In simple terms, you will use a CI/CD (stands “Continous Integration” & “Continuous Delivery”) tool in Salesforce to deploy metadata from one org to another org. CI/CD help you deliver configuration & code changes frequently, reliably, and automatically. It also helps you catch errors early in the development process and not right before deployment.
Here is the list of some of the most popular CI/CD tools for you to choose from.
(Tools, that I personally use or have used and recommend are marked with a heart)
1. Jenkins
- Open-source, extensible automation server for implementing continuous integration and continuous delivery
- Requires a computer to run Jenkins Server
- Free
2. Bamboo (Atlassian) (♥)
- A continuous integration and deployment tool that ties automated builds, tests and releases together in a single workflow
- Seamless integration with other Atlassian suite of products like JIRA & BitBucket
- Free trial for 30 days
- Paid plan starts from USD 10 for 10 jobs
3. Cumulus CI
- An open-source framework for building portable automation for Salesforce projects on Github
- Developed by the Salesforce.org release engineering team to solve common challenges faced during the development and release of Salesforce managed package projects
- Key features include
- Org Keychain
- Managing Dependencies
- Source Tracking
- Source Code Formats
- Working With Errors
- Creating an Unlocked Package
- Free
- Trailhead Modules on CumulusCI
4. CircleCI
- Continuous integration and delivery platform for Linux, macOS, and Android, in the cloud or self-hosted.
- Has a free plan with limited features
- Paid plans start from US$ 30/user/month
5. TravisCI
- A hosted continuous integration service used to build and test software projects hosted at GitHub and Bitbucket
- Provides various paid plan for private projects, and a free plan for open source
- Paid plans start from US$ 63/user/month
- Free trials available
Don’t see the tool of your choice listed here? Please feel free to mention it in the comments below for other readers’ benefit.
Want to see a list of more of such useful resources & tools under different categories? Please do take a look at the resources page.