Jenkins
Mattermost
| Feature | Jenkins | Mattermost |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free only | Free / from $10/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.2 / 5 | 4.2 / 5 |
| Best For | enterprise-teams, on-premise-deployments, complex-pipelines, legacy-systems | devops-teams, security-conscious-orgs, government, enterprise |
| Founded | 2011 | 2015 |
| Pipeline As Code | ✓ | ✗ |
| Plugins | ✓ | ✗ |
| Distributed Builds | ✓ | ✗ |
| Pipeline Visualization | ✓ | ✗ |
| Scm Integration | ✓ | ✗ |
| Artifact Management | ✓ | ✗ |
| Notifications | ✓ | ✗ |
| Messaging | ✗ | ✓ |
| Channels | ✗ | ✓ |
| Playbooks | ✗ | ✓ |
| Integrations | ✗ | ✓ |
| Self Hosting | ✗ | ✓ |
| Compliance | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Jenkins Pros
- Completely free and open source
- Extremely extensible with 1,800+ plugins
- Mature and battle-tested over many years
- Supports any programming language and platform
✗ Jenkins Cons
- Dated UI feels old compared to modern CI tools
- Requires significant maintenance and administration
- Groovy-based Jenkinsfiles have steep learning curve
✓ Mattermost Pros
- Self-hostable
- Open source
- DevOps integrations
- Secure
✗ Mattermost Cons
- Smaller ecosystem
- Fewer integrations than Slack
- Self-hosting complexity
The Verdict
Jenkins is built for enterprise teams and on premise deployments, with a focus on pipeline-as-code and plugins. Mattermost targets devops teams and security conscious orgs and leads with messaging and channels.
Jenkins uses custom enterprise pricing, while Mattermost starts at $10/mo — a tangible advantage for teams with a fixed budget.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Feature-wise, Jenkins offers broader built-in capabilities (7 features vs 6), while Mattermost takes a more focused approach — which can mean a simpler, faster onboarding experience.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.