We’ve been using Continuum for quite some time now. While Continuum does seem to do a good job managing our builds, its limited support for JUnit Test reports made us evaluate an alternative, Hudson. Hudson is the new guy on the block, aside from cool icons and more intuitive interface, this tool seems to be quite competitive and feature-packed.
So, I’m listing down a head-to-head comparison between Continuum and Hudson as we’ve used them and based on features we are looking for:
Build Management:
Continuum seems to perform better in this area. It allows multiple jobs/script configured on a single project. Projects can also be logically grouped. Hudson only supports one job per workspace, which I find very limiting. This means that if we need 3 jobs (e.g. build-war, deploy, run-test), each job needs its own workspace, which doesn’t make sense because all these job share the same source code.
User Management:
I prefer Hudson a little over Continuum because I like simplicity over flexibility. Considering our small team size, there is no point of grouping people with several permissions across multiple projects. All we need is the ability to restrict the developer’s access within their projects. Hudson has a simple, easy-to-use permission system–I was able to setup user access rights within 30 minutes. Continuum seems to be a little over-complicated on this. Continuum also has a strict password policy which makes it more difficult to manage.
Scheduling:
Once again, Hudson is better due to its simplicity. To configure a schedule, simply add “@daily” on schedule option and you’re all set. While Continuum’s scheduling isn’t complex, there’s more clicking involved. Again, Simplicity over Flexibility.
Email Alerts/Notification:
Although both tools provide email support, Hudson has a more detailed email report. Hudson allows the tracking of JUnit test reports for every test, while Continuum only provides notifications on failed or successful builds.
In the end, we decided to switch to Hudson because it is easier to use and it includes the Junit test reporting feature.
Note: The Continuum and Hudson logos are properties of Apache Continuum and Hudson, respectively.
3 thoughts on “Continuum vs. Hudson”
I would vote for Hudson as well, because it has many plugins available and more user friendly if compare with Continuum
Thanks for the honest comparison and insight based on your experience.
I would prefer Hudson over Continuum as well because of it’s simplicity.
I have been using Continuum and started taking a looking at Hudson.
It appears your main concern with Continuum is the unit testing. I am building maven builds that trigger a build with the site deploy feature configured. This produces reports for pmd, findbugs, corbertura, emma ect.