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CircleCI vs GNU Make comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

CircleCI
Ranking in Build Automation
6th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
AI Software Development (18th)
GNU Make
Ranking in Build Automation
19th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of CircleCI is 4.0%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GNU Make is 1.7%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Build Automation Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
CircleCI4.0%
GNU Make1.7%
Other94.3%
Build Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Arka Sarkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Solution Support Development Engineer at Ericsson Global
Automated pipelines have accelerated microservice delivery and improve release consistency
Debugging is an important point for improvement because when pipelines fail, debugging can sometimes be difficult, especially for the complex workflows which we have already faced in our organization in different projects. Logs are available, but root cause analysis can take time, so that can be improved. Also, configuration management challenges exist. Although YAML configuration is flexible, it can become complex and hard to maintain as pipelines grow in size and include multiple workflow conditions. The limited visibility for large pipelines is also a concern. For very large enterprise pipelines, the UI can feel less intuitive in terms of tracking dependencies and understanding the full workflow at a glance. Cost optimization is one important point for improvement. In cloud-based usage, costs can increase due to long-running jobs and inefficient pipelines. Proper optimization through caching and parallelism is required, otherwise it can become expensive, which we faced in one of our telecom projects last year. One thing CircleCI can improve is related to cloud runners, where any network or platform issues can impact pipeline execution. This can be a concern for critical telecom deployments.
JC
Software Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Enhances productivity with efficient dependency handling and a straightforward setup
GNU Make is used as a build system tool. Most people don't use GNU Make directly but utilize other systems like CMake to generate Make files, which are then run by GNU Make. This is common for tasks like compiling C++ code. In the industry, AI developers, for example, use GNU Make in their work…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The solution offers continuous integration and continuous delivery."
"CircleCI has impacted my organization positively by removing most of our manual effort and human effort, increasing speed, and removing human error, which has improved our workflow, speed, and efficiency."
"CircleCI has positively impacted my organization by bringing in faster deployments, which means we can release faster, receive quicker feedback, and enhance collaboration and communication across the entire team."
"CircleCI has positively impacted the organization, as it has been used for many years and serves as the main source for application deployment."
"The ability to automate the build process in a seamless way and run workflows effortlessly. It supports parallel builds so it can scale well. Also, it covers the basics of any build and integration tool, including email notifications (especially when tests are fixed), project insights, etc."
"The benefit I see from using CircleCI is that we work in a smooth environment, so everything functions well."
"We have seen a clear return on investment from using CircleCI at Ericsson, both in terms of efficiency and quality."
"CircleCI has positively impacted our organization by allowing us to improve our workflow and making parts of DevOps easier."
"GNU Make is such an essential tool that it is almost impossible to imagine working without it. Not having it, developers would probably have to resort to doing everything manually or via shell scripts."
"GNU make is a build automation utility for running builds on various Linux flavored platforms."
"I have not encountered any scalability issues with GNU Make. It is as scalable as the project's structure is, and then some."
"Full-featured syntax allows building strategies as simple or as complex as one wishes, and declarative approach fits the task really well. Wide adoption also means that everybody knows what GNU Make is and how to use it."
"Setup is extremely straightforward."
"Makefiles are extremely easy to work with using any preferred editor. GNU Make can be run directly from the terminal, not requiring any time wasted on clicking."
"I think this product has all you need."
"The initial setup of GNU Make is straightforward."
 

Cons

"Sometimes the documentation is too in-depth."
"I find that the plans for CircleCI become very expensive for large teams and pipelines, making it somewhat unaffordable for startup companies."
"CircleCI can be improved by making it less costly, as it is very expensive."
"Regarding flexibility, Azure pipelines has the ability to pass variables with greater flexibility than CircleCI offers."
"For half year we have used circleCI, then we go back to jenkins."
"Integration with Microsoft Azure is one area for improvement. Azure is growing in its user base, and supports various cloud infrastructure components such as Service Fabric, App Service, etc. Some of Azure’s deployment models (like Kudu) require a steep learning curve, but if CircleCI would come up with such features (deployment to App Service) out of the box, it would be amazing."
"In my experience, CircleCI is stable, but it can be improved."
"Billing is a mess."
"GNU Make requires using the Tab symbol as the first symbol of command line for execution. In some text editors this can be problematic, as they automatically insert spaces instead of tabs."
"Poor reliability for larger or incremental builds."
"GNU make is a bad candidate for builds that require incremental builds often, as it does not support this feature."
"Make’s reliability is very poor and is not suitable for larger or incremental builds."
"GNU Make does not provide traditional customer support."
"Vanilla GNU Make does not support any kind of colored output. A wrapper named colormake exists to work around this, but native (opt-in) support would be welcome."
"Vanilla GNU Make does not support any kind of colored output."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of CircleCI could be less expensive."
"GNU Make is free and open source software."
"There is no price for this product. No licensing. It’s open-source."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Construction Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise13
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with CircleCI?
Debugging is an important point for improvement because when pipelines fail, debugging can sometimes be difficult, especially for the complex workflows which we have already faced in our organizati...
What advice do you have for others considering CircleCI?
I would advise organizations or individual developers who are trying to use CircleCI to begin with basic pipelines and gradually move to advanced workflows such as deployment automation, parallel j...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GNU Make?
GNU Make is a free solution that comes with Linux, which positively impacts operational costs by eliminating licensing fees.
What needs improvement with GNU Make?
I am not familiar enough with it to suggest any specific new features or areas for improvement. It occupies its niche well.
What is your primary use case for GNU Make?
GNU Make is used as a build system tool. Most people don't use GNU Make directly but utilize other systems like CMake to generate Make files, which are then run by GNU Make. This is common for task...
 

Comparisons

 

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Sample Customers

Shopify, Zenefits, Concur Technologies, CyberAgent
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Find out what your peers are saying about CircleCI vs. GNU Make and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.