Warning: please be aware that Travis CI, which is mentioned in this article, has a security issue with its Free Tier service. By design, “secret” data such as access credentials are exposed within historical clear-text logs which are accessible by anyone via the Travis CI API. Please see this article for more information.
Repositories such as SourceForge, GitHub, and Launchpad, offer a wide range of tools that are useful for software development. These include wikis, e-mail lists, issue trackers and revision control. There are now complemented by a number of service providers who are offering support for automated build-and-test or continuous integration.
Using a continuous integration server that is hosted by a third-party can potentially be more convenient and cost effective than acquiring a server and setting up the continuous integration infrastructure yourself. This convenience could, in turn, make it easier for you to adopt a systematic approach to software testing to help ensure that your software is correct, robust and scalable.
The following table lists service providers who offer hosted continuous integration. Many of these exploit the capabilities of cloud computing to deliver their services.
Please remember that, when choosing to rely on a third-party to host a continuous integration server, the reliability, longevity, cost, usability and sustainability of the provider's service should be considered. Much of our advice on choosing a repository for your software project is also relevant to choosing a continuous integration server.
| Name | Source code repositories | Languages | Build tools | Databases | Operating system | Hardware | Continuous integration | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Travis CI | GitHub | Python, Ruby, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Clojure, others | Maven, Gradle, ANT, make | MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite3, MongoDB, CouchDB, Redis, Riak, Memcachd | 32-bit Ubuntu Linux 11.10 | Appveyor framework (including open source components) | Free to GitHub-hosted open source projects. "Travis CI pro" for private builds is under development. See Love Travis CI. | |
| AppVeyor | GitHub, BitBucket | Visual Basic, C#, F#, C++, Node.js, Java, Ruby, Python, Perl | msbuild, NuGet, CMake | SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL | Windows Server 2012 x64 | Travis open source framework | Free to GitHub-hosted open source projects. Payment plans for private builds. See Pricing. | |
| BuildHive (part of CloudBees DEV@Cloud platform-as-a-service environment) | GitHub | Java | Maven, Gradle, ANT | Fedora 13 (i686) | Amazon EC2 m1.small and m1.large | Jenkins | Free to GitHub-hosted open source projects. Various pricing plans are available e.g. FOSS for free open source software. | |
| Shining Panda | Git, Mercurial, CVS, Subversion, Bazaar | Java, Python, C++ | Maven, ANT | MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB | Linux, Windows | VM - Intel Xeon core, 2GB RAM, 5GB hard disk | Jenkins | Free open source software projects can get access on a first-come-first-served basis. Other pricing plans are available. |
| Kitware CDash | Git, CVS, Subversion, Bazaar | Ideally CMake, CPack, CTest but other tools can be used | CDash | Free for up to 10 daily builds with 3 users and publicly-visible results. Other pricing plans are available. | ||||
| tddium | Git | Ruby (Python, PHP coming soon) | MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MongoDB, Redis, Riak, Sphinx | Ubuntu 11 | 32 or 64-bit x86 Linux VM | Custom | Pricing from $15/month. | |
| CodeBetter CI | Git, Subversion | Maven, MSBuild | TeamCity | Free for open source projects (TeamCity funds it) | ||||
| CodeShip (formerly RailsOnFire) | Git | Ruby (other programming languages coming soon) | Amazon EC2 and Heroku | Custom |
Free for open source projects (e-mail them for details). Pricing from $9/month depending on number and duration of builds. |
|||
| AppHarbor | Git/GitHub, Mercurial, Subversion, BitBucket | ASP.NET applications | Shared or dedicated MySQL, SQL Server, MongoDB, depending on subscription. | Windows | Amazon EC2 | Custom. Also deploys applications for users on their servers. | Pricing from $0/month for a single worker. | |
| Bamboo | CVS, Subversion, Git/GitHub, Mercurial, BitBucket | Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby | ANT, Make, Maven, .NET | Amazon EC2 | Custom | Free 30 day trial. "On Demand" (they manage deployment and use your EC2 VMs) from $10/month (plus your EC2 subscriptions) | ||
| CloudForge | Subversion, Git | Any | Any | Any | Custom | Free for a single user. Pricing from $3.5/month otherwise. | ||
| Semaphore | GitHub | Ruby (any version) | Any | MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Redis, MongoDB, Memcached, Sphinx, ElasticSearch | Ubuntu 12.04 | Custom | Pricing from $14/month for a single project (public or private) | |
| TestPilot (beta and most web pages show "we're still writing this page") | GitHub | Ruby | Custom | Free for open source projects. | ||||
| CircleCi (beta) | GitHub | Ruby, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Clojure, Scala, Erlang, C++ | Maven, ANT, Make | MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, CouchDB, Redis, Riak, Memcached, Sphinx, Cassandra | Ubuntu 11.10 | Custom | 14 day free trial | |
| hostedci (beta) | iOS, Mac | Jenkins | 20 hours/month build free for open source projects. Other pricing plans available. | |||||
| continuous.io (seems to be an alpha which has stalled, last update was 07/10/11) | GitHub | Amazon EC2 micro | Custom | Free for open source projects (you need to use your own EC2 VMs). Other pricing plans are available. | ||||
| Fazend.com (may have stalled, last update was 30/08/11) | Subversion (theirs or 3rd party), Git, Mercurial | Java, Python, C++, PHP, Ruby, Perl | Maven, ANT, Make | MySQL, SQLite | Linux | Hudson | Free. E-mail for requirements review. |
Thanks to Mo, Ben and Marko Anastasov for suggesting additions to this table.