Harness CI
vs.
Jenkins
UPDATEd ON
13 Feb
2025
Modern
Get rid of manual scripting and use intuitive YAML and Visual pipeline editors to configure CI pipelines. Harness CI also supports cloud-native applications out of the box.
Fast
Harness CI includes using AI to selectively run of tests based on code changes, caching dependencies, docker layers, and build tasks, thus speeding up builds significantly and reducing the cost of builds.
Secure
Harness supports native and 3rd party secrets management integrations, granular RBAC, scanning for security issues with your favorite security tools, and SLSA L3-compliant build infrastructure.
How does
Jenkins
compare?
While Jenkins is highly flexible and has a large plugin ecosystem, Harness CI appears to offer a more modern, user-friendly, and efficient approach to CI/CD, especially for organizations looking to reduce maintenance overhead and improve cloud-native capabilities.
Test Intelligence - Faster Builds Through Selective Test Execution
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
Test splitting
<yes><yes>
<with><with>
Caching software dependencies
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
Caching docker layers
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
Caching build tasks
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
Container & Cloud Native
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
Any Source Code Manager
<yes><yes>
<yes><yes>
Containerized Pipelines
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
Containerized Plug-ins
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
Custom Dashboards
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
Security Scanner Integrations - SAST, SCA
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
Deduplication of Scanner Results
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
Automated Prioritization of Vulnerabilities
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
SLSA L3 (v 1.0) - compliant build infrastructure
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
Pipeline-as-Code
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
Visual Pipeline Editor
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
Pipeline Templates
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
3rd Party Git Integrations
<yes><yes>
<yes><yes>
3rd Party CI Integrations
<yes><yes>
<yes><yes>
Secrets Management
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
Native Approvals
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
3rd Party Approvals (SNOW/Jira)
<yes><yes>
<with><with>
Policy-as-Code (OPA)
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
AI Guidance for Failure Remediation
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
Cloud-Agnostic
<yes><yes>
<no><no>
Support for Mobile Builds
<with><with>
<with><with>
Next-generation CI/CD For Dummies
Stop struggling with tools—master modern CI/CD and turn deployment headaches into smooth, automated workflows.
Detailed feature comparison
- Ease of Use: Harness provides a more user-friendly and intuitive interface, making configuring and managing CI/CD pipelines easier than Jenkins' steeper learning curve.
- Maintenance: Harness is designed to be low-maintenance, while Jenkins often requires significant effort to scale and maintain long-term. Organizations typically need 2-5 engineers just to maintain Jenkins daily.
- Cloud-Native Design: Harness was built to be cloud-native, while Jenkins was not originally designed for cloud environments and requires additional configuration for cloud deployments.
- Scalability: Harness offers built-in autoscaling capabilities, allowing easier scaling of CI/CD infrastructure. Jenkins may require more manual configuration to achieve similar scalability.
- Security Features: Harness includes native secrets management and audit trails, while Jenkins requires additional plugins for these functionalities.
- Modern Architecture: Harness uses a more modern, container-based architecture, while Jenkins relies on older Java technologies.
- Pipeline Orchestration: Harness offers a graphical interface for defining complex workflows, making it easier to visualize and manage pipeline stages compared to Jenkins' code-based pipeline definitions.
- Native Cloud Support: Harness has built-in support for major cloud platforms, reducing the need for manual configuration.
- Adoption and Efficiency: In case studies like Qrvey, switching to Harness CI from Jenkins led to increased faster and more secure pipelines.
