# CircleCI vs Harness

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** CircleCI

| Attribute | CircleCI | Harness |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 76.4 (74% (medium)) | 50.8 (24% (low)) |
| adoption.stackoverflow_questions | 8,600 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"CircleCI is a cloud-based continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) platform that automates the testing, building, and deployment of software projects. It integrates with version control systems to automatically run configured workflows whenever code is pushed or pull requests are created.","source":"https://circleci.com","question":"What is CircleCI?","confidence":0.95},{"answer":"CircleCI supports all major programming languages and frameworks, including Python, JavaScript/Node.js, Java, Go, Ruby, PHP, and Rust. Language support is achieved through Docker containers, allowing teams to define any custom environment needed for their builds and tests.","source":"https://circleci.com/docs","question":"What programming languages and platforms does CircleCI support?","confidence":0.92},{"answer":"CircleCI offers a free tier for open-source projects and individual developers with limited monthly compute credits. Paid subscription plans scale based on resource usage and organization members, with per-pipeline-run pricing models rather than per-project fees.","source":"https://circleci.com/pricing","question":"How is CircleCI priced?","confidence":0.88},{"answer":"Orbs are reusable, shareable packages of CircleCI configuration that bundle commands, jobs, and workflows to reduce duplication across projects. They accelerate setup for common integrations like deploying to cloud providers, running popular testing frameworks, or performing security scanning.","source":"https://circleci.com/docs","question":"What are CircleCI orbs and what can they do?","confidence":0.91},{"answer":"CircleCI provides self-hosted runners that execute jobs on a team's own infrastructure while maintaining centralized CI/CD orchestration through the cloud platform. This option addresses requirements around data residency, network isolation, or specialized compute environments.","source":"https://circleci.com/docs","question":"Does CircleCI offer self-hosted deployment options?","confidence":0.9},{"answer":"CircleCI natively integrates with GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket, using OAuth-based authentication to connect accounts and manage repository permissions. Workflows are automatically triggered by push events and pull request activities on these platforms.","source":"https://circleci.com/docs","question":"Which version control systems does CircleCI integrate with?","confidence":0.93},{"answer":"Yes, CircleCI supports both test parallelization and job-level parallelization, allowing test suites to run across multiple containers simultaneously. The platform also provides caching for dependencies and build artifacts to reduce redundant work across pipeline runs.","source":"https://circleci.com/docs","question":"Can CircleCI parallelize tests and jobs to speed up builds?","confidence":0.92},{"answer":"Competing CI/CD platforms include GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, Jenkins, Travis CI, AWS CodePipeline, and JetBrains TeamCity. Selection typically depends on existing toolchain integration, deployment targets, compliance requirements, and organizational preferences.","source":"https://circleci.com","question":"What are the main alternatives to CircleCI?","confidence":0.89}]` | `[{"answer":"A DevOps platform integrating continuous integration, continuous delivery, security testing orchestration, and infrastructure-as-code management. It supports multi-cloud, on-premises, serverless, and hybrid deployments with policy-as-code governance and automated deployment strategies including canary releases and blue-green deployments. It is indexed under CI/CD Tools.","source":"https://www.harness.io/pricing","question":"What is Harness?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Harness does not publish its prices. Pricing is quoted on request, across 3 plans (Free, Essentials and Enterprise), so the figure depends on your seat count and requirements. We record this as a pricing-transparency signal rather than guessing a number. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.harness.io/pricing","question":"How much does Harness cost?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Harness supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.harness.io/pricing","question":"What platforms does Harness support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Harness can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid, on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.harness.io/pricing","question":"Can Harness be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 32 integrations for Harness, including Google Analytics, mParticle, Segment, Sentry, Datadog, Jira, New Relic and Sumo Logic, plus 24 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.harness.io/pricing","question":"What does Harness integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 for Harness. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Harness not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.harness.io/products/security-testing-orchestration/features","question":"What security certifications does Harness have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Harness is available worldwide. The vendor is headquartered in the United States.","source":"https://www.harness.io/pricing","question":"Where is Harness available?","confidence":0.75}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A continuous integration and deployment service that automates software testing, building, and deployment across multiple compute environments, with intelligent workflow orchestration and parallel execution capabilities. | An open-source development infrastructure combining version control, automated pipelines, hosted development environments, and artifact management in a single system. |
| features.capabilities | `{"caching":true,"hosting":"both","marketplace":true,"matrix_builds":true,"yaml_pipelines":true,"container_native":true,"secrets_management":true,"deploy_environments":true,"self_hosted_runners":true}` | `{"caching":false,"hosting":"cloud","marketplace":true,"matrix_builds":false,"yaml_pipelines":true,"container_native":true,"secrets_management":true,"deploy_environments":true,"self_hosted_runners":true}` |
| hosting.model | cloud | - |
| integrations.count | 15 | 27 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"AWS"},{"name":"AWS ECS"},{"name":"AWS ECR"},{"name":"AWS EKS"},{"name":"AWS S3"},{"name":"AWS Lambda"},{"name":"GitHub"},{"name":"Docker"},{"name":"Heroku"},{"name":"Netlify"},{"name":"OpenID Connect"},{"name":"Vault"},{"name":"GCP"},{"name":"Stripe"},{"name":"MCP"},{"name":"Firebase Distribution","category":"deployment"},{"name":"Fastlane","category":"build"},{"name":"Rollbar","category":"monitoring"}]` | `[{"name":"Google Analytics"},{"name":"mParticle"},{"name":"Segment"},{"name":"Sentry"},{"name":"Datadog"},{"name":"Jira"},{"name":"New Relic"},{"name":"Sumo Logic"},{"name":"GitHub","native":true,"category":"source_control","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"GitLab","native":true,"category":"source_control","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Bitbucket","native":true,"category":"source_control","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Jenkins","native":true,"category":"ci","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Kubernetes","native":true,"category":"orchestration","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"AWS","native":true,"category":"cloud","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Azure","native":true,"category":"cloud","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Google Cloud","native":true,"category":"cloud","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Dynatrace","native":true,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"ServiceNow","native":true,"category":"ticketing","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Slack","native":true,"category":"chat","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Microsoft Teams","native":true,"category":"chat","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Terraform","native":true,"category":"iac","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"OpenTofu","native":true,"category":"iac","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Terragrunt","native":true,"category":"iac","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Snyk","native":true,"category":"security","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Semgrep","native":true,"category":"sast","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Checkmarx","native":true,"category":"sast","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Bandit","native":true,"category":"sast","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Sonarqube","native":true,"category":"sast","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Wiz","native":true,"category":"security","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"JFrog Artifactory","native":true,"category":"artifact_repository","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"HashiCorp Vault","native":true,"category":"secrets_management","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Argo CD","native":false,"category":"gitops","direction":"outbound"}]` |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Free","summary":"Free","features":["30,000 free credits/month","Docker, Windows, Linux, Arm, macOS environments","Self-hosted runners","Docker layer caching","Deploys","Single sign-on (SSO)","Config policies","Community support"],"minSeats":5,"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"credits":"30,000/month"}},{"free":false,"name":"Performance","summary":"$15/month + $0.60 per 1,000 additional credits","features":["30,000 free credits/month included","All compute environments including GPU","Docker layer caching","Deploys","Single sign-on (SSO)","Config policies","Ticket-based global support","8x5 support SLA (add-on)","24/7 support SLA (add-on)"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":15,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":25000,"unit":"credits"},"kind":"metered","amount":15,"currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"credits":"30,000/month"}}],"addOns":[{"name":"8x5 Support SLA"},{"name":"24/7 Support SLA"}],"summary":"Free plan with 30k monthly credits. Performance plan starts at $15/month with usage-based pricing for additional credits.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://circleci.com/pricing/","retrievedAt":"2026-09-22T14:44:28.383Z","startingPrice":{"amount":15,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Free","summary":"Free tier","features":["Harness Open Source","Litmus Chaos","Community support"],"description":"For individual developers and small teams","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Essentials","summary":"All-in-one bundle — contact sales","features":["CI","CD","Infrastructure as Code","Security Testing Orchestration","Standard support"],"description":"All-in-one bundle including CI, CD, IaC, and security for growing organizations","contactSales":true,"includedLimits":{"organizations":"up to 500","code_repository_storage":"250GB","pipeline_execution_history":"6 months"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Fully modular — contact sales","features":["Feature Management & Experimentation","Database DevOps","Artifact Registry","Resilience Testing","Application Security Testing","Web Application & API Protection","AI Security","Cloud AI Cost Management","Self-hosted runners","Deployment freeze windows","Premier support with dedicated account manager"],"description":"Modular platform with mix-and-match modules and enterprise-grade features","contactSales":true,"includedLimits":{"organizations":"Unlimited","pipeline_execution_history":"25 months"}}],"summary":"Free tier available. Essentials and Enterprise plans require contacting sales.","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.harness.io/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-09-03T22:58:43.573Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | mid | free |
| pricing.starting_price | `{"amount":15,"currency":"USD"}` | - |
| pricing.transparent | yes | no |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.certifications | - | `[{"name":"SOC 2","status":"active"}]` |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.fedramp | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.iso27001 | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |
| security.soc2 | yes | yes |
| security.trust_center | - | https://www.harness.io/blog/an-in-depth-look-at-achieving-slsa-level-3-compliance-with-harness |

## Capabilities (CI/CD Tools)

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

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:38:45.316Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*