Knapsack Pro
Knapsack Pro
Gitlab CIhttps://about.gitlab.com/product/continuous-integration/ |
Cirrus CIhttps://cirrus-ci.org |
|
|---|---|---|
| Unique feature |
AutoDev Ops / Allows keeping code management and CI in the same place |
FreeBSD support |
| Type of product |
SaaS / On Premise |
SaaS / On Premise |
| Offers a free plan |
YesVery generous free plans for both the SaaS version as well as the on premise version. |
YesFree for open source projects |
| Predictable pricing |
YesClear and affordable pricing for both SaaS and self-hosted versions. |
YesBesides the seat (per-user access) you need to buy compute credits for running the build, priced differently depending on the machine you're running builds on. |
| Support / SLA |
YesAll paid plans include next business day support. |
N/ANot clear if they offer any real SLA on support. |
|
Paralellism
Every CI servers tends to address this differently (parallel, distributed, build matrix). Some of it is just marketing, and some is just nuance. For this table, parallel means that tasks can be run concurrently on the same machine, distributed means that tasks can be scaled horizontally, on multiple machines How to split tests in parallel in the optimal way with Knapsack Pro |
YesEasily configure jobs you want to be run in parallel via the YML config file (gitlab-ci.yml) |
YesThere are limits on how many tasks can be run in parallel for the free tier builds: https://cirrus-ci.org/faq/#are-there-any-limits |
|
Distributed builds
distributed means that tasks can be scaled horizontally, on multiple machines How to split tests in parallel in the optimal way with Knapsack Pro |
Yes |
N/A |
| Containers support / Build environment |
YesThe Docker Container Registry is integrated into GitLab by default |
YesAllows containers or VMs for every major operating system. |
|
Analytics / Status overview
Analytics and overview referrs to the ability to, at a glance, see what's breaking (be it a certain task, or the build for a specific project) |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Management support
How easy is it to manage users / projects / assign roles and permissions and so on |
Yes |
N/A |
| Self-hosted option |
Yes |
Yes |
| Hosted plans / SaaS |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Build pipelines
A continuous delivery pipeline is a description of the process that the software goes through from a new code commit, through testing and other statical analysis steps all the way to the end-users of the product. |
YesDefined via YML config files |
YesDefined via YML config files |
|
Reports
Reports are about the abilty to see specific reports (like code coverage or custom ones), but not necesarily tied in into a larger dashboard. |
Yes |
N/A |
|
Ecosystem
Besides the official documentation and software, is there a large community using this product? Are there any community-driven tools / plugins that you can use? |
Yes |
N/A |
|
Specific language support: Ruby
Some CI servers have built-in support for parsing RSpec or Istanbul output for example and we mention those. Some others make it even easier by detecting Gemfiles or package.json and automate parts of the process for the developer. |
YesAlthough not built into GitLab CI by default, the Docker support allows solving any Ruby specific need that may arise. |
No (partial)No specific support from what I can gather, but it does provide documentation for Ruby, including integration with the knapsack_pro gem. |
| Specific language support: JavaScript |
YesAlthough not built into GitLab CI by default, the Docker support allows solving any Javascript specific need that may arise. |
NoNo specific support and no documentation on setting up a CI/CD process for a Javascript project. |
|
Integrations
1st party support for common tools (like Slack notifications, various VCS platforms, etc) |
YesPlenty of third party integrations available throughout GitLab, most notably Kubernetes and GitHub, but also plenty of others: https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/integration/README.html |
YesIntegrates well with GitHub - the whole CI/CD process starts with a commit to a GitHub repo. |
|
API
Custom integreation is available, via an API or otherwise, it's mentioned separately as it allows further customization than any of the Ecosystem/Integration options |
YesProvides a REST API and a (new) GraphQL API, with plans to maintain the GraphQL API only going forward. Allows doing almost anything that can be done via the interface, at least in terms of CI needs. |
YesProvides a pretty nifty GraphQL API which allows querying the Cirrus CI Schema, as well as webhooks support for other types of custom integrations (such as Slack or IRC notifications, for example). They also added support for GitHub actions |
| Auditing |
Yes |
N/AFrom what we can tell, there's no specific support for auditing changes in the Cirrus CI config (other than what is traceable via git commits to the YML config file) |
| Additional notes |
The Auto DevOps feature might be interesting to people looking for a very hands-off experience with getting a CI/CD process up and running https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/topics/autodevops/ |
Seems to be used by companies with a solid engineering background (Google) |
you have to wait 20 minutes for slow tests running too long on the red node
CI build completes work in only 10 minutes because Knapsack Pro ensures all parallel nodes finish work at a similar time
You can even run 20 parallel nodes to complete your CI build in 2 minutes
Step 1
Install Knapsack Pro client in your project
Step 2
Update your CI server config file to run tests in parallel with Knapsack Pro
Step 3
Run a CI build with parallel tests using Knapsack Pro
Knapsack Pro in Queue Mode splits tests in a dynamic way across parallel CI nodes to ensure each CI node finishes work at a similar time. Thanks to that, your CI build time is as fast as possible. It works with many supported CI servers.
| Programming Language | Supported test runners | Installation guide | Knapsack Pro Library README / Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruby | RSpec, Cucumber, Minitest, test-unit, Spinach, Turnip | Install | knapsack_pro gem |
| JavaScript | Cypress.io | Install | @knapsack-pro/cypress |
| JavaScript | Jest | Install | @knapsack-pro/jest |
| JavaScript / TypeScript | Any test runner in JavaScript | How to build native integration with Knapsack Pro API to run tests in parallel for any test runner | @knapsack-pro/core |
| Any programming language | Any test runner | How to build a custom Knapsack Pro API client from scratch in any programming language | - |
Do you use other programming language or test runner? Let us know.
Run tests in parallel on Gitlab CI and Cirrus CI in the optimal way and avoid bottleneck parallel jobs.
Get started free
Monthly you can save hours
and up to $
on faster development cycle.
Dynamic tests allocation across Gitlab CI and Cirrus CI parallel jobs. Autobalance tests to get the optimal test suite split betweeen CI nodes.
Network issues? Not a problem, run tests anyway! Auto switch to the fallback mode to not depend on Knapsack Pro API.
Ruby: RSpec, Minitest, Test::Unit, Cucumber, Spinach, Turnip.
JavaScript: Cypress.io, Jest
API: Use native integration with Knapsack Pro API to run tests in parallel for any test runner
Other languages: How to build a custom Knapsack Pro API client from scratch in any programming language
Do you use different programming language or test runner? Let us know in the poll
Join the teams optimizing their tests with Knapsack Pro.
We've been really enjoying Knapsack Pro, it's been saving us a ton of time.
My team at @GustoHQ recently added @KnapsackPro to our CI. It's pretty sweet... It makes your builds faster _and_ (this is almost the better bit) more consistent! Thank you for the awesome tool!
— Stephan Hagemann (@shageman) September 26, 2022
This is a fantastic product, it's been a total game-changer for us.
We are using CircleCI and we noticed that builds were being limited by the slowest parallelized container. Knapsack Pro was really easy to setup and we saw huge improvements right away. Thank you for making this tool!
🛠How to run 7 hours of tests in 4 minutes using 100 parallel Buildkite agents and @KnapsackPro’s queue mode: https://t.co/zbXMIyNN8z
— Buildkite (@buildkite) March 29, 2017
Knapsack Pro has helped us build an insanely fast and scalable build pipeline with almost no setup or maintenance.
Knapsack Pro saves us hours of engineer waiting time every week, and is the best solution for keeping our tests load balanced that we've used to date.
I've been playing with Queue Mode. Love it! Wow, I love how fast it goes.
Awesome to see @NASA speeds up tests with #knapsack gem in https://t.co/GFOVW22dJn project! https://t.co/2GGbvnbQ7a #ruby #parallelisation
— KnapsackPro (@KnapsackPro) April 6, 2017
I just logged into my account expecting it to say that I needed to add a credit card and was so surprised and delighted to see the trial doesn't count usage by calendar days but by testing days! This is incredible! I love it!!!
I just wanted to say that I really appreciate that small but very huge feature. Thank you for being so thoughtful :)