SHSelfHostIndex

Jenkins 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?
JE Jenkins Extensible open-source automation server for CI/CD VS WO Woodpecker CI Simple, container-native continuous integration
FeatureJenkinsWoodpecker CI
CategoryCI/CD & BuildCI/CD & Build
LicenseMITApache-2.0
LanguageJavaGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, helmdocker, kubernetes
GitHub stars★ 26,434★ 7,650
First released20112019
ReplacesCircleCIJenkins, CircleCI

Why pick each one

Choose Jenkins if…

  • Extremely flexible
  • Massive plugin ecosystem
  • Battle-tested
Jenkins details

Choose Woodpecker CI if…

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

Frequently asked questions

Is Jenkins or Woodpecker CI better?

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

Are Jenkins and Woodpecker CI free and open-source?

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

Can I run Jenkins and Woodpecker CI with Docker?

Jenkins: yes. Woodpecker CI: yes.

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