Top 10 CI/CD Tools (2025)
- Jenkins – Open‑source, plugin‑heavy, and still the king.
- GitHub Actions – Git‑centric, easy to start.
- GitLab CI/CD – Everything from repo to runner in one place.
- CircleCI – Fast builds, smart caching.
- Travis CI – Classic, especially for open‑source.
- Bamboo – Atlassian’s paid, feature‑rich solution.
- Azure Pipelines – Cloud‑first, language‑agnostic.
- GitLab Runner – Lightweight executor you can host.
- Argo CD – GitOps for Kubernetes.
- Anchore Engine – Scan containers before you deploy.
Quick Start – A Minimal GitHub Actions Workflow
Save this as .github/workflows/ci.yml in your repo:
name: CI
on:
push:
branches: [ main ]
pull_request:
branches: [ main ]
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v3
- name: Set up Node.js
uses: actions/setup-node@v3
with:
node-version: '20'
- name: Install dependencies
run: npm ci
- name: Run tests
run: npm test
That’s a full CI pipeline for a Node app – nothing to install locally.
Animated Workflow GIF
Further Reading & Tutorials
Related Resource: Docker Secrets
Securely store environment variables in Docker containers. Read more
Random Fun: Build a CI Bot in 5 Minutes
Use GitHub Actions to create a bot that replies to new issues with a friendly GIF:
name: Greet Issues
on:
issues:
types: [opened]
jobs:
greet:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Post welcome comment
uses: actions/github-script@v6
with:
github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
script: |
github.issues.createComment({
issue_number: context.issue.number,
owner: context.repo.owner,
repo: context.repo.repo,
body: "👋 Thanks for opening this issue! We're on it."
})