5 Harness Alternatives: A Guide to Platforms That Fit Your Team Better

Cloud costs are a growing concern for organizations of every size. In the meantime, companies come across tools that promise flexibility and a seamless experience, but in fact, they slow them down. It is often the case that they have outgrown their current setup and are looking for new and fresh solutions for their team. 

Harness has made a name for itself offering automated continuous delivery, robust security, and integrated cloud cost management. Yet, as cloud environments become more complex and budgets come under scrutiny, many businesses seek a Harness alternative that better fits their unique needs. The market now offers a range of powerful options for those whose priorities are cost intelligence, deployment flexibility, or seamless integration.

What is Harness.io?

Harness.io is a popular platform known for automating continuous delivery (CD), integrating security, and managing cloud costs, especially within AWS environments. It helps teams build deployment pipelines quickly and verify code changes automatically. You can use it to manage continuous integration (CI). 

Why Look For a Harness Alternative?

Harness delivers a comprehensive suite for CI/CD, security, and cloud cost management. However, it may not suit every organisation’s specific needs and may not always be the most cost-effective or flexible choice. 

Some organizations find Harness’s pricing model restrictive, especially if they need granular cost control or advanced integrations. Others require deeper visibility into cloud spend, more customisation, or a platform that fits seamlessly into an existing tech stack.

The Best Harness Alternatives

For those seeking a Harness alternative that better aligns with their cloud cost optimization goals, several platforms stand out for their distinct features, pricing models, and suitability for different organisational needs. Each offers unique advantages, but Microtica particularly shines due to its combination of ease of use, automation capabilities, and cost efficiency.

1. Microtica

Microtica is designed as a modern, cloud-native platform that enables teams to deploy applications on AWS quickly and with minimal configuration. It offers a low-code approach to infrastructure automation and continuous delivery, allowing developers to focus on building rather than managing complex pipelines.

The strength of this Harness alternative lies in its balance between powerful automation and accessibility. Unlike more complex tools requiring extensive setup, Microtica lets teams deploy and manage cloud infrastructure rapidly, reducing time to market. The platform’s visual approach lowers the barrier for teams without deep DevOps expertise, while still offering enough flexibility for advanced users. 

Microtica's pricing is transparent and affordable, making it ideal for startups and growing businesses. You can choose between three plans from $0 to $63 per month. Other than the free plan, users have a 2-month testing period in which they can test the platform's features. 

And when discussing key features, here is what you can expect Microtica to offer:

• AI-powered infrastructure builder that converts plain language into production-ready code
• Automated CI/CD pipelines for faster, reliable build, test and deployment
• Real-time cloud monitoring with secure, in-cloud data handling
• Project cost management to track and control expenses
• Unified dashboard displaying logs, running pods, alerts, pipelines, and metrics

2. AWS CodePipeline

AWS CodePipeline is a continuous delivery service designed for AWS environments that automates the build, test, and deploy phases while integrating with other AWS services such as Lambda, CodeBuild, and CodeDeploy. It provides seamless integration within AWS and uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model, including a Free Tier with limited usage each month. 

This service is suitable for teams looking to automate deployments without managing external tools or infrastructure. However, it has limited flexibility for multi-cloud or hybrid setups and may not include some features available in other platforms.

The key features of AWS CodePipeline are as follows:

• Native integration with the AWS ecosystem
• Visual pipeline creation and management
• Supports parallel and sequential actions in pipelines
• Pay-as-you-go AWS pricing model based on the number of active pipelines

3. Jenkins

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A widely adopted open-source automation server, this Harness alternative is known for its extensive plugin ecosystem and flexibility. It supports building, deploying, and automating virtually any project.

Jenkins is often chosen by teams that want full control over their CI/CD pipelines and have the resources to manage infrastructure. Its open-source nature means no licensing costs, but operational overhead can be significant. Jenkins is less user-friendly out of the box compared to Microtica, requiring more manual setup and ongoing maintenance.

Jenkins’ key features are:

• Customisable pipelines using scripted or declarative syntax
• Thousands of plugins for integration with tools and services
• Strong community support and documentation
• Free to use, but requires self-hosting and maintenance

4. Octopus Deploy

This is an alternative that specialises in deployment automation across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments. Octopus Deploy complements existing CI tools by focusing on release management and deployment workflows.

Octopus is good for organizations with complex release processes requiring fine-grained control over deployments. It is often used alongside other CI tools to add deployment orchestration. While powerful, it can be more expensive and complex than Microtica, especially for smaller teams.

With Octopus, you are given two pricing options: Octopus Cloud, where they host, and Octopus Server, where you host. Each of these options offers a Starter, Professional, and Enterprise plan, ranging from $360 to $23,400+ per year, depending on the number of projects. 

When talking about key features, this is what Octopus Deploy can offer:

• Supports complex deployment scenarios with environment and variable management
• Integrates with popular CI servers like Jenkins, Azure DevOps, and GitLab
• Role-based access control and audit trails
• Pricing is based on the number of deployment targets and users

5. GitLab

GitLab offers a comprehensive DevOps platform combining source control, CI/CD, security scanning, and collaboration tools in one solution. It's well-suited for teams seeking an integrated platform that covers the entire software development lifecycle. 

This Harness alternative has built-in collaboration and security features that reduce toolchain complexity. However, GitLab’s CI/CD can be less intuitive than Microtica’s visual pipelines, and pricing can escalate for larger teams or enterprises.

GitLab's pricing includes three plans. You can start with a free plan, then upgrade to the Premium plan offered for $29 per user/month. Enterprises that need advanced security and compliance capabilities will need to contact the sales team to get a tailored quote. 

Some of GitLab's key features include:

• Integrated Git repository management with built-in CI/CD
• Security and compliance scanning
• Collaboration features like code review and issue tracking
• Free tier available, with paid plans scaling by user count and features

Conclusion

Choosing the right Harness alternative depends on your organization’s specific needs around cloud cost management, deployment flexibility, and ease of use. While Harness offers a strong combination of continuous delivery, security, and cost control, many teams find value in exploring other platforms that better match their workflows and budget.

Among all of the alternatives, Microtica stands out for its ease of use, powerful automation, and clear pricing. It offers a balanced solution that fits both startups and growing teams, making cloud cost management and deployment simpler and more efficient. While other platforms have their strengths, Microtica’s combination of accessibility and features makes it the best option for many organizations looking to optimize cloud operations.