10 Best Continuous Integration Tools In 2024

May 09, 2022
Xblog ContinuousIntegration



Overview

With the rapid growth in technology, organizations have no choice but to keep up with the tools they use. There is a dire need for highly standardized and efficient processes to achieve the best results in the least amount of time. That is where the need for DevOps was generated. The idea behind the introduction of DevOps in Java or any other platform was to maintain the quality by systematic coordination of development and automation across the continuous process of delivery and integration.

In simpler words, there must be a convenient way to handle the complex scenarios without any delays in the workflow. Continuous Integration (CI) tools make it very convenient for the developers to streamline the development processes.

Continuous Integration tools provide immediate reporting whenever any defect or problem is identified in the Java code to take corrective action as soon as possible. Although every continuous Integration tool is designed to perform at least the same basic functions as a Java developer, choose a continuous integration tool that works best with your Java application. Along with that, factors like features, cost, ease of use also need to be considered.

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Below is the list of the ten best Continuous Integration tools for Java that must not be ignored in 2024:

1. Jenkins

Jenkins is a renowned Continuous Integration tool for Java platforms. Jenkins tops the list due to numerous factors and features. It is an open-source continuous Integration server-based tool that allows Java developers to build, test, and automate their Java projects faster. Jenkins has significantly evolved over the years and is now considered the most reliable CI tool.

The source code is mostly written in JAVA, with some parts in Groovy, Ruby, and Antlr. It is now equipped with around 1500 plugins for automating development tasks. It is fully compatible with all Linux, Mac OS, or Windows versions, and you can easily distribute work across several devices.

2. Buddy

Buddy is a web-based, self-hosted CI tool. Its best feature is an extremely user-friendly interface, and it also offers the simplest tool to be easily used by web developers, designers, and quality assurance engineers.

It uses the delivery pipelines to build, test and deploy applications. The pipelines are created with more than 100 pre-build actions that can be fully customized, just like a modular design. Git developers can also use this tool for building, testing, and deploying the websites using GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab codes.

3. TeamCity

Teamcity is a free Continuous Integration made for Java applications. Initially released in 2006, Teamcity was developed by JetBrains. It runs in a Java environment and is used to build and deploy a series of Java projects. Compared to other Java CI tools, Teamcity offers some incredible features such as extreme Extensibility and Customization.

It also provides better code quality for the projects. It maintains the CI server and keeps them stable even when no builds are running. Teamcity also offers remote running and pre-tested commit options, and it also supports integration with many cloud technologies such as Microsoft Azure, VMWare, and Amazon.

4. Bamboo CI

Bamboo is yet another one of the best Java CI tools developed by Atlassian. It is completely written in Java and supports other languages and technologies such as Maven, Git, SVN, CodeDeply, Ducker, Mercurial, Ant, Amazon, etc.

It offers features such as automatic build, testing, and deployment of multiple projects simultaneously. In case of a build failure, it also automatically generates the analysis and the failure reports. Developers can also monitor the status of the builds and server using a remarkable REST API by Bamboo CI.

Bamboo also supports certain testing tools like PHPUnit, JUnit, Selenium, and being an Atlassian product, it is fully compatible with Atlassian JIRA and BitBucket, allowing developers and the other team members to take full advantage of the Atlassian ecosystem.

5. GitLab CI

GitLab CI tool is a complete code management framework consisting of a set of tools used for performing functions for various parts of SDLC. It is a product of GitLab Inc and was developed by engineers Dmitriy Zaporozhets and Valery Sizov. GitLab CI is written in Ruby and Go, and its core functionality is open-source under an MIT license.

It provides an extensive analysis of the code views, bug management, and CI-CD in a single web-based repository. Its use cases include complete integration when using Java with Maven or Java with Spring Framework. The Language Programming CMD offered with GitLab build scripts allows to program them in any language, and the APIs provided with it allow excellent product integrations. This variety of tools and features also makes it one of the most demanded Java CI tools out there.

6. Codeship

Codeship is yet another powerful CI tool that can be used with Java projects. It offers full automation of the development and deployment workflow by simplifying pushing to the repository.

It is a relatively easy-to-use tool with dashboards and tools for centralized team management. Users can also set up teams and permissions for the organizations and team members. Developers have easy access to debug builds and SSH, which helps debug directly from the CI environment. Codeship gives complete control for customization for optimizing the CI and CD workflow.

Two versions of Codeship are currently available, the Basic and Pro version with more functionalities for an extra cost.

7. Travis CI

Travis CI was the first CI launched as a Service tool. It introduced a new approach to building projects in the cloud. It allows the user to sign up, link their repository, build, and test their code. Travis CI tool is also very easy to be integrated with the commonly used cloud repositories like GitHub and Bitbucket. As the Travis CI server is hosted in the cloud, this gives a great opportunity to its users to test in different virtual environments, on machines with different specifications, running on different Operating Systems.

Travis CI is free for open-source projects but requires you to purchase an enterprise plan for commercial projects.

8. CircleCI

CircleCI is another service tool that automates the Continuous Integration stage of the Software Development Life Cycle. It offers both hosted in the cloud-like Travis CI as well as on a private server. Their CI jobs cab be built within four different environments, including a Docker image, a Linux VM, a Windows VM, or a macOS VM.

Other than, CI stage, CircleCI can also provide automated services for other stages of the Software Development Life Cycle thanks to its third-party plugins known as “Orbs.” Orbs are like pointers included in the YAML configuration file that activates a piece of code during the building process that performs a function. The Orbs are free to use, housed in an open-source code library.

9. Buildkite

The buildkite agent is a robust and cross-platform CI tool. It makes it relatively easier to run automated builds on your infrastructure. Buildkite is most suited for running build jobs, reporting the status code, and logging all the jobs.

It also supports a wide variety of OS and architectures. Code from any version control system can be easily handled by buildkite. It allows users to run as many build agents as required on any machine. Integration with tools like Slack, HipChat, Flowdock, and Campfire is also available for proper communication.

10. Shippable

Shippable is a SaaS (Software as a service) platform that features very easy integration of your Continuous Integration tools to your GitHub & Bitbucket repositories. It is considered a great extension tool for CI due to its lightweight, very responsive UI, very easy to set up ( 1-click setup), support for Docker containers, and relatively faster than any other service. “Free private repositories” is also a leading cause for developers going with Shippable.

See Also: 5 Excellent Open Source CMS For Java In 2021

Conclusion

We discussed the ten exceptional continuous integration tools that are available. They all offer a variety of features for an efficient and smooth continuous integration and deployment process for all your projects. Some offer great usability and easy-to-use UI, and some have better features, whereas some tools like Bamboo CI offer better compatibility with other useful products. Based on your requirements, none of these CI tools will let you down and can be a great option when it comes to selecting a Java CI tool for your projects.

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