Concourse CI vs Spinnaker
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted ci/cd & build options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Concourse CI
Pipeline-based continuous thing-doer
VS
Spinnaker
Multi-cloud continuous delivery platform
| Feature | Concourse CI | Spinnaker |
|---|---|---|
| Category | CI/CD & Build | CI/CD & Build |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,878 | ★ 9,762 |
| First released | 2014 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Jenkins, CircleCI | Harness |
Why pick each one
Choose Spinnaker if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 9.8k GitHub stars
- Written in Java
Frequently asked questions
Is Concourse CI or Spinnaker better?
Neither is universally better. Spinnaker has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Concourse CI and Spinnaker free and open-source?
Yes. Concourse CI is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Spinnaker under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Concourse CI and Spinnaker with Docker?
Concourse CI: yes. Spinnaker: check the project docs for container support.