Jenkins vs Portainer

Overview

Jenkins

Stacks59.2K

Followers50.4K

Votes2.2K

GitHub Stars24.6K

Forks9.2K

Portainer

Stacks507

Followers842

Votes146

Jenkins vs Portainer: What are the differences?

Jenkins and Portainer are both popular tools used in DevOps and container management. While they have some similarities, they also have key differences that set them apart. In this article, we will explore six key differences between Jenkins and Portainer.

Installation and Configuration: Jenkins is a self-hosted automation server that requires downloading and setting up on a server or virtual machine. It requires extensive configuration to get it up and running. On the other hand, Portainer is a lightweight web-based management UI for Docker that can be quickly deployed as a container itself. It is easier to install and does not require complex configuration.
Scope of Functionality: Jenkins is primarily used for continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. It provides a wide range of features and plugins that enable developers to automate build, test, and deployment processes. Portainer, on the other hand, focuses on managing and monitoring Docker containers. It provides a user-friendly interface to manage containers, networks, and volumes.
Ease of Use: Jenkins has a steep learning curve due to its extensive configuration and plugins. Users need to have a strong understanding of CI/CD concepts and Jenkins' terminology. Portainer, on the other hand, is designed to be user-friendly, with an intuitive and easy-to-use web interface. It allows users to manage containers and perform actions with just a few clicks.
User Access Control: Jenkins provides a robust user access control system, allowing administrators to define fine-grained permissions and access levels for users. It supports integration with external authentication systems such as LDAP and Active Directory. In contrast, Portainer has a simpler access control mechanism, with roles and permissions that can be assigned to users. It may not provide the same level of granularity as Jenkins in terms of user access management.
Support for Multiple Container Orchestration Systems: Jenkins supports multiple container orchestration systems like Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, and Apache Mesos. It provides dedicated plugins for each system to help streamline the CI/CD workflows. Portainer, on the other hand, focuses solely on Docker container management. It does not have built-in support for other container orchestration systems.
Extensibility and Plugin Ecosystem: Jenkins has a vast plugin ecosystem, which allows users to extend its functionality and integrate with various tools and services. It has plugins for code quality analysis, notifications, artifact storage, and more. Portainer, being a web-based UI for Docker, does not have the same level of extensibility. It primarily focuses on Docker management, with limited options for integration with external tools.

In Summary, Jenkins is a powerful automation server used for CI/CD pipelines, while Portainer is a lightweight management UI specifically for Docker containers. Jenkins requires extensive configuration and has a wide range of plugins, while Portainer is easy to use with a user-friendly interface and focuses solely on managing Docker containers. Jenkins supports multiple container orchestration systems, while Portainer is specifically designed for Docker. Jenkins has a more advanced user access control system, and its extensibility through plugins is unparalleled.

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Advice on Jenkins, Portainer

Balaramesh

Apr 20, 2020

Needs adviceon

Azure Pipelines

.NET

Jenkins

We are currently using Azure Pipelines for continous integration. Our applications are developed witn .NET framework. But when we look at the online Jenkins is the most widely used tool for continous integration. Can you please give me the advice which one is best to use for my case Azure pipeline or jenkins.

663k views663k

Comments

StackShare

Apr 17, 2019

Needs advice

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?"

530k views530k

Comments

Tatiana

Nov 16, 2019

Decided

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.

734k views734k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Jenkins	Portainer
In a nutshell Jenkins CI is the leading open-source continuous integration server. Built with Java, it provides over 300 plugins to support building and testing virtually any project.	It is a universal container management tool. It works with Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm and Azure ACI. It allows you to manage containers without needing to know platform-specific code.
Easy installation;Easy configuration;Change set support;Permanent links;RSS/E-mail/IM Integration;After-the-fact tagging;JUnit/TestNG test reporting;Distributed builds;File fingerprinting;Plugin Support	Docker management; Docker UI; Docker cluster management; Swarm visualizer; Authentication; User Access Control; Docker container management; Docker service management; Docker overview; Docker console; Docker swarm status; Docker image management; Docker network management; Docker dashboard; Remote HTTP API; Automation
Statistics
GitHub Stars 24.6K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 9.2K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 59.2K	Stacks 507
Followers 50.4K	Followers 842
Votes 2.2K	Votes 146
Pros & Cons
Pros 523 Hosted internally 469 Free open source 318 Great to build, deploy or launch anything async 243 Tons of integrations 211 Rich set of plugins with good documentation Cons 13 Workarounds needed for basic requirements 10 Groovy with cumbersome syntax 8 Plugins compatibility issues 7 Limited abilities with declarative pipelines 7 Lack of support	Pros 36 Simple 27 Great UI 19 Friendly 12 Easy to setup, gives a practical interface for Docker 11 Because it just works, super simple yet powerful
Integrations
No integrations available	Docker Swarm Docker Secrets Auth0 Kubernetes Docker

What are some alternatives to Jenkins, Portainer?

Travis CI

Free for open source projects, our CI environment provides multiple runtimes (e.g. Node.js or PHP versions), data stores and so on. Because of this, hosting your project on travis-ci.com means you can effortlessly test your library or applications against multiple runtimes and data stores without even having all of them installed locally.

Codeship

Codeship runs your automated tests and configured deployment when you push to your repository. It takes care of managing and scaling the infrastructure so that you are able to test and release more frequently and get faster feedback for building the product your users need.

CircleCI

Continuous integration and delivery platform helps software teams rapidly release code with confidence by automating the build, test, and deploy process. Offers a modern software development platform that lets teams ramp.

Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.

Rancher

Rancher is an open source container management platform that includes full distributions of Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and Docker Swarm, and makes it simple to operate container clusters on any cloud or infrastructure platform.

Docker Compose

With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running.

TeamCity

TeamCity is a user-friendly continuous integration (CI) server for professional developers, build engineers, and DevOps. It is trivial to setup and absolutely free for small teams and open source projects.

Docker Swarm

Swarm serves the standard Docker API, so any tool which already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts: Dokku, Compose, Krane, Deis, DockerUI, Shipyard, Drone, Jenkins... and, of course, the Docker client itself.

Drone.io

Drone is a hosted continuous integration service. It enables you to conveniently set up projects to automatically build, test, and deploy as you make changes to your code. Drone integrates seamlessly with Github, Bitbucket and Google Code as well as third party services such as Heroku, Dotcloud, Google AppEngine and more.

wercker

Wercker is a CI/CD developer automation platform designed for Microservices & Container Architecture.

Related Comparisons

Jenkins vs Portainer: What are the differences?

Installation and Configuration: Jenkins is a self-hosted automation server that requires downloading and setting up on a server or virtual machine. It requires extensive configuration to get it up and running. On the other hand, Portainer is a lightweight web-based management UI for Docker that can be quickly deployed as a container itself. It is easier to install and does not require complex configuration.
Scope of Functionality: Jenkins is primarily used for continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. It provides a wide range of features and plugins that enable developers to automate build, test, and deployment processes. Portainer, on the other hand, focuses on managing and monitoring Docker containers. It provides a user-friendly interface to manage containers, networks, and volumes.
Ease of Use: Jenkins has a steep learning curve due to its extensive configuration and plugins. Users need to have a strong understanding of CI/CD concepts and Jenkins' terminology. Portainer, on the other hand, is designed to be user-friendly, with an intuitive and easy-to-use web interface. It allows users to manage containers and perform actions with just a few clicks.
User Access Control: Jenkins provides a robust user access control system, allowing administrators to define fine-grained permissions and access levels for users. It supports integration with external authentication systems such as LDAP and Active Directory. In contrast, Portainer has a simpler access control mechanism, with roles and permissions that can be assigned to users. It may not provide the same level of granularity as Jenkins in terms of user access management.
Support for Multiple Container Orchestration Systems: Jenkins supports multiple container orchestration systems like Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, and Apache Mesos. It provides dedicated plugins for each system to help streamline the CI/CD workflows. Portainer, on the other hand, focuses solely on Docker container management. It does not have built-in support for other container orchestration systems.
Extensibility and Plugin Ecosystem: Jenkins has a vast plugin ecosystem, which allows users to extend its functionality and integrate with various tools and services. It has plugins for code quality analysis, notifications, artifact storage, and more. Portainer, being a web-based UI for Docker, does not have the same level of extensibility. It primarily focuses on Docker management, with limited options for integration with external tools.

Jenkins vs Portainer

Overview