AWS CodeBuild vs Bazel
AWS CodeBuild
aws.amazon.com
Bazel
bazel.buildSide by side
| Figure | AWS CodeBuild | Bazel |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $0.01/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 7 | 1 |
| Spec score · Build Automation Software | 9.5 (#1) | 8.8 (#3) |
| Spec score · Game Build Automation Software | 9.5 (#2) | 8.7 (#7) |
| Purpose | CodeBuild is a fully managed continuous integration service that runs build scripts to compile, test, and package code. | Bazel is an open-source tool that automates software builds and tests. |
| What it does | AWS CodeBuild is a fully managed cloud build service that compiles source code, runs unit tests and creates deployable artifacts. | Bazel is an open-source tool for building and testing software across languages and platforms. |
Plans
AWS CodeBuild
- AWS CodeBuild pay-as-you-goFree
- AWS Free Tier (on-demand EC2)Free
- Lambda ARM 1GBFree
- general1.medium$0.01 a month
- general1.small$0.01 a month
- general1.large$0.02 a month
- Reserved x86-64 g1.small$129.60 a month
In their own words
AWS CodeBuild
AWS CodeBuild is a paid, cloud-hosted continuous integration service for compiling, testing, and packaging code from build scripts. It provisions and scales build capacity automatically, so projects do not require users to manage build servers. Preconfigured environments cover Java, Python, Node.js, Ruby, Go, Android, .NET Core for Linux, and Docker; teams can also supply Docker-based environments. A YAML build specification defines commands for each build phase and other settings. Builds can start from CodeCommit, GitHub, GitHub Enterprise, Bitbucket, Amazon S3, or CodePipeline, and can work with Jenkins. Artifacts can be stored in S3 or sent to an artifact repository. IAM provides access controls, while KMS keys encrypt artifacts. Build timing, status, commit ID, metrics, and logs are available through the service and CloudWatch, with SNS event notifications. A free plan provides stated monthly allowances; paid usage starts at 0.01 USD and can add charges for data transfer and related AWS services.
Bazel
Bazel is a free, open-source tool for automating software builds and tests across languages and platforms. Projects define targets in BUILD files using Starlark, which can also be used to create custom rules and macros. Bazel caches prior work and rebuilds what needs to change, while running tasks in parallel. It supports languages including C++, Java, Kotlin, Python, Go, and Rust, with outputs for desktop, server, Android, and iOS. Bazel runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and the documentation describes builds with 100,000 or more source files across multiple repositories. Sandboxing can make builds and tests more hermetic, and failures return a non-zero exit code for basic CI integration. Teams can share outputs through a remote cache, but must select and maintain its backend and secure access because it can contain binaries. IDE options include plugins for IntelliJ, Android Studio, CLion, and Visual Studio Code, plus Xcode integration. Bazel is not well suited to uncached deployment steps that change cloud configuration.