Automated CI/CD pipelines have transformed deployment speed and collaboration for my teams
What is our primary use case?
I have been using CircleCI for over three years as part of my DevOps toolchain.
I use CircleCI to automate CI/CD pipelines, including build, test, and deployment workflows across multiple applications. In one pipeline, I deploy an application to my Kubernetes cluster on AWS in the cloud, and I use CircleCI to automate that deployment in the form of a pipeline.
CircleCI is helping me automate my deployment workflows effectively, and it is a fit use case for the same. I have been using it for many application deployments, and it is working for end-to-end deployment.
What is most valuable?
CircleCI offers fast parallel builds, easy integration with GitHub, and the ability to deploy applications on Kubernetes pods, which are amazing features.
Fast parallel builds and GitHub integration have definitely helped my team reach faster time to market for our applications. Previously, our deployment used to take a couple of hours when doing it manually, but with CircleCI pipeline, our hours-long job has been converted to a couple of minutes.
Its simplicity, fast pipeline execution, and strong GitHub and GitLab integrations are definitely unique advantages I discovered while using CircleCI.
Time saved is one of the key aspects I have seen since using CircleCI. I have noticed fewer deployment errors, and it has helped me with easy debugging. Time saved is directly proportional to the cost and effort saved.
CircleCI has positively impacted my organization by integrating directly with my Git repositories as a fully managed SaaS platform.
CircleCI has a great impact on my team's collaboration and communication, with around 25 to 40 developers and DevOps engineers using it daily across multiple repositories and environments, helping us use it at scale.
CircleCI has significantly increased our release frequency and deployment speed compared to before I started using it.
CircleCI improves security for my organization by enforcing automated checks in the pipeline and securely managing secrets through environment variables while providing auditable deployments.
CircleCI integrates seamlessly with my DevOps toolchain by connecting directly to GitHub, container registries, and my cloud platform AWS, allowing the entire CI/CD flow from code commit to deployment and monitoring with minimal manual effort.
What needs improvement?
I believe debugging complex pipelines and managing credits can sometimes be challenging, especially for large workflows, so these areas can be improved.
The user interface can definitely be improved to debug complex pipelines. I would benefit from better AI-generated insights where I can debug the pipelines easily without going through detailed logging.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working in my current field for more than 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
CircleCI has been very stable in my experience with consistent pipeline executions and minimal platform-related issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
CircleCI scales well as my team and repositories grow, allowing me to run multiple concurrent pipelines without performance degradation.
I have not encountered any limitations with CircleCI's scalability as my projects have grown. However, managing pipeline complexity and optimizing credits usage required additional planning, which was manageable.
How are customer service and support?
CircleCI team has been responsive and knowledgeable whenever I sought assistance.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I used Jenkins but moved to CircleCI to reduce maintenance overhead and simplify pipeline management, as CircleCI provided faster setup, better scalability, and a more streamlined developer experience.
How was the initial setup?
CircleCI documentation is generally clear and well-structured, making it easy to get started and implement standard CI/CD workflows.
What was our ROI?
CircleCI has significantly reduced build and deployment times, saving substantial engineering hours and effort for me, which has directly improved my productivity and release velocity, reflecting incredible ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with CircleCI's pricing model is quite straightforward with no upfront setup cost, and the licensing is flexible based on my usage. Costs can increase as pipeline usage scales, but they remain predictable and manageable with proper monitoring.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing CircleCI, I evaluated Jenkins, GitHub Actions, and GitLab CI/CD. CircleCI stood out due to its ease of use, faster execution, and lower operational overhead.
What other advice do I have?
CircleCI has been a reliable and efficient platform for me that has helped streamline my delivery process and CI/CD process. With continued enhancements around cost visibility and advanced pipeline management, it can deliver even greater value.
My advice for others looking into using CircleCI is to invest time in pipeline design and cost monitoring early to get the best long-term value from the platform. CircleCI would be a strong choice for those who want fast, reliable CI/CD with minimal operational overhead.
I would rate this review an 8 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Intuitive, Easy, and Effective for CI/CD
What do you like best about the product?
I like that CircleCI is easy to use, easy to understand, and I can get to what I need clearly. It is intuitive, with icons and colors that offer a good user experience to achieve what the user wants to do. The initial setup was quite simple, and I have been able to do it alone several times.
What do you dislike about the product?
Everything perfect, no problem
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I use CircleCI to automate CI/CD processes. It is easy to use, understand, and intuitive, offering a good experience with icons and colors that make it easy to access what I need.
Automated deployments have streamlined cloud releases but configuration orbs still need simplification
What is our primary use case?
CircleCI is used primarily as the pipeline for application deployment. When a pull request is created in GitHub, it triggers a CircleCI pipeline because of the GitHub integration. During the CircleCI pipeline, the application goes through building and deployment to the appropriate destination, which can be a Lambda or AKS microservices.
What is most valuable?
CircleCI's GitHub integration is the best feature offered. The GitHub integration is most valuable because of its ease of use, as it only requires integration with the GitHub repository and then creating the pipeline as a YAML file within the repository code.
CircleCI has positively impacted the organization, as it has been used for many years and serves as the main source for application deployment. Every deployment is conducted through CircleCI, and this is what keeps the company functioning.
What needs improvement?
CircleCI's Orbs are not as easy to use as they could be. If CircleCI implemented a function approach similar to GitHub Actions, it would be significantly better.
CircleCI could be improved if it could function without Orbs. Instead of Orbs, using a function approach like GitHub Actions would be beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
CircleCI has been used for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
CircleCI's scalability is easier to manage, but it comes at a high cost.
How are customer service and support?
A customer support ticket has never been opened.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
This company already had CircleCI running for several years before starting at this position.
How was the initial setup?
CircleCI was purchased through the AWS Marketplace.
What about the implementation team?
The company does not have a business relationship with this vendor beyond being a customer.
What was our ROI?
A return on investment with CircleCI has not been observed, and no relevant metrics such as time saved or fewer employees needed can be shared.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is not much experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing because that is managed by the legal team.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Other options were not evaluated before choosing CircleCI, but after choosing CircleCI, GitHub Actions and Harness are already being evaluated.
What other advice do I have?
For others looking into using CircleCI, study thoroughly about CircleCI's Orbs because they are quite complicated. The overall review rating for CircleCI is 6 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Very very good tool easy to login from github
What do you like best about the product?
Very very good tool easy to login from github
What do you dislike about the product?
Nothing as of now. Looking forward for more
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Very very good tool easy to login from github. But as of now no problem
CircleCI with GitHub offers powerful CI/CD automation with excellent Git integration
What do you like best about the product?
CircleCI integrates seamlessly with GitHub, making it easy to trigger builds on commits and pull requests. It offers a highly configurable pipeline setup using YAML, supports Docker natively, and allows for parallel job execution to speed up testing. The free tier is generous enough for small to mid-size projects, and built-in caching and performance dashboards help optimize build times and monitor efficiency.
What do you dislike about the product?
However, the learning curve can be steep for those new to CI/CD or YAML configuration. Resource limits in the free plan can be restrictive for larger teams or complex workflows. Job startup times can occasionally be slow, the UI sometimes lags under load, and advanced features like Docker layer caching are locked behind paid tiers.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Automatically triggers builds on every push or pull request.
Solid Tool for easy CI
What do you like best about the product?
Integrations are great. Configuration was easy and has a solid number of features. We use this in our CI for a handful of apps and it's very easy to use.
What do you dislike about the product?
Wish it had better integrations for mobile apps (android / iOS) alternatives have easy integrations into those developer platforms to pull certificates etc.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Not running deploys locally. Centralization of environment variables
my experience using CircleCI is the best
What do you like best about the product?
what i like the best about CicleCI is its speed and flexibility, and automation of testing and user friendly interface. and easy to implement and its easy to approach the customer support
What do you dislike about the product?
i think one of the downsideof circleCI is the complex of configuration for newbie or begginners, especially with advance feature
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
one of the problem that circleCI solve is manual, thanks to CircleCI we now automate on testing our software and automate fo find error, so now we can fix it early, its reduce our time on working, and improve the team productivity
It is a great platform to coordinate your CI/CD
What do you like best about the product?
It is really easy to integrate with GitHub and Gitlab. On the other hand I really like that my team can easily take advantage of the platform to understand the problems that may occur with the pipelines, is really easy to identify the problem by checking logs and identify the step that is failing.
What do you dislike about the product?
The pricing page is a little bit confusing for me. But maybe this is just me because I'm not using this section very regularly, however when i enter I always forgot how to do the report I need and the UI is not very intuitive
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We have the CI/CD pipelines inside CircleCI for the 2 main products in the company. A mobile application and the backend API that is used by all the clients inside our system. The benefit of having the pipelines here is that engineers can easily understand problems with deployments without the help from the DevOps team. They can easily understand the issues and fixing by themselves most of the cases
A review of CircleCi
What do you like best about the product?
The Continious integration server is operating mainly online through Single sign on to Github or E-mail authentication. I shall confess that the integration server is fast. It was built to speed up releases. Besides, all those features, their cloud plans enpower their solution.
What do you dislike about the product?
I hope their customer support team will focus on customer success and satisfaction to include the customer feedback in their upcoming horizons.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
CircleCi sorts out the speed matter. It is faster than other solutions and was developed to get rid off this problem.
Besides, the solution is innovative. From ideas, reach concrete solutions and make them better through automation.
Also, It is a viable solution which is user friendly through the configuration of yaml files.
Unhelpful support, unclear billing, and has offers ability to track usage
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The solution offers continuous integration and continuous delivery.
What needs improvement?
We've had occasional connectivity issues with cloud resources and build failure due to its own internal system setup and environment. That costs us credits. Support engineers do not thoroughly read and understand issues when emailing them. They reply to me with a totally different context about the problem. Just yesterday, my web applications failed to 'yarn build' after I downgraded the resource class from extr-large to large. I contacted support and got no reply.
Billing is a mess. There is duplicate information in the bill downloaded from their website and when I asked for a consolidated bill, they just answered that they didn't have it.
There is no transparency on how many billed minutes and credits I spent each day both on their website and the monthly bill which makes it difficult to understand when the monthly bill contains many refill item charges.
It is difficult or impossible to track usage and burndown of my subscription and to gain total outstanding refill amounts on a daily basis. Their website doesn't provide sufficient information on credits allocated/calculated for my extra-large resource class.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for five years.
How are customer service and support?
Support is no good! They are low-skilled and there is a long response time.
How would you rate customer service and support?
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Beware of skyrocketing bills as CircleCI does not provide transparency into how they charge refills. Their monthly billing statement is almost unreadable and their online dashboard doesn't provide details on how your subscription burn downs and how much is carried forward to the next billing cycle.
