CloudBees vs Jenkins (vs Kobee): Which CI/CD Platform Fits Your Enterprise Needs in 2025?

If you're comparing CloudBees and Jenkins for your CI/CD needs, you're likely wrestling with a fundamental question: should you invest in the free, open-source flexibility of Jenkins, or pay for the enterprise-grade features and support of CloudBees?

But here's what most comparisons miss: there's a third player quietly dominating the mainframe modernization space that might be exactly what your enterprise needs.

The real questions you should be asking are:

• Do you need the ultimate flexibility of open source, or the stability and support of a commercial platform?
• Is your team prepared to manage and maintain Jenkins at scale, or do you need centralized management tools?
• Are you working with modern cloud-native applications only, or do you have mainframe systems to modernize?
• Do you want to build your CI/CD solution piece by piece with plugins, or get everything working out of the box?
• Is your budget better spent on software licenses or on the engineering time to customize and maintain Jenkins?

In short, here's what we recommend:

Jenkins

Jenkins is the open-source automation server that pioneered modern CI/CD, offering unmatched flexibility through its 2,000+ plugin ecosystem. It's free to use and can be customized to handle virtually any workflow, making it ideal for teams with strong technical expertise and specific requirements. However, the common industry consensus is that Jenkins requires significant time and resources to set up, maintain, and scale, with a steep learning curve that can overwhelm teams new to CI/CD.

CloudBees

CloudBees provides enterprise-grade Jenkins with professional support, centralized management, and additional security features. Built by the creators of Jenkins, it offers the power of Jenkins without the maintenance headaches, including high availability, certified plugins, and compliance capabilities. While it starts at $30/month per user, the real value comes from reduced operational overhead and enterprise features that would take months to implement in open-source Jenkins.

Both platforms are built on the same Jenkins foundation. But what if your enterprise can't afford to risk a full migration? Something designed specifically for mainframe modernization and hybrid environments? That's where the third alternative comes in.

Kobee

Kobee is an out-of-the-box enterprise CI/CD platform that's been quietly revolutionizing mainframe DevOps since 2004. Using its unique "Phases" architecture, it provides highly customizable workflows without requiring deep scripting knowledge, making it the go-to solution for enterprises modernizing IBM z/OS environments. With optional support for IBM tools like DBB and Wazi Deploy, it seamlessly integrates with existing mainframe toolchains. At €99.95 per user per month, it positions itself as a drop-in replacement for legacy SCM tools while providing modern CI/CD capabilities across both mainframe and distributed systems.

If you're running mainframe systems and need a CI/CD solution that speaks both legacy and modern, consult Kobee's team they can give you a modernization roadmap without having to ditch your existing systems.

Table of contents:

• CloudBees vs Jenkins vs Kobee at a glance
• The fundamental divide: Open source vs commercial vs specialized
• Jenkins dominates flexibility but demands expertise
• CloudBees adds enterprise control to Jenkins power
• Kobee excels where others fear to tread: mainframe modernization
• Plugin ecosystems vs out-of-the-box functionality
• The real cost comparison nobody talks about
• Scaling challenges and architectural differences
• CloudBees vs Jenkins vs Kobee: Which should you choose?

CloudBees vs Jenkins vs Kobee at a glance

Here's the fundamental difference: While CloudBees and Jenkins share the same core technology, they serve different audiences. Kobee, meanwhile, operates in a specialized niche that the others barely touch.

The fundamental divide: Open source vs commercial vs specialized

Understanding the philosophical differences between these platforms is crucial for making the right choice.

Jenkins emerged from a developer's personal frustration. Kohsuke Kawaguchi created Hudson (later Jenkins) in 2004 to solve his own problem of frequently breaking builds. This origin story shaped Jenkins into the ultimate developer's tool: infinitely flexible, completely open, and designed to be extended. The community-driven development model means Jenkins evolves based on what thousands of contributors need, not what a product manager decides.

CloudBees took a different path. Founded in 2010 and acquiring Kawaguchi's company, they asked: what if we could give enterprises the power of Jenkins without the operational burden? CloudBees CI isn't just Jenkins with support bolted on. It's a reimagining of how Jenkins should work in enterprise environments, with centralized management, certified plugins, and governance features that would take months to implement in vanilla Jenkins.

Kobee represents a third philosophy entirely. Since 2004, this company has focused on a specific challenge: helping enterprises modernize their development practices without abandoning their mainframe investments. Where Jenkins and CloudBees are meant to work with modern distributed systems, Kobee is built from the ground up to handle mainframe languages and technologies alongside Java and cloud-native applications.

Jenkins dominates flexibility but demands expertise

Jenkins remains the undisputed champion of flexibility in the CI/CD space. With over 2,000 plugins, it can integrate with virtually any tool in your development stack. Need to pull code from Perforce, build with Bazel, test with a custom framework, and deploy to a proprietary platform? There's probably a plugin for that, and if not, you can write one.

This flexibility also extends to its architecture. The master-agent model (now controller-agent) allows you to distribute builds across hundreds of machines. You can run builds on Windows, Linux, macOS, or even mainframes. The Pipeline as Code approach lets you version control your entire CI/CD process, treating build definitions as first-class citizens alongside your application code.

CloudBees adds enterprise control to Jenkins power

CloudBees CI takes the Jenkins foundation and adds the enterprise features that large organizations desperately need. The Operations Center provides centralized management for multiple Jenkins controllers, solving the "Jenkins sprawl" problem where different teams spin up their own instances.

The CloudBees Assurance Program is a game-changer for plugin management. Instead of gambling on community plugins, you get a curated set of verified, tested, and supported plugins. The Beekeeper Upgrade Assistant automates plugin updates, reducing one of the most painful aspects of Jenkins administration.

With CloudBees CI, high availability becomes achievable without architectural gymnastics. It offers active-active HA mode, where multiple controller replicas run simultaneously. If one fails, others seamlessly take over. This is the kind of enterprise-grade reliability that's extremely difficult to achieve with open-source Jenkins alone.

Role-Based Access Control in CloudBees goes far beyond Jenkins' basic security. You can define granular permissions at the folder and pipeline level, delegate administrative tasks to team leads, and maintain detailed audit trails for compliance. The configuration can even be managed as code, versioned and auditable.

The platform includes built-in features that would require extensive customization in Jenkins: Pipeline Policies that enforce organizational standards, contextual feedback that brings build status directly into GitHub or Slack, and shared libraries that promote reusable pipeline code across teams.

Kobee excels where others fear to tread: mainframe modernization

While Jenkins and CloudBees focus mainly on modern distributed systems, Kobee carved out a unique position in mainframe DevOps. This isn't just adding mainframe support as an afterthought; it's building a CI/CD platform that understands mainframe languages and technologies as naturally as it handles Java and Git.

The "Phases" concept is Kobee's secret weapon. Instead of writing complex monolithic scripts or wrestling with plugins, you build workflows from small, reusable building blocks. Each Phase is a modular, parameter-driven container that performs a specific CI/CD action. Unlike traditional long scripts that require iteration for every customization, Phases break down the build process into focused, manageable components. Need to compile COBOL on z/OS, run DB2 binds, and deploy to CICS? There are certified Solution Phases for that. The parameters can be configured through a GUI, no Groovy programming required. And just like Jenkins allows you to write custom plugins, Kobee lets you create custom Phases when your specific needs aren't covered by the standard catalog.

Kobee acts as a drop-in replacement for legacy SCM tools like ChangeMan, Endevor, or Panvalet. This doesn't just result in cost savings; it helps modernize mainframe development practices.

With Kobee, developers can use Git for version control, IDZ or VS Code for editing, and modern CI/CD practices, all while working with mainframe code. The platform's optional support for IBM tools like DBB and Wazi Deploy ensures seamless integration with existing mainframe development toolchains.

The platform's hybrid capability is equally impressive. It provides a single control point for both mainframe and distributed systems. You can manage dependencies between a CICS transaction and a microservice, ensuring coordinated deployments across vastly different platforms. This is the kind of challenge that would require extensive custom scripting in Jenkins or CloudBees.

Plugin ecosystems vs out-of-the-box functionality

The approach to extensibility reveals each platform's philosophy and target audience.

Jenkins lives and breathes plugins. The 2,000+ plugin ecosystem is both its greatest strength and biggest weakness. You can find a plugin for almost anything: from integrating with obscure version control systems to publishing test results in proprietary formats. The Plugin Manager makes installation easy, but managing dependencies, updates, and compatibility becomes increasingly complex as your plugin count grows.

CloudBees takes a more curated approach. The CloudBees Assurance Program provides a subset of verified plugins that are tested, certified, and supported. You lose some flexibility but gain stability and support. CloudBees also includes many enterprise features in the core platform that would require plugins in Jenkins: advanced RBAC, high availability, and compliance features come standard.

Kobee flips the model entirely. Instead of relying on plugins, it provides comprehensive functionality out-of-the-box. The platform includes native integrations for popular version control systems (Git, Subversion, TFVC) and issue trackers (Jira, Azure DevOps, GitHub). For anything not covered, there's an API for custom integrations, but the goal is to minimize the need for extensions. Kobee also comes with a separate application where you can set and customize every detail of your mainframe configuration using an easy-to-use GUI. Again, no scripting required!

This difference becomes critical in practice. A Jenkins setup might require hundreds of plugins for a comprehensive CI/CD pipeline. Managing updates, ensuring compatibility, and troubleshooting issues across all these plugins requires significant expertise. Kobee users typically need zero additional plugins, getting a complete CI/CD solution from day one.

The real cost comparison nobody talks about

The pricing conversation usually stops at license costs, but that's just the beginning of the story.

Jenkins appears free, but the true cost emerges over time. You need infrastructure to run it, typically starting with a single server and expanding to multiple controllers and dozens of agents. The real scaling expense is personnel. Factor in the time spent troubleshooting plugin conflicts, managing updates, and maintaining custom scripts.

CloudBees starts at $30/user/month, scaling to custom enterprise pricing. But this includes features that would cost months of engineering time to implement in Jenkins: high availability, centralized management, enterprise security.

Kobee's simple Enterprise license is €99.95/user/month (with a €25,000 annual minimum) seems expensive until you consider the mainframe context. Traditional mainframe SCM tools often cost significantly more, with complex licensing based on MIPS consumption. Kobee's predictable, user-based pricing is refreshingly simple. More importantly, by enabling modern development practices on the mainframe, it can reduce the need for expensive mainframe-specific skills.

Hidden costs matter too. Jenkins requires deep expertise to operate effectively, and that expertise is expensive. CloudBees reduces but doesn't eliminate this need. Kobee's Phase-based approach and GUI configuration lower the expertise barrier significantly, potentially saving on training and specialized personnel costs.

Scaling and architecture

How each platform handles scale reveals its architectural maturity and enterprise readiness.

Jenkins scales through its controller-agent architecture, but this requires careful planning. The controller becomes a bottleneck as job count increases. While you can distribute builds across hundreds of agents, the controller still schedules jobs, serves the UI, and stores build records. High availability requires external solutions, shared file systems, and complex failover mechanisms.

CloudBees CI addresses these limitations with horizontal scalability for controllers. The High Availability mode runs multiple active controller replicas behind a load balancer. Kubernetes deployment takes this further, with controllers running as pods that can be dynamically scaled. The Operations Center provides a management layer above individual controllers, enabling true enterprise-scale deployments.

Kobee takes a different approach, designed from the ground up for enterprise scale. The server-agent architecture is optimized for the mixed workloads typical in hybrid mainframe/distributed environments. Mainframe builds might be resource-intensive but infrequent, while microservice builds are lightweight but constant. Kobee handles this variety efficiently, with separate handling for release-based and package-based builds.

The scalability differences become apparent in practice. A large Jenkins deployment might have dozens of controllers (leading to Jenkins sprawl), each requiring individual management. CloudBees can consolidate these into a managed hierarchy. Kobee provides a single control point regardless of scale, simplifying operations for enterprises with complex, hybrid environments.

CloudBees vs Jenkins vs Kobee: Which should you choose?

The choice between these platforms depends on your organization's specific needs, technical capabilities, and existing infrastructure.

Choose Jenkins if:

• You have strong technical expertise and dedicated DevOps engineers
• You need maximum flexibility and customization options
• You have engineering time to invest
• You're comfortable with community support and self-service troubleshooting
• You enjoy building and maintaining your own solutions
• You don't mind the operational overhead of managing plugins and updates

Choose CloudBees if:

• You want Jenkins' power with enterprise-grade support and features
• You need centralized management for multiple teams and controllers
• High availability and compliance are critical requirements
• You prefer certified, supported plugins over community options
• You want to reduce Jenkins administration overhead
• Your organization values commercial support and SLAs

Choose Kobee if:

• You have mainframe systems that need modernization
• You want to implement CI/CD across hybrid mainframe/distributed environments
• You prefer out-of-the-box functionality over plugin management
• You need to replace legacy SCM tools like ChangeMan or Endevor
• Your team would benefit from GUI-based configuration over scripting
• You want a single control point for diverse development platforms

Looking to modernize your mainframe DevOps? Get on a call with Kobee's team to take the first step today!

The reality is that each platform serves a distinct niche in the CI/CD ecosystem. Jenkins remains the choice for teams that value ultimate flexibility and have the expertise to wield it. CloudBees makes sense for enterprises that want Jenkins' power without its operational burden. And Kobee fills a crucial gap for organizations with mainframe systems that need modern DevOps practices.

Your choice should align with your team's capabilities, your infrastructure reality, and your long-term DevOps strategy. There's no universal "best" platform, only the one that best fits your specific needs.

About the author

Hello, my name is René De Vleeschauwer.

Throughout my career, I have been actively engaged in developing enterprise software. For the past 18 years, I have led the development of Kobee, an open CI/CD and DevOps framework that has been highly regarded in regulated enterprises.

Do you have any questions? Just ask me!