68 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
68 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
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date = "2012-11-05"
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title = "A Call to all CI Service Providers"
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tags = ["testing", "bdd", "tdd", "rant", "ci", "jenkins"]
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slug = "a-call-to-all-ci-service-providers"
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As a professional developer I test my code. Every check-in I do is tested either on [Kabisa][1]'s [Jenkins][2] server or on [Travis CI Pro][4].
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For open source projects there's [Travis CI][3]. It's free and a great way to get to know Travis.
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Now, as an individual I have some side projects, most notably my own site, [Ariejan.net][7]. I value well written and well tested code as much for my own stuff as for my professional work. However, I don't have a Jenkins CI server in my basement.
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Looking around the internets there are a few CI services that can test my Ariejan.net Rails application, among them [Cirlce CI][5], [Atlassian Bamboo][8] and [Semaphore][6].
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Now, the thing here is that to test the few projects I have (about four) it will cost me more to have the hosted in a CI services than actually running these apps.
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* Travis - $129/mo for 2 concurrent builds.
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* Circle CI - $49/mo for 10 private projects.
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* Semaphore - $39/mo for 5 private projects.
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* Bamboo - $20/mo for 10 jobs.¹
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_¹ Bamboo advertises $10/mo, but a $10/mo Jira subscription is also required._
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As an individual, these prices are pretty steep for the few commits I make during the weekend.
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### Looking at Github and Heroku
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Let's take a look at github and heroku here. At heroku I pay nothing to host a site. Performance is limited, but it more often than not is sufficient for a side-project. Adding a worker or extra dyno costs about $38/mo. Still less than half of the CI services I mentioned.
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Having private repos with Github is also quite cheap. You'll get 5 for $7/mo. Which, converted, is about €1 per repo a month.
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Now, as an individual developer, I'm more than happy to use these services for these relatively low fees.
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### Where are the cheap, individual CI services?
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As an individual developer, this is what I need:
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* Unlimited, or at least 5-10 jobs/private projects.
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* Low monthly cost: $5 - $10.
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What I don't need is:
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* Concurrency and paralellisation
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* Immediate execution
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* 24/7 Support
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I can do with a single worker doing one build at a time. I don't write enterprise CRM software in my weekends, you know.
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Also, I don't expect my build to execute immediately. I don't mind if there's a job queue and I have to wait a bit longer to get back results.
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### Business opportunity?
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IMHO there's a business opportunity here. Github and Heroku are great examples of how giving something away for free (or cheap) to individual developers creates a market for their product.
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I understand that CI takes a considerable amount of system resources and time, but having a good experience as an individual is more than likely to attrack people to your platform when they need a more profession plan.
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Who's stepping up to the plate?
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[1]: http://kabisa.nl
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[2]: http://jenkins-ci.org
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[3]: http://travis-ci.org
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[4]: http://travis-ci.com
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[5]: https://circleci.com
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[6]: https://semaphoreapp.com
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[7]: http://ariejan.net
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[8]: http://www.atlassian.com/software/bamboo/
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