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Free alternatives to CircleCI

Swap CircleCI for Woodpecker CI or Jenkins and stop paying $180/yr.

2open source2run on Linux2self-hostable

Prices and project data checked · How we check

$180/yr Performance Verified on circleci.com, Oct 17, 2026

2 alternatives

Replaces it Active Open source · Apache-2.0 Linux Self-hostable
woodpecker-ci/woodpecker8.0k★last push Oct 17, 2026checked Oct 17, 2026

You run the server and build agents yourself; no hosted runners, orbs or automatic test splitting.

Self-host

Runs on your own Linux server, with Docker files in the repo. Setup docs are on woodpecker-ci.org.

Jenkins

Self-hosted server About Jenkins →
Replaces it Active Open source · MIT Linux Self-hostable
jenkinsci/jenkins26.7k★last push Oct 16, 2026checked Oct 17, 2026

You run and patch the server, agents and plugins yourself, and CircleCI YAML must be rewritten as Jenkins pipelines.

Self-host

Runs on your own Linux server. Setup docs are on jenkins.io.

At a glance

Free alternatives to CircleCI compared
AlternativeVerdictLicenseLinuxAURSelf-hostStars
Woodpecker CI Replaces it Apache-2.0 open source Yes — Yes 8.0k★
Jenkins Replaces it MIT open source Yes — Yes 26.7k★

CircleCI alternatives: questions

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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