# Drone vs Semaphore CI

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Semaphore CI

| Attribute | Drone | Semaphore CI |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 52.8 (19% (low)) | 68.3 (62% (medium)) |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Self-service continuous integration platform for automating software build and testing with Docker-containerized pipelines. | Semaphore is a metered-pricing CI/CD platform offering cloud, hybrid, and self-hosted deployment options. Separates compute costs from support services, with transparent per-minute pricing starting at $0.0025/min for self-hosted. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"both","marketplace":true,"yaml_pipelines":true,"container_native":true,"secrets_management":true,"deploy_environments":true,"self_hosted_runners":true}` | `{"hosting":"both","matrix_builds":true,"yaml_pipelines":true,"container_native":true,"secrets_management":true,"deploy_environments":true,"self_hosted_runners":true}` |
| integrations.count | 6 | 2 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"GitHub"},{"name":"GitHub Enterprise"},{"name":"Bitbucket"},{"name":"GitLab"},{"name":"Docker"},{"name":"MySQL"}]` | `[{"name":"GitHub"},{"name":"Flowdock"}]` |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"free","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.drone.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T18:17:03.047Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Community Edition","description":"Free and open source under Apache 2.0 license for self-hosted deployment"},{"name":"Semaphore Cloud","description":"Hosted version with free and paid plans"},{"name":"Enterprise Edition","description":"Enhanced version with extra features for larger organizations, commercial license","contactSales":true}],"summary":"Free Community Edition (self-hosted, open source). Paid Semaphore Cloud and Enterprise Edition available.","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://semaphore.io/blog/2013/03/07/semaphore-pricing-update-with-higher-plans.html","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T20:44:47.174Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | free | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | - | yes |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.iso27001 | - | yes |
| security.pci | - | yes |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |

## Capabilities (CI/CD Tools)

| Capability | Drone | Semaphore CI |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Cloud + self-hosted | Cloud + self-hosted |
| 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: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T16:40:05.390Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*