# Free alternatives to CircleCI

> CircleCI (Performance) costs $180 a year. Free alternatives: Woodpecker CI and Jenkins. Data checked 2026-10-17.

- Page: https://stoprenting.dev/apps/circleci/
- Category: Hosting & DevOps (https://stoprenting.dev/categories/hosting-and-devops/)
- Vendor: Circle Internet Services
- Plan: Performance
- Price: $15/month, $180/year
- Billing: usage-based, starting at $15/month; 5 active users included, additional users $15/month
- Price quote from the vendor's page: "Performance Our most flexible plan. Pay only for what you use. Starting at $15 /month"
- Price source: https://circleci.com/pricing/ (checked 2026-10-17)

## Alternatives

### Woodpecker CI

- Website: https://woodpecker-ci.org
- Repository: https://github.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker (8,015 stars, last push 2026-10-17)
- License: Apache-2.0
- Open source: yes, OSI-approved license
- Type: server app
- Linux: self-hosted server; web UI
- Self-hostable: yes
- Note: You run the server and build agents yourself; no hosted runners, orbs or automatic test splitting.
- More: https://stoprenting.dev/alternatives/woodpecker-ci/
- Checked: 2026-10-17

### Jenkins

- Website: https://www.jenkins.io
- Repository: https://github.com/jenkinsci/jenkins (26,671 stars, last push 2026-10-16)
- License: MIT
- Open source: yes, OSI-approved license
- Type: server app
- Linux: self-hosted server; web UI
- Self-hostable: yes
- Note: You run and patch the server, agents and plugins yourself, and CircleCI YAML must be rewritten as Jenkins pipelines.
- More: https://stoprenting.dev/alternatives/jenkins/
- Checked: 2026-10-17

## FAQ

### Is there a free alternative to CircleCI?

Yes. The 2 free alternatives are Woodpecker CI (open source, Apache-2.0) and Jenkins (open source, MIT).

### How much does CircleCI cost?

CircleCI's Performance plan costs $15 a month, which is $180 a year (usage-based, starting at $15/month; 5 active users included, additional users $15/month). Source: the official pricing page at circleci.com, checked Oct 17, 2026.

### Which CircleCI alternatives run on Linux?

Woodpecker CI (self-hosted server; web UI) and Jenkins (self-hosted server; web UI).

### Can you self-host a CircleCI alternative?

Yes. Woodpecker CI and Jenkins run on your own server.

### Are these CircleCI alternatives open source?

Yes. All 2 use OSI-approved open-source licenses: Woodpecker CI (Apache-2.0) and Jenkins (MIT).

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Source: Stop Renting (https://stoprenting.dev). Methodology: https://stoprenting.dev/methodology/