Woodpecker CI

What Woodpecker CI does

Woodpecker CI is an open-source continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) engine maintained by the community group "Woodpecker Authors" and nominally headquartered in Berlin, Germany. The platform executes container-based pipelines and supports multiple execution backends, including Docker, Kubernetes, and Local runners, allowing developer and DevOps teams to self-host CI/CD without depending on a managed SaaS provider. It integrates with a broad set of source code hosting platforms — GitHub, Gitea, Forgejo, GitLab, and Bitbucket — and exposes a plugin and addon system for extensibility, including an experimental addon layer for plugging in custom forge adapters.

The product is delivered as pre-built container images distributed via GitHub, Docker Hub, and Quay, and is offered under a permissive open-source license with no commercial tier, no enterprise SKU, and no pricing model. The project does not operate as a commercial enterprise; funding flows through voluntary Open Collective sponsorships. The user base is therefore a distributed community of self-hosting developers rather than a paying customer base. Localization is an active workstream, with a Weblate translation project spanning 460 strings across 27 languages at 54% completion. The release history shows a steady cadence — 60+ releases since v0.14.0 in 2021, the v1.0.0 stable release in July 2023, and a major v3.0.0 release with breaking changes in January 2025.

From an investment perspective, Woodpecker CI is structured as a community-maintained open-source project rather than a commercial company. There is no disclosed headcount, no named executive team, no funding rounds, no M&A activity, and no revenue mechanics. The relevant signals for a PE/VC/M&A audience are therefore product velocity, community traction, and the latent optionality of commercializing the project, rather than current financial performance.

Name

Woodpecker CI

Legal name

Woodpecker Authors

Website

https://woodpecker-ci.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Woodpecker CI is an open-source, container-based CI/CD engine maintained by a community of authors, supporting Docker, Kubernetes, and Local backends with multi-forge integration for self-hosting developers and DevOps teams.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) Software

SIC

Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Cloud-Native Development (Containers, Kubernetes, Microservices) (BPAEACAD)

akta.pro secondary industry

Build, CI/CD, Version Control & DevOps Tools for Games (MPAFAFAG)

Keywords

• Open source CI/CD
• Container pipeline automation
• Self-hosted build engine
• Continuous integration tools
• DevOps automation platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Berlin

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Open Source Software: Woodpecker CI is and always will be totally free. The source code is open-source and available on GitHub. There is no commercial revenue model - the project is community-maintained.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Woodpecker CI is a free, open-source CI/CD engine that automates build, test, and deployment pipelines for software projects. It consists of a server component (UI, API, webhook handling, YAML pipeline analysis), an agent component (workflow execution over Docker, Kubernetes, or Local backends), and an optional autoscaler that provisions cloud VMs for on-demand builds. The software is 100% free under the Apache 2.0 license and is distributed via GitHub, Docker Hub, Quay, and GitHub Releases.

Product overview

Woodpecker CI is a simple, yet powerful open-source CI/CD engine. The product consists of a modular architecture with the core server component providing the user interface and API, the agent component for executing pipelines, and an optional autoscaler for cloud-based resource management. The system supports multiple execution backends (Docker, Kubernetes, Local), connects to various code hosting platforms (GitHub, Gitea, Forgejo, GitLab, Bitbucket), and is extensible through Docker-based plugins and Go addons. The product is distributed as container images and includes a CLI tool for local pipeline execution.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Woodpecker Server
• Woodpecker Agent
• Woodpecker Autoscaler
• Woodpecker CLI
• Woodpecker Plugins
• Go Plugin Library
• Woodpecker Container Images
• Woodpecker Addons

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration16 records

Feature9 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves2 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• CircleCI: Commercial CI/CD SaaS with self-hosted runners and an Orbs plugin ecosystem. Comparable as a CI/CD platform targeting software engineering teams, though oriented around managed cloud execution rather than self-hosting.
• Buildkite: Hybrid CI/CD product combining a managed orchestration plane with self-hosted agents. Comparable to Woodpecker's server-agent model and on-prem posture, but adds a commercial SaaS layer and enterprise features.
• GitLab CI: Integrated CI/CD within the GitLab DevOps platform, available as SaaS or self-managed. Comparable on multi-backend execution and YAML pipelines, but ships as part of a much broader platform offering rather than a focused CI engine.
• TeamCity: JetBrains' commercial CI/CD server with on-prem and cloud options and deep IDE integration. Comparable as a self-hostable, pipeline-driven CI/CD platform targeting professional engineering teams.
• GitHub Actions: CI/CD service bundled with GitHub, offering generous free tiers for public repos and a marketplace ecosystem. Competes with Woodpecker for developer mindshare but is tightly coupled to GitHub-hosted repositories, unlike Woodpecker's multi-forge support.
• Jenkins: The long-established open-source CI/CD server with a massive plugin ecosystem and broad enterprise adoption. Comparable as the default self-hosted, open-source CI/CD option, though it uses a fundamentally different execution model (masters/agents with custom plugins rather than Docker container steps).

Direct peers

• Drone CI: Open-source, container-native CI/CD engine with a server-agent architecture and Docker-based plugins. Woodpecker explicitly maintains plugin compatibility with Drone, and the two projects share direct architectural lineage.
• Concourse CI: Open-source, container-based CI/CD system emphasizing pipelines-as-code and reproducibility. Comparable to Woodpecker as a self-hosted, open-source, container-native CI engine targeting similar DevOps teams.

Regional players

• Gitea Actions: Built-in CI/CD functionality within Gitea, the lightweight self-hosted forge. Comparable as a CI engine purpose-built for self-hosted forges, but limited to Gitea repositories and a much smaller feature surface than Woodpecker.

Emerging players

• Tekton: CNCF-hosted, Kubernetes-native CI/CD framework composed of reusable building blocks. Comparable as a cloud-native, Kubernetes-execution CI/CD project, but more of a toolkit/framework than a turnkey server like Woodpecker.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Woodpecker CI