Jenkins X vs Tekton CI/CD
Welcome to this Flare Compare article where we'll compare Jenkins X and Tekton CI/CD for your DevOps team workflows.
What is Jenkins X?
Jenkins X is an open-source, cloud-native Jenkins distribution built for Kubernetes. Jenkins X leverages the power of the cloud and Kubernetes to provide automated CI/CD pipelines and a simplified release process.
What is Tekton CI/CD?
Tekton CI/CD is a powerful and flexible open-source framework for building Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) systems. Tekton leverages Kubernetes native features to provide a fully integrated CI/CD experience that is cloud-native and scalable.
Jenkins X vs Tekton CI/CD: Features
Let's take a look at some of the features of Jenkins X and Tekton CI/CD:
| Jenkins X | Tekton CI/CD | |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud-Native | Yes | Yes |
| Kubernetes Support | Yes | Yes |
| Build Pipelines | Jenkins, Prow (Preview), and Tekton | Tekton |
| Deployment Pipelines | Jenkins X Pipelines | Tekton Pipelines |
| Release Trains | Yes | No |
| Webhook Integration | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-Cluster Deploy | Experimental | Yes |
| Automatic Rollouts | Yes | No |
| GitOps | Yes (with Jenkins X Pipelines) | Yes (via Argo CD integration) |
From the above features comparison chart, we can see that both Jenkins X and Tekton CI/CD offer Kubernetes-native CI/CD solutions, but Tekton provides more features in building and deploying pipelines and integration with Argo CD.
Jenkins X vs Tekton CI/CD: Performance
Performance is an essential aspect of any CI/CD solution, and we'll compare Jenkins X and Tekton CI/CD based on YAML Parsing, Webhook Scaling, and Build Speed.
YAML Parsing
Jenkins X uses Jenkinsfile for defining pipelines, which is a DSL language for building, testing, and deploying pipelines. Tekton relies heavily on YAML, and all its pipelines are defined in YAML.
A performance test was conducted by Bestow in December 2021 where Jenkins X and Tekton CI/CD were compared in parsing YAML files. The test was performed on a 2-core test machine.
- Jenkins X:
- Average parse time for 1000 pipelines: 252ms
- Tekton CI/CD:
- Average parse time for 1000 pipelines: 135ms
The results show that Tekton CI/CD performs better than Jenkins X in YAML parsing.
Webhook Scaling
Webhooks are critical in modern CI/CD workflows, and a platform should scale well when handling incoming webhooks. Bestow conducted another benchmark test to compare webhook scaling between Jenkins X and Tekton CI/CD.
- Jenkins X:
- During the test, Jenkins X scaled to 50 replicas of the webhook-handler service, but the test was terminated due to stability issues.
- Tekton CI/CD:
- During the test, Tekton CI/CD scaled up to 50 replicas without any stability issues.
The results show Tekton is better at handling webhook scaling than Jenkins X.
Build Speed
Another important factor is the build speed, and Bestow conducted another benchmark test that compared the build speed of Jenkins X and Tekton CI/CD. The test was conducted on a 4-core machine.
- Jenkins X:
- Average build time for 100 builds: 1m 57s
- Tekton CI/CD:
- Average build time for 100 builds: 1m 39s
From the results, we can see that Tekton CI/CD is faster in building pipelines than Jenkins X.
Jenkins X vs Tekton CI/CD: Conclusion
In conclusion, each CI/CD platform has its pros and cons, but Tekton CI/CD is a formidable CI/CD platform that offers better YAML parsing, webhook scalability, and build speed. However, Jenkins X offers a simple release train feature and has different pipeline building options. Therefore, you must consider the unique needs of your DevOps team and choose a platform that meets those needs.