CloudBees vs GNU Make comparison

CloudBees and GNU are both solutions in the Build Automation category. CloudBees is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.3, while GNU is ranked #16 with an average rating of 9.0. CloudBees holds a 1.9% mindshare in BA, compared to GNU’s 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of CloudBees users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of GNU users who would recommend it.

CloudBees

Read 20 CloudBees reviews

1,386 Views
721 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

GNU Make

Read 6 GNU Make reviews

412 Views
396 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

CloudBees

GNU Make

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 14, 2025

GNU Make and CloudBees compete in the build automation category. CloudBees seems to have the upper hand for enterprise features and scalability, whereas GNU Make is favored for affordability and simplicity.

Features: GNU Make is renowned for its simplicity, handling structured builds, and being platform-independent. It efficiently manages dependencies to avoid unnecessary rebuilds. CloudBees provides sophisticated CI/CD features, advanced integrations, and enhanced scalability. Its flexibility for managing multiple Jenkins instances is also notable.

Room for Improvement: GNU Make could benefit from a more modern user interface, better integration with cloud services, and enhanced support for large-scale projects. CloudBees would improve by simplifying its initial setup, reducing plugin dependency issues, and expanding its low-code/no-code capabilities for broader audience appeal.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: GNU Make is straightforward to deploy, especially in environments already utilizing Makefiles, requiring minimal support. CloudBees offers comprehensive deployment support, robust SaaS solutions, and excellent customer service, making complex setups easier for enterprises to manage.

Pricing and ROI: GNU Make is cost-effective with nearly negligible setup expenses, making it ideal for budget-conscious projects with high ROI potential for small developers. CloudBees involves significant initial costs, justified by its enterprise-grade features, leading to substantial ROI for organizations leveraging its comprehensive modernization and scalability capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed CloudBees vs. GNU Make Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

CloudBees vs. GNU Make

December 2025

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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

CloudBees

Ranking in Build Automation

6th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Configuration Management (11th), Value Stream Management Software (2nd), DevSecOps (5th), AI-Augmented Software-Testing Tools (2nd), Feature Management (1st), AI Software Development (4th)

GNU Make

Ranking in Build Automation

16th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of CloudBees is 1.9%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GNU Make is 1.5%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Build Automation Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
CloudBees	1.9%
GNU Make	1.5%
Other	96.6%

Build Automation

Featured Reviews

YashBrahmani

Senior Associate at BNP Paribas CIB

Offers a clear visualization and overview of workflows and helpful in managing CI/CD processes

Improvement in the sense that they can do better in terms of management of logs and stuff like that because the console logs are very extensive, and that causes a lot of storage issues. That is one of the things which is there. Also, with respect to the traditional platform and the modern platform, many things have upgraded, and it has quite improved. But when we talk about the performance of the agents, it’s still very crucial because it’s not up to par. It takes a lot of time to provision the agent and to finish the build because of the SSH connection and the JNLP connection. Due to that, sometimes the agent doesn’t get provisioned. Those are some of the blockers that meet up the time in terms of administering the instance.

Read full review

Josh Call

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…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I find the automation feature most valuable. CloudBees is highly scalable and supports both small and large teams. The deployment process is also faster when compared to on-premise."

"It’s a very good tool for auditing your project pipelines as well."

"The customer support is good. You get good representatives from CloudBees to help you and understand your requirements."

"Scalability largely depends on how the tool is set up within your infrastructure"

"CloudBees operates seamlessly. Deploying to a cluster is straightforward—just one click, and the job is done."

"The most valuable features are Java features, microservice communication, payment validation, Jenkins Sonar, management master to CloudBees, Blue Ocean, JobConfig, and support."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that its GUI is quite simple."

"CloudBees is the Jenkins tool for building and deploying. There's open-source Jenkins, which is free and can be used by any organization, but it offers a different architecture for Jenkins. If your organization is larger, you might choose the architecture. This way, you can have different masters for different applications, and different teams can manage their masters separately. However, a single person can still control all the masters, whoever manages it for the organization."

More CloudBees pros

"The initial setup of GNU Make is straightforward."

"I have not encountered any scalability issues with GNU Make. It is as scalable as the project's structure is, and then some."

"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."

"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."

"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."

Cons

"The platform could integrate better with other tools and support external tools directly."

"There could be improvements in the ease of use."

"I noticed that CloudBees runs too slowly because some applications run more than 50 pipelines."

"The user interface of CloudBees is good but could be even more intuitive. Improving the user-friendliness of the interface and having simpler setup configurations would greatly benefit new users."

"There are connection issues with CloudBees, specifically between Sybase and CloudBees. W"

"Sometimes, there are performance issues, however, they may be due to our organization's configuration."

"One challenge I'd like to highlight is that with CloudBees CI growing bigger and bigger, there are limitations in terms of managing old plugins and services and upgrading them with time."

"We've noticed occasional issues with folder permissions changing unexpectedly. Specifically, permissions sometimes shift from the CloudBees user to the root user. This can cause pipeline failures, as pipelines require the correct CloudBees user permissions to execute properly."

More CloudBees cons

"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."

"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."

"GNU Make does not provide traditional customer support."

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"There is no price for this product. No licensing. It’s open-source."

"GNU Make is free and open source software."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Legal Firm

Computer Software Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	17

No data available

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with CloudBees?

There are connection issues with CloudBees, specifically between Sybase and CloudBees. We often encounter connection problems, and there are issues with the pipelines.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for CloudBees?

We use CloudBees for deploying the code in higher environments, such as QA, C2, staging, and production.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering CloudBees?

I would recommend CloudBees to others because building jobs is much easier than with other solutions.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for GNU Make?

See all answers

Comparisons

Harness vs CloudBees

Compared 11% of the time

GitLab vs CloudBees

Compared 11% of the time

Digital.ai Release vs CloudBees

Compared 10% of the time

CircleCI vs CloudBees

Compared 9% of the time

AWS Config vs CloudBees

Compared 6% of the time

More CloudBees Competitors

Jenkins vs GNU Make

Compared 41% of the time

Bazel vs GNU Make

Compared 23% of the time

TeamCity vs GNU Make

Compared 17% of the time

More GNU Make Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

CloudBees

January 2026

Download CloudBees product report

Buyer's Guide

Build Automation

January 2026

Download GNU Make product report

Overview

CloudBees provides a highly scalable and secure platform that supports seamless integration and automation across multiple environments. It excels in managing Jenkins instances and offers flexible deployment options, enhancing efficiency for large teams.

CloudBees is recognized for its integration with Jenkins, SonarQube, and Ansible, allowing companies to leverage its robust automation capabilities for continuous integration and deployment. With its strong support for Docker and Kubernetes, teams benefit from streamlined code management and operational efficiency. Its scalable architecture, real-time feedback, and premium vendor support help manage large-scale applications and microservices. Despite its strengths, users report challenges with pipeline setup, service availability, and GUI accessibility, which suggest room for improvement in these areas.

What are the key features of CloudBees?

User-friendly interface: Simplifies navigation and improves workflow efficiency.
Robust scalability: Supports growth and large-scale application management.
Advanced security: Ensures data security and compliance.
Integration capabilities: Seamlessly integrates with Jenkins, SonarQube, and Ansible.
Flexible deployment: Adapts to different infrastructure needs across environments.

What benefits should users expect in reviews?

Enhanced efficiency: Automation reduces manual workload.
Real-time feedback: Provides immediate insights into pipeline performance.
Vendor support: Offers assistance for troubleshooting and growth.
Scalable architecture: Accommodates business expansion requirements.

In tech and software industries, companies implement CloudBees for managing complex CI/CD pipelines. Its integration with DevOps tools facilitates automation and workflow optimization. Industries with large teams managing thousands of microservices use CloudBees to maintain high availability, streamline processes, and ensure security compliance, driving efficient production workflows.

CloudBees

Make is a tool which controls the generation of executables and other non-source files of a program from the program's source files.

GNU

Sample Customers

Capital One, PEGA, vistaprint, HSBC, BOSCH, Starbucks Coffee

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

CloudBees vs. GNU Make

December 2025

Free Report: CloudBees vs. GNU Make

Find out what your peers are saying about CloudBees vs. GNU Make and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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