head to head · open source
jenkins vs aws-cdk
jenkins has 26,556 GitHub stars, 9,835 forks, 3,610 open issues and last shipped yesterday. aws-cdk has 12,899 stars, 4,631 forks, 2,863 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jenkins leads on adoption by 106% (26,556 vs 12,899 stars). jenkins is written in Java under MIT; aws-cdk is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. jenkins has attracted 37% as many forks as stars, aws-cdk 36%. jenkins was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| jenkins | aws-cdk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 13K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 4.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick jenkins if
- You weight community size — 27K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick aws-cdk if
- You want the aws-cdk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and aws-cdk fits your workflow better
About jenkins
Jenkins is an open source automation server built with Java and released under the MIT license. It lives in the continuous integration and continuous delivery ecosystem, where it has served as a central automation hub for roughly sixteen years. The project is developed in the open on GitHub, where it has accumulated 26,546 stars and 9,833 forks, and it is distributed through the official jenkins.io website alongside documentation, plugin listings, and release notes. Two release lines are maintained: a weekly line that carries all new features, improvements, and bug fixes, and a Long Term Support line that receive…
read the full jenkins overview →
About aws-cdk
AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) is an open source software development framework for defining cloud infrastructure in code and provisioning it through AWS CloudFormation. It lives in the AWS ecosystem and ships under the Apache 2.0 license, with the core implementation written in TypeScript. The framework offers a high level object oriented abstraction that lets developers define AWS resources imperatively using modern programming languages rather than writing raw CloudFormation templates by hand.
read the full aws-cdk overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is jenkins or aws-cdk more popular?
jenkins has 26,556 GitHub stars and aws-cdk has 12,899. jenkins has the larger community by that measure.
Are jenkins and aws-cdk free?
Both are open source. jenkins is licensed under MIT and aws-cdk under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jenkins and aws-cdk?
jenkins is written in Java and aws-cdk in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, jenkins or aws-cdk?
Choose jenkins if you want the larger community (26,556 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose aws-cdk if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.