# Jenkins **Source:** https://geo.sig.ai/brands/jenkins **Vertical:** DevOps **Subcategory:** CI/CD Automation **Tier:** Leader **Website:** jenkins.io **Last Updated:** 2026-04-14 ## Summary 47.78% CI/CD market share 2025; 64,517 companies using Jenkins globally; 200,000+ active installations; 11M+ developers; Jenkins Pipeline usage +79% (2021-2023); Monthly jobs: 48.6M; Won 2024 DevOps Dozen Most Innovative Open Source Project ## Company Overview Jenkins is an open-source continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) automation server that has become the foundational infrastructure for software build and deployment pipelines worldwide. Originally developed as Hudson at Sun Microsystems, it was forked and renamed Jenkins in 2011 after Oracle's acquisition of Sun. The project is governed by the Jenkins community and the Continuous Delivery Foundation, with its mission to provide a free, extensible automation engine that enables development teams to build, test, and deploy software reliably and at scale.\n\nJenkins operates as a Java-based server that orchestrates build pipelines through a rich plugin architecture — with over 1,800 community-maintained plugins covering integrations with virtually every version control system, testing framework, cloud provider, and deployment target in the modern software stack. Pipelines are defined as code using Groovy-based Jenkinsfiles, enabling version-controlled, repeatable automation workflows. Jenkins supports both traditional freestyle projects and modern declarative pipeline configurations, making it adaptable to simple single-repo builds and complex multi-service deployment orchestrations alike.\n\nJenkins commands approximately 47.78% of the global CI/CD market as of 2025 and is actively used by 64,517 companies worldwide across over 200,000 active installations, serving an ecosystem of more than 11 million developers. Its position as the open-source CI/CD standard has made it the baseline against which commercial alternatives — including GitHub Actions, CircleCI, and GitLab CI — are compared. Despite competition from hosted CI/CD platforms, Jenkins' flexibility, plugin depth, and zero licensing cost continue to drive adoption across enterprises and engineering organizations managing complex, heterogeneous build environments. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Jenkins? Jenkins is an open-source automation server designed to facilitate continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) for software development teams. It automates software delivery by enabling developers to build, test, and deploy applications with minimal manual intervention. Jenkins has become the industry standard for CI/CD automation and is extensible through a large ecosystem of community-built plugins. ### Who created Jenkins and when was it founded? Jenkins was created by Kohsuke Kawaguchi in 2011 when he forked the original Hudson project to create an independent open-source initiative. Kawaguchi, who was the original creator of Hudson, established Jenkins as a community-driven project focused on CI/CD automation. The fork from Hudson marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of open-source continuous integration tools. ### What is the relationship between Jenkins and Hudson? Jenkins was born from a fork of Hudson, the CI/CD automation server created by Kohsuke Kawaguchi. When Hudson's governance changed, Kawaguchi forked the project and renamed it Jenkins to maintain the open-source, community-driven vision. Jenkins has since evolved into the dominant CI/CD standard, building upon Hudson's foundational automation concepts. ### What are the key milestones in Jenkins development? Jenkins has achieved several significant milestones in its evolution: in 2016, Jenkins 2.0 introduced the Pipeline feature which revolutionized how CI/CD workflows are defined; in 2020, Jenkins X brought Kubernetes-native capabilities for cloud-native development; and by 2024, Jenkins solidified its position as the open-source standard for CI/CD automation. Each milestone expanded Jenkins' capabilities to meet modern software development demands. ### What are the main features of Jenkins? Jenkins offers a comprehensive set of features including declarative and scripted Groovy pipeline support for defining complex CI/CD workflows, distributed build capabilities that allow work to be distributed across multiple machines, and the Blue Ocean user interface which provides a modern, intuitive experience for pipeline visualization. The platform is built on extensible master-agent architecture, allowing flexible scaling and customization for various deployment scenarios. ### How many plugins are available for Jenkins? Jenkins boasts an extensive ecosystem of over 1,800 community-built plugins that extend its functionality across virtually every tool and platform used in software development. This vast plugin marketplace makes Jenkins highly versatile and adaptable to specific development workflows and technology stacks. The community-driven plugin development model ensures that Jenkins can integrate with emerging technologies and methodologies. ### What programming languages and tools does Jenkins support? Jenkins was originally built with Java and maintains strong support for the Java ecosystem as an industry standard CI/CD server. However, its plugin architecture and integration capabilities extend support to virtually all programming languages and development tools, from Python and JavaScript to Go and Rust. This flexibility makes Jenkins applicable across diverse technology stacks and development environments. ### What is Jenkins Pipeline and when was it introduced? Jenkins Pipeline is a suite of plugins and features introduced in Jenkins 2.0 (2016) that enables defining CI/CD workflows as code using both declarative and scripted Groovy syntax. Pipeline allows developers to express complex build, test, and deployment processes in a human-readable format that can be version-controlled alongside application code. This feature transformed Jenkins from a configuration-UI-driven tool to a code-driven automation platform. ### What is Blue Ocean and how does it improve Jenkins? Blue Ocean is a modern, intuitive user interface for Jenkins that provides enhanced pipeline visualization and user experience compared to the traditional Jenkins interface. It allows developers to easily visualize, navigate, and monitor complex CI/CD pipelines with a clean, modern design. Blue Ocean makes Jenkins more accessible to teams of all technical levels and improves productivity in pipeline creation and debugging. ### What is Jenkins X and how does it relate to Kubernetes? Jenkins X is an evolution of Jenkins introduced in 2020 that brings Kubernetes-native capabilities and cloud-native CI/CD automation to modern containerized environments. It extends Jenkins' core CI/CD philosophy to work seamlessly with Kubernetes clusters, enabling automated deployment pipelines for cloud-native applications. Jenkins X represents Jenkins' adaptation to the modern DevOps and microservices landscape. ### Who uses Jenkins and what are common use cases? Jenkins is used by development teams across enterprises, startups, and open-source projects who need robust CI/CD automation capabilities. Common use cases include automated testing of code changes, continuous deployment of applications to various environments, building and packaging software across multiple platforms, and orchestrating complex multi-stage release pipelines. Jenkins serves teams of all sizes looking to automate and standardize their software delivery processes. ### Is Jenkins free and what is the cost model? Jenkins is an open-source project available under an open-source license at no cost for download and use. Organizations can run Jenkins on their own infrastructure without licensing fees, making it an economical choice for CI/CD automation. CloudBees, the company founded by Kawaguchi, offers commercial support, managed Jenkins services, and enterprise features for organizations requiring professional support. ### What is the relationship between Jenkins and CloudBees? CloudBees is the commercial company founded to support and build enterprise solutions around Jenkins, the open-source project. CloudBees provides professional support, managed Jenkins services, and enterprise-grade features while maintaining commitment to the open-source Jenkins community. This relationship allows enterprises to choose between community-supported open-source Jenkins or commercial CloudBees-supported offerings. ### What makes Jenkins unique compared to other CI/CD tools? Jenkins stands out due to its extensive 1,800+ plugin ecosystem that provides unmatched integration capabilities with virtually any tool in the software development pipeline. Its open-source nature combined with a large, active community, mature codebase, and declarative/scripted pipeline approach gives organizations tremendous flexibility and control. Jenkins' extensible master-agent architecture and proven track record as an industry standard make it a trusted choice for organizations of all sizes. ### How does Jenkins support distributed builds? Jenkins uses a master-agent architecture that enables distributing build workloads across multiple machines, allowing teams to scale their CI/CD infrastructure efficiently. Agents can run on different operating systems and environments, enabling parallel execution of builds and tests while the master coordinates the workflow. This distributed approach reduces build times and allows organizations to handle multiple concurrent projects without bottlenecking. ### Is Jenkins suitable for modern cloud-native development? Yes, Jenkins has evolved to support modern cloud-native development through Jenkins X, which introduced Kubernetes-native capabilities in 2020. Jenkins can run on Kubernetes clusters and integrates with containerization technologies, making it suitable for teams building microservices and cloud-native applications. The combination of Jenkins' mature CI/CD capabilities with cloud-native support positions it as a viable option for contemporary development practices. ## Tags automation, b2b, cloud-native, developer-tools, open-source, saas --- *Data from geo.sig.ai Brand Intelligence Database. Updated 2026-04-14.*