Google Cloud Deploy vs PipeCD

Google Cloud Deploy automates application delivery through an ordered set of target environments. It deploys to Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Run, GKE attached clusters, and custom targets, with releases promoted or rolled back through the web console, CLI, or API. Deployment options include canary and parallel rollouts, verification, deploy hooks, and automated promotion. IAM roles and conditions determine which authenticated users and service accounts can act. Cloud Audit Logs and Cloud Logging support audit trails and platform logs. Teams can invoke the service from CI through its CLI or API, including documented GitHub Actions and GitLab connections. Skaffold and Cloud Build render and deploy manifests, alongside artifact repositories and testing or workflow tools. The first active multiple-target pipeline each month costs nothing; each additional active multiple-target pipeline costs $5 a month per billing account. Underlying services may add charges. The regional system limit is 18,000 API requests per minute.

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.