SHSelfHostIndex

Drone vs Woodpecker CI

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?
DR Drone Container-based continuous delivery platform VS WO Woodpecker CI Simple, container-native continuous integration
FeatureDroneWoodpecker CI
CategoryCI/CD & BuildCI/CD & Build
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetesdocker, kubernetes
GitHub stars★ 37,713★ 7,650
First released20142019
ReplacesJenkins, CircleCIJenkins, CircleCI

Why pick each one

Choose Drone if…

  • Clean container model
  • Configuration as code
  • Scales with runners
Drone details

Choose Woodpecker CI if…

  • Easy to set up
  • Lightweight CI
  • Good Git integrations
Woodpecker CI details

Frequently asked questions

Is Drone or Woodpecker CI better?

Neither is universally better. Drone has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Drone and Woodpecker CI free and open-source?

Yes. Drone is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Woodpecker CI under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Drone and Woodpecker CI with Docker?

Drone: yes. Woodpecker CI: yes.

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