Hydra vs QuickBuild

Hydra is a continuous integration service for projects based on Nix. It checks out project source periodically or continuously, builds it, runs tests, and produces reports. Work is organized into jobsets whose inputs can trigger builds when they change; jobsets can also depend on one another. Flake jobsets are supported when their outputs expose a hydraJobs attribute set. Jobs can produce packages, ISO images, or tarballs, and jobset inputs can use Git checkout sources. Hydra also provides a JSON API. It is aimed at Nix and NixOS package developers, not people who only need to use NixOS. Hydra is open source under GPL-3.0 and listed at free. It is self-hosted, with no hosted option listed, and running it is currently supported only on NixOS; the repository recommends the NixOS module for production. Flake evaluation is restricted from accessing files outside the Nix store. Some state is stored in the database, so backups are needed, and the wiki reports that hydra-queue-runner can sometimes leave queued builds unscheduled.

QuickBuild is a continuous integration and deployment server for DevOps teams. Builds can start after commits, on schedules, or when dependencies finish, with progress and logs reported in real time. Visual drag-and-drop workflow design supports reuse across projects through inheritance and variables. Pipelines can promote builds, track deployments, and roll back to a previous deployment. Its build grid scales across nodes and can launch on-demand nodes in AWS, Azure, and Kubernetes environments. QuickBuild lists source-control support for Git, Subversion, Perforce, Mercurial, and Team Foundation Server, plus issue trackers including JIRA, Trac, Bugzilla, TeamForge, and Redmine. Test reporting covers JUnit and NUnit, with inspection and coverage reporting for tools including Checkstyle, FindBugs, PMD, and Cobertura. Access controls include role- and project-based permissions, LDAP and Active Directory integration, single sign-on, SSL, IP binding, and activity auditing. It is available for web, Windows, Linux, macOS, and self-hosted deployment, with an API. The Community License is free for up to 16 configurations; the qualifying Open Source License is free with unlimited configurations. The Enterprise Site License costs $3,600 as a one-time purchase per physical site, including one year of commercial service.