head to head · open source
jenkins vs gocd
jenkins has 26,556 GitHub stars, 9,835 forks, 3,610 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gocd has 7,434 stars, 980 forks, 83 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jenkins leads on adoption by 257% (26,556 vs 7,434 stars). jenkins is written in Java under MIT; gocd is written in Java under Apache-2.0. jenkins has attracted 37% as many forks as stars, gocd 13%. jenkins was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (continuous-delivery, continuous-deployment, continuous-integration), 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 | gocd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 7.4K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 980 |
| 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 gocd if
- You want the gocd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and gocd 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 gocd
GoCD is an open source continuous delivery server, licensed under Apache 2.0 and sponsored by Thoughtworks, Inc., that automates and streamlines the build test release cycle for teams that want to model, run, and control their own delivery pipelines.
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Frequently asked questions
Is jenkins or gocd more popular?
jenkins has 26,556 GitHub stars and gocd has 7,434. jenkins has the larger community by that measure.
Are jenkins and gocd free?
Both are open source. jenkins is licensed under MIT and gocd under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jenkins and gocd?
jenkins is written in Java and gocd in Java. 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 gocd?
Choose jenkins if you want the larger community (26,556 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose gocd if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.