GoCD vs PipeCD
GoCD
gocd.org
PipeCD
pipecd.devSide by side
| Figure | GoCD | PipeCD |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Continuous Delivery Software | 8.6 (#4) | 8.3 (#13) |
| Integrations | GoCD has a plugin architecture and its plugin catalog includes integrations for Docker, AWS S3, Kubernetes, LDAP/AD, GitHub, Slack, and other tools. | Analysis providers include Prometheus, Datadog and Stackdriver, while notifications can be sent to Slack or webhook endpoints. |
| License | GoCD is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. | PipeCD is released as open source under Apache License 2.0. |
| Security | The 26.1.0 release notes describe fixes for API authorization bypasses and cross-site scripting, and recommend upgrading to that version. | PipeCD supports single sign-on and role-based access control, keeps credentials out of the control plane and makes only outbound requests from piped. |
| Support | A GoCD project status post says commercial support ended in December 2020 and that there has been no commercial or enterprise support offering since January 2021. | The project directs users to documentation, GitHub issues and discussions, and the CNCF Slack #pipecd channel for help. |
Plans
In their own words
GoCD
GoCD is an open-source server for continuous delivery and release automation. Its Value Stream Map follows changes from commit to deployment, showing upstream causes and downstream effects while allowing users to navigate jobs. Workflow models can coordinate dependencies and parallel execution, and traceability tools compare files and commit messages across builds. GoCD can pass a once-built binary through pipeline stages, run cross-platform tests in parallel, and report the changeset and platform where a test failure began. It supports delivery workflows for Kubernetes, Docker, AWS, and other cloud environments; Kubernetes use can include dynamically scaled agents. Plugins connect external tools, with catalog options for Docker Registry, S3 artifacts, Kubernetes agents, and secrets managers. The project is self-hosted, free under the Apache License, Version 2.0, and offers packages for Windows, macOS, Debian, RPM, and ZIP, plus Docker and Kubernetes/Helm options. New installations do not require authentication. GoCD 26.1.0 requires Java 21 as its minimum supported version.
PipeCD
PipeCD is a self-hosted continuous delivery platform that coordinates deployments through Git pull requests. Its shared deployment interface supports Kubernetes, Terraform, GCP Cloud Run, AWS Lambda, AWS ECS and other targets, while plugins let teams add custom applications or platforms. PipeCD says deployment setup needs a pipeline definition and application manifests, without changes to CRDs or application manifests. Built-in analysis assesses deployment impact with metrics, logs and emitted requests; the platform can roll back after analysis or pipeline-stage failures, detect configuration drift and launch deployments from defined events. Its UI presents deployment pipelines, per-deployment logs, live application state and delivery-performance insights. A centralized Control Plane works with piped agents that run deployments using plugin binaries. Security features include single sign-on and role-based access control, and credentials stay outside the Control Plane. PipeCD is open source under Apache 2.0 and costs nothing. For private Git repositories, piped needs a private SSH key and its corresponding public key added to the repository.