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Drone.io vs Travis CI: What are the differences?
Introduction
Drone.io and Travis CI are both popular Continuous Integration (CI) platforms that enable developers to automatically build, test, and deploy software projects. However, there are several key differences between the two platforms.
1. Deployment Options: Drone.io provides a wider range of deployment options compared to Travis CI. While Travis CI supports deployment to various platforms, such as AWS, Heroku, and Google App Engine, Drone.io offers additional options like Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, and custom shell scripts. This flexibility allows developers to choose the most suitable deployment strategy for their applications.
2. Containerization: Unlike Travis CI, which runs builds in virtual machines, Drone.io is designed around containerization. It leverages Docker containers to isolate builds, making it easier to distribute and reproduce build environments. This container-based approach provides a consistent and reproducible build environment, resulting in more reliable and trustworthy builds.
3. Self-Hosted/On-Premise Option: While both platforms offer hosted versions, Drone.io also provides a self-hosted option for organizations that prefer to run their CI infrastructure on-premise or on a private cloud. This self-hosted option allows greater control and security of the CI environment, making it a preferred choice for companies with strict compliance or regulatory requirements.
4. Plugin and Extension Ecosystem: Travis CI has a large and mature ecosystem of plugins and extensions that developers can leverage to enhance their CI pipelines. However, Drone.io has a more extensible and flexible plugin system, with the ability to create custom plugins using any programming language. This versatility enables developers to seamlessly integrate their existing workflows and tools into the CI pipeline.
5. Configuration as Code: While both platforms allow configuring builds through YAML files, Drone.io takes configuration as code to the next level. It uses a Docker-compose-like syntax for defining build steps and can also execute arbitrary shell commands. This granular control over build configuration makes it easier to define complex build pipelines and customize the build process according to specific requirements.
6. Pricing Model: Drone.io follows a different pricing model compared to Travis CI. While Travis CI offers a free tier for open-source projects and limited builds per month, Drone.io offers unlimited builds and repositories for free. However, Drone.io charges based on the number of concurrent build agents required for larger or enterprise-scale projects, whereas Travis CI offers different plans based on the number of concurrent jobs.
In summary, Drone.io differentiates itself from Travis CI by offering a wider range of deployment options, a container-based approach, a self-hosted option, a more extensible plugin system, powerful configuration as code capabilities, and a distinctive pricing model.
From a StackShare Community member: "Currently we use Travis CI and have optimized it as much as we can so our builds are fairly quick. Our boss is all about redundancy so we are looking for another solution to fall back on in case Travis goes down and/or jacks prices way up (they were recently acquired). Could someone recommend which CI we should go with and if they have time, an explanation of how they're different?"
We use CircleCI because of the better value it provides in its plans. I'm sure we could have used Travis just as easily but we found CircleCI's pricing to be more reasonable. In the two years since we signed up, the service has improved. CircleCI is always innovating and iterating on their platform. We have been very satisfied.
As the maintainer of the Karate DSL open-source project - I found Travis CI very easy to integrate into the GitHub workflow and it has been steady sailing for more than 2 years now ! It works well for Java / Apache Maven projects and we were able to configure it to use the latest Oracle JDK as per our needs. Thanks to the Travis CI team for this service to the open-source community !
I use Google Cloud Build because it's my first foray into the CICD world(loving it so far), and I wanted to work with something GCP native to avoid giving permissions to other SaaS tools like CircleCI and Travis CI.
I really like it because it's free for the first 120 minutes, and it's one of the few CICD tools that enterprises are open to using since it's contained within GCP.
One of the unique things is that it has the Kaniko cache, which speeds up builds by creating intermediate layers within the docker image vs. pushing the full thing from the start. Helpful when you're installing just a few additional dependencies.
Feel free to checkout an example: Cloudbuild Example
I use Travis CI because of various reasons - 1. Cloud based system so no dedicated server required, and you do not need to administrate it. 2. Easy YAML configuration. 3. Supports Major Programming Languages. 4. Support of build matrix 6. Supports AWS, Azure, Docker, Heroku, Google Cloud, Github Pages, PyPi and lot more. 7. Slack Notifications.
You are probably looking at another hosted solution: Jenkins is a good tool but it way too work intensive to be used as just a backup solution.
I have good experience with Circle-CI, Codeship, Drone.io and Travis (as well as problematic experiences with all of them), but my go-to tool is Gitlab CI: simple, powerful and if you have problems with their limitations or pricing, you can always install runners somewhere and use Gitlab just for scheduling and management. Even if you don't host your git repository at Gitlab, you can have Gitlab pull changes automatically from wherever you repo lives.
If you are considering Jenkins I would recommend at least checking out Buildkite. The agents are self-hosted (like Jenkins) but the interface is hosted for you. It meshes up some of the things I like about hosted services (pipeline definitions in YAML, managed interface and authentication) with things I like about Jenkins (local customizable agent images, secrets only on own instances, custom agent level scripts, sizing instances to your needs).
Jenkins is a friend of mine. 😀
There are not much space for Jenkins competitors for now from my point of view. With declarative pipelines now in place, its super easy to maintain them and create new ones(altho I prefer scripted still). Self-hosted, free, huge community makes it the top choice so honestly for me it was an easy pick.
When choosing a tool to help automate our CI/CD, the decision came down to GitHub Actions (GA) or TravisCI. Both are great, but the team has more experience with GA. Given GAs broad support of languages and workflows, it's hard to go wrong with this decision. We will also be using GitHub for version control and project management, so having everything in one place is convenient.
My website is brand new and one of the few requirements of testings I had to implement was code coverage. Never though it was so hard to implement using a #docker container.
Given my lack of experience, every attempt I tried on making a simple code coverage test using the 4 combinations of #TravisCI, #CircleCi with #Coveralls, #Codecov I failed. The main problem was I was generating the .coverage file within the docker container and couldn't access it with #TravisCi or #CircleCi, every attempt to solve this problem seems to be very hacky and this was not the kind of complexity I want to introduce to my newborn website.
This problem was solved using a specific action for #GitHubActions, it was a 3 line solution I had to put in my github workflow file and I was able to access the .coverage file from my docker container and get the coverage report with #Codecov.
We were long time users of TravisCI, but switched to CircleCI because of the better user interface and pricing. Version 2.0 has had a couple of trips and hiccups; but overall we've been very happy with the continuous integration it provides. Continuous Integration is a must-have for building software, and CircleCI continues to surprise as they roll out ideas and features. It's leading the industry in terms of innovation and new ideas, and it's exciting to see what new things they keep rolling out.
Jenkins is a pretty flexible, complete tool. Especially I love the possibility to configure jobs as a code with Jenkins pipelines.
CircleCI is well suited for small projects where the main task is to run continuous integration as quickly as possible. Travis CI is recommended primarily for open-source projects that need to be tested in different environments.
And for something a bit larger I prefer to use Jenkins because it is possible to make serious system configuration thereby different plugins. In Jenkins, I can change almost anything. But if you want to start the CI chain as soon as possible, Jenkins may not be the right choice.
Pros of Drone.io
- Open source51
- Built on docker50
- Free for open source27
- GitHub integration23
- Easy Setup18
- Hosted internally17
- Flexible scripting17
- Bitbucket integration10
- GitLab integration7
- Works with Heroku7
- Gogs integration6
- Browser testing4
- Works with Google AppEngine4
- Active Community4
- Works with Amazon3
- Works with Cloud Foundry2
- Gitea Integration2
- Configuration as code1
- Eazy to use1
- Easy tool to automate CI pipeline. Running in an hour1
- Easy pipelines1
- Only need yml config1
- Written in Go1
Pros of Travis CI
- Github integration506
- Free for open source388
- Easy to get started271
- Nice interface191
- Automatic deployment162
- Tutorials for each programming language72
- Friendly folks40
- Support for multiple ruby versions29
- Osx support28
- Easy handling of secret keys24
- Fast builds6
- Support for students4
- The best tool for Open Source CI3
- Hosted3
- Build Matrices3
- Github Pull Request build2
- Straightforward Github/Coveralls integration2
- Easy of Usage2
- Integrates with everything2
- Caching resolved artifacts1
- Docker support1
- Great Documentation1
- Build matrix1
- No-brainer for CI1
- Debug build workflow1
- Ubuntu trusty is not supported1
- Free for students1
- Configuration saved with project repository1
- Multi-threaded run1
- Hipchat Integration1
- Perfect0
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Cons of Drone.io
- Very basic documentation3
Cons of Travis CI
- Can't be hosted insternally8
- Feature lacking3
- Unstable3
- Incomplete documentation for all platforms2
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