head to head · open source
jenkins vs pyinfra
jenkins has 26,556 GitHub stars, 9,835 forks, 3,610 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pyinfra has 6,000 stars, 547 forks, 160 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. jenkins leads on adoption by 343% (26,556 vs 6,000 stars). jenkins is written in Java under MIT; pyinfra is written in Python under MIT. jenkins has attracted 37% as many forks as stars, pyinfra 9%. jenkins was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | pyinfra | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 6.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 547 |
| 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 pyinfra if
- You want the pyinfra feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and pyinfra 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 pyinfra
pyinfra is a Python based infrastructure automation tool that turns Python code into shell commands and runs those commands on remote servers. It lives in the configuration management and cloud infrastructure management space, and it targets SSH servers, the local machine, and Docker containers through a connector system. The project is written in Python, licensed under MIT, and has been developed for roughly twelve years. Its own description frames it as "ansible but Python instead of YAML."
read the full pyinfra overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is jenkins or pyinfra more popular?
jenkins has 26,556 GitHub stars and pyinfra has 6,000. jenkins has the larger community by that measure.
Are jenkins and pyinfra free?
Both are open source. jenkins is licensed under MIT and pyinfra under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jenkins and pyinfra?
jenkins is written in Java and pyinfra in Python. 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 pyinfra?
Choose jenkins if you want the larger community (26,556 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pyinfra if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.