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In the CNCF’s 2024 survey, 44% of eligible respondents selected Jenkins and 43% selected GitLab as tools they currently use to manage CI/CD pipelines. Those near-equal figures are responses from a defined group—not global adoption rates or market shares.
What the CNCF survey says about Jenkins and GitLab
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation’s Cloud Native 2024 report shows Jenkins at 44% and GitLab at 43% in its question about tools respondents currently use to manage CI/CD pipelines. The question allowed respondents to select multiple tools. There were 596 valid responses from people who said they were using or testing CI/CD tools. The report presents data from its 2024 survey and was published by the CNCF and Linux Foundation in 2025. See Figure 25 in the report.
| Tool | Share of valid responses |
|---|---|
| GitHub Actions | 51% |
| Argo | 45% |
| Jenkins | 44% |
| GitLab | 43% |
These are percentages of survey respondents selecting each tool, not slices of a market that add up to 100%. A respondent could name more than one tool, so Jenkins and GitLab may both be in use within the same organization or respondent’s work. The one-percentage-point difference does not establish that Jenkins is meaningfully more widely used than GitLab.
What these percentages can—and cannot—tell you
The CNCF result is a snapshot of tool use among respondents already using or testing CI/CD tools. Its 596 valid cases are not a census of software organizations worldwide. The figures support saying that both tools were commonly selected in this survey group; they do not support claims such as “Jenkins has 44% market share” or “GitLab is losing to Jenkins.”
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Year-to-year comparisons in the report should also be read in their own survey and question context. The available information does not establish that the same people were followed over time, so a change between years should not be described as those respondents switching tools.
Why other GitLab figures are not directly comparable
GitLab’s 2024 Global DevSecOps Report surveyed more than 5,000 DevSecOps professionals worldwide and reported that 64% wanted to consolidate their toolchain. That finding helps explain why organizations may be interested in integrated workflows, but it answers a different question in a different survey population. It cannot be combined with the CNCF tool-use percentages as if both measured the same form of adoption.
How to use the numbers when choosing a CI platform
Adoption frequency is not the same as practical fit. The survey figures do not measure which platform will work best for a particular team. Evaluate your own situation against factors such as:
- Repository and integration context: Consider where your code is hosted and how the CI tool needs to connect to your repositories and existing workflow.
- Toolchain preferences: Decide whether your team wants a more consolidated workflow or is comfortable operating separate tools.
- Operational and security requirements: Identify what your pipeline must support and how it must be operated and secured; the cited survey results do not compare the platforms on these criteria.
What Jenkins project statistics add
The Jenkins project’s 2024 in Review, published January 16, 2025, describes project activity and support and points readers to Jenkins project statistics. Those project-specific measures can provide context about Jenkins itself, but they are not automatically comparable to the CNCF’s respondent survey. Before treating any project metric as an adoption comparison, check what it counts, its time period, and its denominator.
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