodeDeploy, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and third-party services like Jenkins and GitHub.

3. Pipeline and Artifact Management: AWS CodeBuild focuses on building and testing artifacts, but it doesn't provide explicit pipeline management capabilities. It allows you to build the artifacts using custom scripts or predefined build environments. In contrast, AWS CodePipeline offers a graphical interface to create and manage the different stages in a release pipeline. It also provides features to manage and track artifacts throughout the pipeline, making it easier to manage the overall workflow.

4. Deployment Flexibility: AWS CodeBuild primarily focuses on building and testing artifacts, so it doesn't have built-in capabilities for deployment actions. It can be used as part of a pipeline for artifact generation, but a separate deployment mechanism is required. AWS CodePipeline, on the other hand, provides built-in deployment actions that can be used to deploy applications to various targets like Amazon S3, AWS Lambda, ECS, and Elastic Beanstalk. It offers more flexibility in deploying applications in a coordinated and automated manner.

5. Logging and Monitoring: AWS CodeBuild provides detailed build logs and metrics that can help in troubleshooting build issues. However, it doesn't provide built-in monitoring and alerting capabilities. In contrast, AWS CodePipeline offers built-in monitoring and logging functionalities. It provides metrics and visualizations to track the progress of pipeline executions, as well as integrations with AWS CloudWatch for monitoring and alerting.

6. Pricing Model: AWS CodeBuild pricing is based on the build duration and the compute resources used. It charges on a per-minute basis for the build time and provides different pricing tiers for different instance types. On the other hand, AWS CodePipeline pricing is based on the number of active pipelines and the number of pipeline executions. It charges separately for pipeline definition and pipeline execution, with additional charges for additional stage transitions.

In summary, AWS CodeBuild is a build service that focuses on building and testing artifacts, while AWS CodePipeline is a continuous delivery service that provides pipeline management and deployment capabilities along with integration with external tools. CodeBuild is more suitable for building the artifacts, while CodePipeline is useful for orchestrating the different stages of the release process.