Comparison

Buildkite vs Harness

On the evidence we track, Buildkite leads this comparison with a composite score of 65/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
★Buildkite65
Harness51
Score
vioscaleAI score
Buildkite65 / 100medium · 72%
Harness51 / 100low · 24%
Pricing
Free tier
Buildkite✓
Harness✓
Model
Buildkitefreemium
Price level
Buildkitelow
Harnessfree
Transparent
Buildkite✓
Harness✗
Integrations
Count
Buildkite25
Harness27
Reliability
Sla pct
Buildkite99.95
Harness–
Status page
Buildkite✓
Harness✓
Content
Faq
Buildkite7 items
Harness7 items

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for ci/cd tools. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Deployment
Hosting
BuildkiteCloud + self-hosted
HarnessCloud only
Self-hosted runners
Buildkite✓
Harness✓
Core
Config-as-code pipelines
Buildkite✓
Harness✓
Matrix / parallel builds
Buildkite✓
Harness✗
Build
Container-native builds
Buildkite✓
Harness✓
Performance
Build caching
Buildkite✓
Harness✗
Security
Secrets management
Buildkite✓
Harness✓
Delivery
Deployment environments & approvals
Buildkite✓
Harness✓
Ecosystem
Reusable actions / marketplace
Buildkite✓
Harness✓

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Buildkite

Leader

A continuous integration and deployment platform that automates software workflows with support for both cloud-hosted and self-managed build agents, test execution, and artifact management.

Independently observed

Harness

An open-source development infrastructure combining version control, automated pipelines, hosted development environments, and artifact management in a single system.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Buildkite

Leader
SubscriptionFree tier30-day trial

Free tier with 30-day all-access trial. Pro plan per active user/month. Enterprise with custom pricing. Metered usage for hosted agents ($0.004/Linux vCPU-min, $0.02-$0.24/Mac vCPU-min).

  • FreeFree
    • Up to 2,000 Linux vCPU minutes/month
    • Up to 250k test executions/month
    • Dynamic pipelines
    • Community support
    • 1 workflow
  • ProPer active user/month (amount not specified in source)
    • 4,000 Linux vCPU minutes/month included
    • 1M test executions/month
    • macOS agents access
    • Priority email support
    • 250k/month test history
    • +1 more
  • EnterpriseContact sales
    • Full Buildkite platform access
    • 99.95% platform uptime SLA
    • Buildkite-hosted agents with remote Docker builders
    • Private container registry
    • Custom storage and retention policies
    • +8 more
as of verify ↗

Harness

HybridFree tier

Free tier available. Essentials and Enterprise plans require contacting sales.

  • FreeFree
    • Harness Open Source
    • Litmus Chaos
    • Community support
  • EssentialsContact sales
    • CI
    • CD
    • Infrastructure as Code
    • Security Testing Orchestration
    • Standard support
  • EnterpriseContact sales
    • Feature Management & Experimentation
    • Database DevOps
    • Artifact Registry
    • Resilience Testing
    • Application Security Testing
    • +6 more
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
Buildkite✓
Harness✓
CLI
Buildkite✓
Harness✗
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Buildkite✓
Harness✗
Self-hosted
Buildkite✓
Harness✓
Hybrid
Buildkite✓
Harness✗

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

In common (9)
  • GitHub
  • Kubernetes
  • Jenkins
  • Slack
  • AWS
  • Google Cloud
  • Azure
  • Snyk
  • Wiz

Buildkite

Leader
48 total - 39 not shared
  • GitHub Enterprise
  • Bitbucket Server
  • AWS ECR
  • AWS S3
  • AWS CloudFormation
  • AWS IAM
  • AWS CloudWatch
  • Docker
  • CircleCI
  • NPM
  • PyPI
  • RubyGems
  • Maven
  • Apt
  • RPM
  • Helm
  • Alpine
  • Jest
  • Mocha
  • Cypress
  • Playwright
  • Jasmine
  • Rspec
  • minitest
  • +15 more
Independently observed

Harness

32 total - 23 not shared
  • Google Analytics
  • mParticle
  • Segment
  • Sentry
  • Datadog
  • Jira
  • New Relic
  • Sumo Logic
  • GitLab
  • Bitbucket
  • Dynatrace
  • ServiceNow
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Terraform
  • OpenTofu
  • Terragrunt
  • Semgrep
  • Checkmarx
  • Bandit
  • Sonarqube
  • JFrog Artifactory
  • HashiCorp Vault
  • Argo CD
Independently observed
Still deciding?

Buildkite or Harness: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.