An Ultimate Guide to DevOps Tools - 2024

Thinking beyond technical delivery is now a must for every IT company in the market.

Saying this,
Have you ever encountered a slower and faulty application?
It gets frustrating and slows us down. What's more worrisome is the need for a remedy for this slow software. The communication channel between management processes and the execution of customer satisfaction should be smooth and error-free.

Top DevOps tools help to provide relief in this hectic management environment. Businesses and manufacturers must implement the best DevOps tools to improve and increase efficiency. This info article will provide a thorough understanding of DevOps tools and a detailed explanation.

Best DevOps Tools in 2024

If you are looking for the top DevOps tools or trying to identify the best Devops tools available in the market, you are at the right place.

DevOps Tool automates processes such as identifying and resolving bugs, increasing monitor speed, overseeing update requirements, testing, and improving the overall quality of the application's development stages. DevOps firms coordinate these tools and integrate them into one or more productive activities such as planning, creation, verification, packaging, releasing, configuring, monitoring, and version control.

We've divided various DevOps tools into categories based on the production activities they can support.

Version Control Tools

Version control tools are software systems that help manage changes to source code or documents over time. They allow teams to track modifications, collaborate efficiently, and maintain a historical record of changes. These tools are essential in software development, documentation, and other collaborative projects where managing multiple versions of files is crucial.

Some common Version Control tools are as follows:

1. Git

Git is a distributed version control system that tracks changes in source code during software development. It enables multiple developers to work on the same project simultaneously. Git is widely used for managing code repositories. It supports branching, merging, and collaboration across different development environments.

Key Features:

• Distributed architecture for flexible workflows
• Powerful branching and merging capabilities
• Detailed history and auditing of changes
• Integration with platforms like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket

Website Link: GIT

Pricing: It's a free tool

2. Subversion (SVN)

Subversion is a centralized version control system that manages files and directories and the changes made to them over time. All versions of the files are stored in a central repository. SVN is useful for projects where a central point of control is preferred. It is often chosen for projects with less frequent branching and merging needs.

Key Features:

• Centralized repository management
• Simple branching and tagging
• Easy to understand history and change tracking
• Access control and permissions management

Website Link: Subversion

Pricing:

• For commercial use, it's free
• For home usage or small teams, $55
• For SMB or enterprise, $350
• For enterprise multinode, $3000

3. Mercurial

Mercurial is a distributed version control system similar to Git but focuses on ease of use and simplicity. It allows developers to manage repositories locally and collaborate with others through shared repositories. Mercurial is used in projects that benefit from a distributed approach but require a simpler command set compared to Git. It is suitable for various development environments and workflows.

Key Features:

• Distributed architecture for collaborative work
• Simpler command structure than Git
• Efficient handling of large projects
• Integrated with platforms like Bitbucket

Website Link: Mercurial

Pricing: It's a free tool

Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) Tools

CI/CD tools automate the processes of integrating code changes and delivering applications. These tools facilitate consistent, efficient, and reliable software development and deployment.

Here's an in-depth look at some of the most popular CI/CD tools:

4. Jenkins

Jenkins is an open-source automation server that supports building, deploying, and automating any project. With a vast ecosystem of plugins, Jenkins is highly extensible and adaptable to various development workflows.

Jenkins is commonly used to automate the process of continuously building and testing software projects, making it easier to integrate changes to the project and obtain a fresh build. It supports continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) and is central to DevOps practices.

Key Features:

• Over 1,000 plugins available to integrate with various tools
• Declarative and scripted pipelines for defining build processes
• Support for running jobs on multiple nodes for efficient processing
• Strong community and frequent updates

Website Link: Jenkins

Pricing: It's a free tool

5. CircleCI

CircleCI is a cloud-based CI/CD tool that automates the build, test, and deployment processes. It offers fast, scalable, and efficient workflows. CircleCI is popular for its ease of use and quick setup, making it ideal for teams looking to adopt CI/CD practices without extensive infrastructure management.

Key Features:

• Flexibility to run in the cloud or on private infrastructure
• Native support for Docker, enabling containerized builds
• Reusable packages of CircleCI configuration to simplify setup
• Ability to run multiple jobs in parallel for faster builds

Website Link: CircleCI

Pricing:

• Free
• Performance: $15/month
• Scale: $2000/month

6. GitLab CI/CD

GitLab CI/CD is integrated within GitLab, providing a complete DevOps lifecycle solution from source code management to CI/CD. It automates the build, test, and deployment processes directly within the GitLab platform, providing seamless integration and a single interface for DevOps activities.

Key Features:

• Full integration with GitLab repositories and project management tools
• Pipelines are defined using a YAML file, enabling version-controlled CI/CD configurations
• Automated pipelines for common project types, reducing setup time
• Suitable for small teams and large enterprises

Website Link: GitLab CI/CD

Pricing:

• Use GitLab for personal projects
• For scaling organizations and multi-team usage: $29/month
• For enterprises looking to deliver software faster: Website

7. Bamboo

Bamboo is an Atlassian CI/CD server that automates the build, test, and release processes. It integrates seamlessly with other Atlassian tools like Jira and Bitbucket. Bamboo is often used in environments already utilizing Atlassian's suite of tools, offering robust integration and streamlined workflows.

Key Features:

• Tight integration with Jira for issue tracking and Bitbucket for source code management
• Separate deployment projects to manage releases
• A scaleable build agent system is used to run builds in parallel
• Flexible pipeline configurations for various project needs

Website Link: Bamboo

Pricing:

• Free up to 30 days
• After 30 days, you have to pay $1200

8. Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps by Microsoft is a comprehensive suite of DevOps services for building, testing, and deploying applications. It includes Azure Pipelines for CI/CD, Azure Repos for source control, Azure Boards for project management, Azure Test Plans for testing, and Azure Artifacts for package management.

Azure DevOps is used to manage the entire software development lifecycle, particularly in environments that utilize Microsoft technologies and cloud services.

Key Features:

• Seamless integration with Azure services and infrastructure
• Supports various programming languages and frameworks
• Cloud-hosted pipelines that scale automatically
• Includes repositories, test plans, boards, and artifacts for complete lifecycle management

Website Link: Azure DevOps

Pricing:

• First 5 users are free, then $6 per user per month
• $52 per user per month

Containerization Tools

Containerization tools are software applications that create and manage isolated software packages called containers. These containers bundle an application and its dependencies together, allowing them to run consistently across different computing environments.

Popular containerization tools include:

9. Docker

Docker is an open-source platform that automates application deployment, scaling, and management inside containers. Docker containers contain an application and its dependencies, ensuring that the application can run on any system that supports Docker.

Docker creates, packages, and deploys applications in a consistent environment. It is widely adopted for development, testing, and production environments, facilitating continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) workflows.

Key Features:

• Packages applications and dependencies into containers
• Manages containers on a host system
• A registry service for sharing and distributing container images
• Orchestrates multi-container applications using a YAML file
• Manages a swarm of Docker nodes
• Enhances image building and sharing efficiency

Website Link: Docker

Pricing:

• For new developers and/or students getting started with containers: $0
• For professional developers who want to accelerate innovation: $5 per month
• For development teams looking to increase collaboration and agility: $9 per user per month
• For businesses seeking to establish an enterprise-grade development approach: $24 per user per month

10. Kubernetes

Kubernetes, often abbreviated as K8s, is an open-source container orchestration platform designed to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. Originally developed by Google, Kubernetes is now maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

Kubernetes is used to manage large-scale containerized applications across multiple hosts. It provides powerful features for orchestrating containers, ensuring high availability, scalability, and efficient resource utilization.

Key Features:

• Manages deployment and operation of containers
• Restarts, replaces and manages containers automatically
• Scales applications based on resource usage
• Distributes network traffic for reliability
• Manages various storage systems
• Handles application configurations and secrets
• Minimizes downtime during updates
• Runs on various environments, including on-premises and clouds

Website Link: Kubernetes

Pricing:

• Basic: $12/month
• CPU-Optimized: $42/month
• General Purpose: $63/month

Configuration Management Tools

Configuration management tools are software solutions designed to automate managing and maintaining computer systems, software, and infrastructure configurations. These tools ensure that configurations are consistent, reliable, and adhere to specified policies. They help automate the setup, deployment, and ongoing management of systems, reducing the risk of human error and increasing efficiency.

The following are popular configuration management tools:

11. Terraform

Terraform, developed by HashiCorp, is an open-source infrastructure as code (IaC) tool that enables users to define and provision data center infrastructure using a high-level configuration language. It provides a consistent workflow to manage various public cloud, private cloud, and service providers.

Terraform is used to create, manage, and update infrastructure resources such as virtual machines, networks, and containers across various cloud providers.

Key Features:

• Infrastructure is described using a declarative configuration language
• Supports multiple cloud providers through a plugin system
• Generates an execution plan to show what will change before it happens
• Maintains a state file to keep track of resources and manage dependencies
• Visualizes resource dependencies to ensure the correct order of operations

Website Link: Terraform

Pricing:

• Free: Up to 500 resources per month
• HCP Standard: $0.00014 per hour
• HCP Plus: Check the website
• Enterprise: Check the website

12. Ansible

Ansible is developed by Red Hat, an open-source automation tool that provides simple, powerful, and agentless IT automation. It uses human-readable YAML files to describe automation jobs.

Ansible is used for configuration management, application deployment, and task automation. It is known for its simplicity and ease of use.

Key Features:

• Operates over SSH without requiring any agents on the client systems
• Uses simple YAML files to describe automation jobs
• Ensures that changes are applied only when needed, avoiding unintended modifications
• Supports a wide range of modules for various tasks and integrations
• Extensive community and pre-built roles are available via Ansible Galaxy

Website Link: Ansible

Pricing: Pricing varies based on your sizing and subscription choices. Talk to a Red Hatter for subscription pricing.

13. Puppet

Puppet is a configuration management tool that uses declarative language to define the desired system state. It employs a master-agent architecture, with an agent running on managed nodes. Puppet compiles resources and relationships into a catalog, which is then applied to the nodes. Its strong focus on reliability and scalability makes it suitable for large-scale deployments.

Puppet is a powerful tool that automates the delivery and operation of infrastructure and applications. Its efficiency is particularly evident in managing large-scale environments, making the work of IT professionals, system administrators, and DevOps engineers easier and more streamlined.

Key Features:

• Describes the desired state of the system, and Puppet ensures it is enforced
• Manages resources across different platforms with a consistent approach
• Uses a master-agent architecture for centralized control
• Provides detailed reports and dashboards for monitoring configurations
• Integrates with CI/CD pipelines and other DevOps tools

Website Link: Puppet

Pricing: Do check out the Puppet Website for pricing information.

14. Chef

Chef is an open-source configuration management tool that allows you to define infrastructure as code using a domain-specific language (DSL) written in Ruby. It automates infrastructure management, application deployment, and continuous delivery.

Chef plays a crucial role in managing and automating infrastructure, application deployment, and continuous delivery. Its flexibility and powerful automation capabilities make it a standout tool in the field.

Key Features:

• Describes infrastructure configurations in code
• Encapsulates configurations in reusable recipes and cookbooks
• Supports automated testing of infrastructure configurations
• Extensive library of community-contributed cookbooks available
• Scales to manage configurations across thousands of nodes

Website Link: Chef

Pricing: Check the Chef official website.

15. SaltStack

SaltStack is also known as Salt, an open-source configuration management and orchestration tool that provides remote execution and automation capabilities. It uses a high-speed, event-driven communication bus for real-time updates.

SaltStack is used for configuration management, remote execution, cloud control, and orchestration. It is known for its speed and scalability.

Key Features:

• Uses a high-speed, event-driven communication bus for real-time updates
• Supports both agent-based and agentless architectures
• Uses simple YAML files for configuration management
• Designed to manage thousands of nodes efficiently
• Provides powerful orchestration capabilities for complex deployments and workflows

Website Link: SaltStack

Pricing:

• Free open source version
• SaltStack Enterprise costs $150 per machine per year

Monitoring and Logging Tools

Monitoring and logging tools are essential components in modern IT and DevOps environments. They provide visibility into the performance, health, and behavior of systems and applications. Monitoring tools help track metrics and alert on issues while logging tools collect and analyze log data to diagnose problems, understand system behavior, and ensure compliance.

Here's an overview of each tool, along with its key features and applications:

16. Prometheus

Prometheus is an open-source monitoring and alerting toolkit designed for reliability and scalability. It collects and stores time-series data and provides powerful querying capabilities. Prometheus is often employed in cloud-native environments and Kubernetes clusters. It is used to monitor applications and systems by collecting and querying metrics data.

Key Features:

• Stores metrics as time-series data, which is ideal for tracking performance over time
• Provides a powerful query language for extracting and aggregating metrics data
• Collects data by pulling metrics from configured endpoints at specified intervals
• Supports a flexible data model with labels and dimensions for detailed metrics
• Integrates with Alertmanager for managing and sending alerts based on metric thresholds

Website Link: Prometheus

Pricing: Check the Prometheus website

17. Grafana

Grafana is an open-source platform for monitoring and observability that provides rich visualizations and dashboards for time-series data from various sources. It is used to visualize and analyze data from monitoring tools like Prometheus, InfluxDB, etc. Grafana helps in creating interactive and shareable dashboards.

Key Features:

• Offers customizable and interactive dashboards for visualizing time-series data
• Integrates with various data sources, including Prometheus, Elasticsearch, and databases
• Provides built-in alerting capabilities that can trigger notifications based on metric thresholds
• Supports a various plugins for extended functionality and visualization options
• Includes features for managing user access and permissions for dashboards and data sources

Website Link: Grafana

Pricing:

• Free for Grafana cloud features
• Intermediate: Pricing depends on the features used
• Advanced premium bundle starts at $299/month

18. Datadog

Datadog is a cloud-based monitoring and analytics platform that provides end-to-end visibility into applications, infrastructure, and logs. It integrates metrics, traces, and logs into a unified platform for comprehensive observability.

Datadog monitors cloud infrastructure, applications, and logs. It offers powerful analytics and visualization tools to track performance and troubleshoot issues across distributed systems.

Key Features:

• Combines metrics, logs, and traces into a single platform for comprehensive monitoring
• Allows users to create custom dashboards for visualizing metrics and logs
• Provides detailed insights into application performance and dependencies
• Collects, indexes, and analyzes logs in real-time
• Offers powerful alerting and integrates with a wide range of tools and services

Website Link: Datadog

Pricing:

• Free: $0
• Pro: $15 per host, per month
• Enterprise: Starting at $23 per host, per month

19. Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana (ELK Stack)

The ELK Stack is a set of open-source tools for searching, analyzing, and visualizing log data. It consists of Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana, each serving a distinct role in the log management pipeline.

The ELK Stack is used for log management, analysis, and visualization. It enables users to collect, index, and analyze log data from various sources, providing insights into system behavior and troubleshooting.

Key Features:

• Provides real-time search and analytics capabilities for large volumes of log data
• Logstash handles data ingestion, transformation, and enrichment before sending it to Elasticsearch
• Kibana offers customizable dashboards for visualizing log data and creating interactive reports
• Elasticsearch supports complex queries and aggregations for detailed analysis
• Kibana and Elasticsearch offer alerting and reporting features to monitor and analyze log data

Website Link: ELK Stack

Pricing:

• Standard: $95 per month
• Gold: $109 per month
• Platinum: $125 per month
• Enterprise: $175 per month

Collaboration and Communication Tools

Collaboration and communication tools are software applications designed to facilitate interaction and information sharing among team members. They enhance teamwork, productivity, and project efficiency by providing platforms for real-time communication, file sharing, and project management.

Following are the some the major tools and their features:

20. Slack

Slack is a popular collaboration platform that provides real-time messaging, file sharing, and integration with various other tools. It is designed to improve team communication and streamline workflow management.

Teams and organizations use Slack to communicate and collaborate effectively. It supports direct messaging and group conversations, making it suitable for team chat, project discussions, and information sharing.

Key Features:

• Organizes conversations into topic-specific or team-specific channels
• Enables private one-on-one or group chats
• Supports uploading and sharing of files within conversations
• Connects with various third-party apps like Google Drive and Trello
• Offers a powerful search feature to find past messages and files
• Customizable alerts to keep users informed

Website Link: Slack

Pricing:

• Free
• Pro: $2.93
• Business: $5.04
• Enterprise Grid: Check the Slack website

21. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration and communication platform that integrates with Microsoft 365 and provides chat, video conferencing, file sharing, and project management features. It is designed to enhance teamwork and productivity in organizations.

Key Features:

• Organizes conversations into teams and topic-specific channels
• Supports direct messages and group conversations with rich text features
• Includes video and audio calling with screen sharing and meeting recording
• Integrates with Microsoft 365 for file sharing and real-time collaboration
• Seamlessly connects with apps like Outlook and SharePoint
• Offers task tracking through integrations with Planner and To-Do

Website Link: Microsoft Teams

Pricing:

• Microsoft Team Essentials: $4 user/month
• Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $6 user/month
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50 user/month

Additional Tools

Additional tools encompass a range of software and platforms designed to enhance various aspects of IT operations, development workflows, and project management. They address specific needs such as secure communication, automated deployment, and efficient project management. These tools support modern development practices and improve efficiency, security, and collaboration.

Some of the major additional tools are as follows:

22. Kubernetes Service Mesh

A service mesh is a dedicated infrastructure layer for managing service-to-service communications within a Kubernetes cluster. It provides visibility, security, and control over microservices interactions. It is used to manage communication between microservices in a Kubernetes environment, handling tasks such as load balancing, traffic management, and service discovery.

Key Features:

• Controls and manages traffic flow between services, including load balancing and traffic routing
• Provides automatic service discovery and communication within the cluster
• Enforces security policies such as encryption and authentication for service-to-service communication
• Offers monitoring and tracing capabilities to track service performance and interactions

23. Secret Management

Secret management tools are designed to securely store, manage, and access sensitive data such as passwords, API keys, and encryption keys. They protect confidential information from unauthorized access.

Utilized to secure sensitive information in development, testing, and production environments, ensuring that credentials and secrets are managed safely and in compliance with security policies.

Key Features:

• Encrypts and stores sensitive information securely
• Manages and controls access to secrets based on roles and policies
• Provides logs of secret access and changes for auditing and compliance
• Supports generating secrets on demand for enhanced security

24. CI/CD Orchestration

CI/CD orchestration tools automate the process of continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment, streamlining the development pipeline from code commit to production deployment. It is used to automate build, test, and deployment processes, ensuring code changes are integrated and delivered efficiently and reliably.

Key Features:

• Automates the sequence of steps involved in building, testing, and deploying code
• Integrates with source code management (SCM) systems like Git for triggering pipelines based on code changes
• Includes automated testing and validation steps to ensure code quality before deployment
• Manages deployment processes to various environments, including staging and production

25. Cloud Platforms

Cloud platforms provide a range of services and infrastructure over the internet, including computing power, storage, and networking. They enable organizations to scale resources on-demand and manage applications in the cloud. It is used for deploying, managing, and scaling applications and services in the cloud, offering flexibility and cost efficiency.

Key Features:

• Provides on-demand scaling of resources based on application needs
• Offers a variety of managed services such as databases, networking, and analytics
• Enables pay-as-you-go pricing models and cost management tools
• Includes security features and compliance certifications to protect data and applications

26. Testing

Testing tools are used to evaluate the functionality, performance, and security of software applications. They help identify defects, ensure quality, and validate that applications meet specified requirements. It is applied throughout the software development lifecycle to perform various types of testing, including unit testing, performance testing, and security testing.

Key Features:

• Supports automated test execution for unit, integration, and end-to-end testing
• Evaluates application performance under various conditions to identify bottlenecks
• Identifies vulnerabilities and security issues within applications
• Provides detailed reports and metrics on test results and coverage

27. Project Management

Project management tools assist in planning, executing, and monitoring projects. They help manage tasks, resources, timelines, and collaboration to ensure project success. They are utilized for managing project activities, tracking progress, and facilitating team collaboration. Project management tools support various project management methodologies and practices.

Key Features:

• Allows users to create, assign, and track tasks and milestones
• Provides visual tools for tracking project progress and managing workflows
• Includes features for team communication, document sharing, and real-time updates
• Offers reporting and analytics tools to monitor project performance and make data-driven decisions

Conclusion

The DevOps tool landscape is vast and rapidly evolving, offering many options to streamline software development and delivery. From version control and CI/CD to infrastructure management and monitoring, there's a tool for every stage of the DevOps pipeline. Selecting the right tools depends on factors such as project size, team expertise, budget, and specific requirements. It's essential to evaluate tools based on their features, integrations, scalability, and community support.

By effectively utilizing DevOps tools, organizations can significantly enhance collaboration, efficiency, and software quality, ultimately delivering products faster and with greater reliability.

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FAQs on DevOps Tools List 2024

1. What are DevOps tools?

DevOps tools are software solutions designed to enhance the development and operations process by automating tasks, improving collaboration, and managing infrastructure. They cover various aspects, such as version control, continuous integration, containerization, and monitoring.

2. Why is it important to stay updated with the latest DevOps tools?

Staying updated with the latest DevOps tools is crucial because it helps you leverage new features, improve efficiency, and address emerging software development and IT operations challenges. It ensures that you are using the most effective tools for modern practices and technologies.

3. Which version of the control system is best for DevOps?

Popular choices include Git, SVN, and Mercurial. The best fit depends on project size, team collaboration, and specific requirements.

4. Can I use a mix of open-source and commercial DevOps tools?

Yes, many organizations combine open-source and commercial tools to build their DevOps toolchain.