Organizations have evolved to achieve faster software delivery, better quality products, and efficiency in operations by adopting the approach of DevOps. Automation is an important element of DevOps, allowing teams to cut down on repetitive tasks, avoid errors, and speed up workflows. DevOps automation platforms can assist both development and operations teams in collaborating seamlessly with processes such as integration, deployment, monitoring, and much more. This article explores 15 of the best DevOps automation tools and provides tips on how to choose the right ones for your organization.
What is a DevOps Automation Tool?
DevOps automation tools are software solutions designed to automate different stages of the software development lifecycle. They help in automating repetitive tasks like code integration, testing, deployment, configuration management, and monitoring so that the process of development and delivery becomes smoother and faster.
These DevOps tools decrease the human interference that has been involved, hence increasing productivity, ensuring consistency, and making team collaboration easy. They are highly important in implementing Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, and Continuous Deployment pipelines.
How to Choose the Right DevOps Tools
A couple of factors determine the appropriate DevOps automation tools:
- Project Requirements: Know what your project requires. Do you need a CI/CD pipeline tool, monitoring tool, infrastructure monitoring tool, or infrastructure management solution?
- Ease of Use: The tool should have a user-friendly interface and proper documentation for easy adoption.
- Integration: Choose tools that can easily integrate with your existing technology stack, source control systems, cloud platforms, or third-party applications.
- Scalability: This tool should be able to scale up with your growing number of users, data amount, and workload.
- Community Support: The strength of the community and the level of activity in it is a good sign that the tool is updated, and hence, reliable.
15 Best DevOps Automation Tools in 2024
1. Bamboo
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Best for: Continuous Integration and Deployment
Bamboo, developed by Atlassian, is a strong and flexible continuous integration and deployment product. Marketing automation tools can complement its use by streamlining workflows beyond development processes. It is one of the best DevOps Automation software. It supports all its products and can be efficiently used with multiple technology stacks and testing frameworks.
Build automation and deployment are a lot more powerful, capable of creating multi-stage builds and parallel testing, as well as deploying projects across various environments. It offers in-depth analytics and reporting for better visibility into the build and deployment processes.
Key Features:
- Native integration with tools of Atlassian
- Built-in support for Git and Mercurial
- Parallel building and testing
- Deployment projects and environments
- Sharing build artifacts
Pricing:
| Plan | Pricing |
| Server License | $10 (up to 10 jobs) |
| Data Center | Starting at $1,100/year |
Website:
www.atlassian.com/software/bamboo
2. Kubernetes
- Rating: 4.8/5
- Best for: Container Orchestration
This is now the de facto standard for container orchestration, offering unbelievable scalability and automation for any application that can be containerized. The strength of this software offers an excellent environment wherein automated deployment, scaling, and management of the containers of the application are done seamlessly across multiple hosts’ clusters. Its excellent ability to maintain complex microservices architectures has guaranteed excellent availability for applications. Kubernetes is still growing with new features and improvements supported by an incredibly vast ecosystem, and very well supported through its very strong community.
Key Features:
- Automated deployment and scaling of containers
- Self-healing capabilities
- Service discovery and load balancing
- Storage orchestration
- Automated rollouts and rollbacks
Pricing:
| Plan | Pricing |
| Open-Source | Free |
Website:
kubernetes.io
3. Jenkins
- Rating: 4.7/5
- Best for: Continuous Integration.
Jenkins is one of the most popular open-source automation servers that provides over a hundred plugins to support building and deployments, as well as project automation. Its flexibility and extensiveness explain why it’s a suitable choice for any team at any scale – from projects to enterprise implementations. The tool allows users to easily set up continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines. It is another best DevOps Automation tools.
Key Features:
- Rich plugin ecosystem
- Pipeline as Code through Jenkinsfile
- Supports distributed builds
- Is easy to install and set up
- GUI built-in
Pricing:
| Plan | Pricing |
| Open Source | Free |
Website:
jenkins.io
4. Azure DevOps
- Rating: 4.6/5
- Best for: Full Stack DevOps Solution
Azure DevOps is an integrated development solution that supports end-to-end development. It seamlessly integrates with the cloud from Microsoft and has all the tools for planning, developing, delivering, and monitoring applications. Cloud backup solutions can complement its ecosystem, ensuring data integrity and security throughout the development lifecycle. It integrates capabilities from version control, reporting, requirements management, project management, automated builds, testing, and release management. It’s suitable for those companies deeply invested in the Microsoft ecosystem because it is secure and scalable to a level required by an enterprise.
Key Features:
- Plan and track integrated tools
- Build and release management
- Package management
- Test plans and test cases
- Data Analytics and dashboards
Pricing:
| Plan | Pricing |
| Basic Plan | $6/user/month |
| Basic + Test Plans | $52/user/month |
| Free Tier | Free (up to 5 users, limited features) |
Website:
azure.microsoft.com/services/devops
5. Git
- Rating: 4.9/5
- Best for: Version control
The greatest portion of distributed version control software in use today remains with Git, which provides incredibly powerful branching and merging features that development teams can use for various applications. Distributed in its nature, developers are allowed to work offline whilst still having the entire repository history locally. This does provide speed, and integrity with data, and supports any form of non-linear developments for modern software. Features that are being developed experimentally and code may then be isolated from the general run codebase because of a distributed branching model.
Key Features:
- Distributed version control
- Powerful branching and merging
- Data integrity checks
- Support for non-linear development
- Extensive hosting options
Pricing:
| Plan | Pricing |
| Open Source | Free |
Website:
git-scm.com
6. CircleCI
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Best for: Cloud-Native CI/CD
CircleCI is a modern platform of continuous integration and delivery specifically designed for today’s cloud-native applications. It lets you automate building, testing, and deployment of applications without any heavy configuration. The parallelization and caching mechanisms the platform uses significantly reduce the time taken to build while improving efficiency. CircleCI’s cloud-based architecture helps eliminate the need to maintain CI/CD infrastructure but offers enterprise-grade security and scalability features.
Key Features:
- Supports Docker out of the box
- Access by SSH in building the container
- Custom orchestration workflow
- Very open APIs
- Class optimizes resource-class
Pricing:
| Plan | Pricing |
| Free Plan | Free (6,000 build credits/month) |
| Performance Plan | $15/user/month |
| Custom Pricing | Based on usage |
Website:
circleci.com
7. Docker
- Rating: 4.8/5
- Best for: Containerisation
Docker has shifted the dynamics of application deployment and lets developers package an application along with all its dependencies into standard containers. Docker is also very lightweight, and it makes sure that the behavior does not change from development to production. The system also supports Docker’s layered image along with highly efficient storage mechanisms to ensure better use of resources and fastened deployments. The ecosystem comes with the tools of container orchestration, monitoring as well as security management.
Key Features:
- Container image management
- Multi-container applications
- Docker Compose for service definition
- Built-in container networking
- Volume management for persistent data
Pricing:
| Plan | Pricing |
| Personal | Free |
| Pro | $5/user/month |
| Team | $7/user/month |
| Business | $21/user/month |
Website:
docker.com
8. Ansible
- Rating: 4.7/5
- Best for: Configuration Management
Ansible is an agentless automation tool that makes complex deployments and configuration management easy. It comes with human-readable YAML syntax, that auto-magically works for teams that do not know deep programming. It never compromises on security requirements and compliance, while it also maintains consistent environment configurations across all of the infrastructure. The teams can scale up their automation workflows easily with the help of Ansible. It can be integrated with other tools.
Key Features:
- Agentless architecture
- Declarative language: YAML
- Huge module library
- Role-based configuration management
- Multi-tier orchestration
Pricing:
| Plan | Pricing |
| Open Source | Free |
| Ansible Automation Platform | Custom Pricing (Enterprise licenses) |
Website:
ansible.com
9. Terraform
- Rating: 4.8/5
- Best for: Infrastructure as Code
Terraform is the go-to tool for implementing Infrastructure as Code across multiple cloud providers and services. Private cloud providers can leverage its flexibility to manage infrastructure efficiently while maintaining security and control. It utilizes declarative configuration languages to have team versions and manage resources on the infrastructure efficiently. The state management capability offered by the tool helps in the consistency of planned and applied configurations. Terraform has the most comprehensive provider ecosystem which can support a large amount of services and platforms, making it ideal for multi-cloud deployment.
Key Features:
- Multi-provider support
- State management
- Plan and apply workflow
- Module system for reuse
- Remote state storage
Pricing:
| Plan | Pricing |
| Open Source | Free |
| Terraform Cloud | Free for small teams |
| Business Plan | $20/user/month (min 5 users) |
Website:
terraform.io
10. Raygun
- Rating: 4.4/5
- Best for: Application Performance Monitoring
Raygun is the most advanced error-tracking and application performance-monitoring tool for modern applications. Employee monitoring software can complement its functionalities by providing insights into team productivity and system usage. It ensures teams find and fix problems before they hit users by way of real-time monitoring and alerting. Raygun features detailed crash reporting, real user monitoring, and application performance metrics. Integrations to the most popular development tools make it one of the DevOps automation tools essential to the task of keeping those applications reliable.
Key Features:
- Real-time error tracking
- User experience monitoring
- Deployment tracking
- Custom dashboards
- Error workflow management
Pricing:
| Plan | Pricing |
| Crash Reporting | Starting at $4/user/month |
| Real User Monitoring | Starting at $8/user/month |
| APM | Starting at $8/user/month |
Website:
raygun.com
11. Chef
- Rating: 4.6/5
- Best for: Configuration Management and Infrastructure Automation
Chef is an infrastructure automation framework, but it writes system configurations through a pure Ruby domain-specific language. The architecture works on the pull model, as nodes are continuously polling at a central server for updates in the configuration of their nodes. This tool is helpful with complex infrastructure management because it uses a test-driven approach to developing infrastructures. The Chef can reuse the configurations of any different part of infrastructure with the help of a comprehensive cookbook ecosystem, hence, it provides great value to large deployments.
Key Features:
- Ruby-based DSL
- Test-driven infrastructure
- Huge cookbook ecosystem
- Cross-platform support
- Policy-based management
Pricing:
| Plan | Pricing |
| Open Source | Free |
| Enterprise Plans | Custom Pricing (Quote-based) |
Website:
chef.io
12. Puppet
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Best for: Infrastructure Automation and Compliance
Puppet is one of the most prominent and established configuration management tools available to give organizations the power to automate infrastructure management from the technology stack. Using declarative language to describe the configurations, Puppet automatically implements desired states across an organization’s infrastructure. Reporting and compliance features are rich on the platform, so it could best suit regulated environments.
Key Features:
- Declarative language
- Built-in compliance reporting
- Role-based access control
- Module forge for code sharing
- Real-time node management
Pricing:
| Plan | Pricing |
| Open Source | Free |
| Puppet Enterprise | Starts at $100/node/year |
Website:
puppet.com
13. Trello
- Rating: 4.4/5
- Best for: Agile Project Management
Trello provides visually organized collaboration and team productivity for DevOps teams as it follows a very user-friendly, Kanban-type board. Though it isn’t one of the primary DevOps tools, in agile environments, managing and tracking the workflows, the tool assists in maintaining its track and its progress. This allows the team to keep their boards customizable for individual processes of their respective organizations and specific DevOps practices. Its power-ups along with the integration can automate tasks that may repeat themselves.
Key Features:
- Customizable Kanban Tool
- Power-ups that extend the functionality of this tool
- Real-time collaboration
- Automation capabilities
- Access from mobile devices
Pricing:
| Plan | Pricing |
| Free Plan | Free |
| Standard Plan | $5/user/month |
| Premium Plan | $10/user/month |
| Enterprise Plan | Custom Pricing (based on seats) |
Website:
trello.com
14. Jira
- Rating: 4.7/5
- Best for: Agile Project Management and Issue Tracking
Jira is the world’s number one industry choice for agile project management and issue tracking in any software development. Its excellent feature set supports multiple methodologies, such as Scrum and Kanban, and it has customized workflows matching the team process. This platform has integrated reporting with other development tool integrations. Jira’s deep customization options together with its automation rules help improve the processes in a team through productivity.
Key Features:
- Agile boards that are customizable
- Advanced Reporting and analytics
- Strong API Management
- Support and management
Pricing:
| Plan | Pricing |
| Free Plan | Free (up to 10 users) |
| Standard Plan | $7.75/user/month |
| Premium Plan | $15.25/user/month |
| Enterprise Plan | Custom Pr |
Website:
atlassian.com/software/jira
15. Splunk
- Rating: 4.6/5
- Best for: Log Management and Analytics
Included with Splunk are powerful log management and operational intelligence features considered important in modern DevOps practice. It allows the collection, analysis, and visual machine data anywhere across a source in real-time. Advanced Splunk search and analytics have great capabilities for identifying patterns or troubleshooting issues and gaining operations insights. It has an intensive integrative capacity so with a personalized dashboard it becomes an inestimable tool that keeps the system reliable, efficient, and operational.
Key Features:
- Real-time data analytics
- Machine learning capabilities
- Create custom dashboards
- Manage alerts
- Security monitoring
Pricing:
| Plan | Pricing |
| Free Plan | Free (up to 500MB/day indexing) |
| Splunk Cloud | Starts at $65/user/month |
| Splunk Enterprise | Custom Pricing (based on workload) |
Website:
splunk.com
Conclusion
DevOps automation tools are essential for the speed of software delivery, efficient collaboration, and maintaining a high quality of products. Whatever the need for the solution, whether CI/CD, monitoring, or infrastructure management, these tools are good options. It is essential to select the right tool by considering project requirements, scalability, and budget. Organizations can improve their workflows and maintain a competitive edge in the evolving tech landscape by using the right tools.
FAQs
1. What are some of the advantages of the use of DevOps automation tools?
DevOps automation software enhances efficiency and productivity, reduces errors to increase the speed of delivery while facilitating collaboration among teams
2. Are there DevOps tools that are free?
Yes, many DevOps tools such as Jenkins, Ansible, and Kubernetes are open-source, and free to use.
3. Can I use various DevOps tools together?
Absolutely. Many of them are built to play perfectly well with others and so on, to produce one seamless DevOps environment.
4. How can I start DevOps automation?
First, decide on which processes you are looking to automate, and suitable tools you would pick from there and then work into the workflows.
