Last Updated on March 3, 2026
Earthly is a versatile, approachable CI/CD framework that runs every pipeline inside containers, giving you repeatable builds that you write once and run anywhere. This allows for faster iteration on build scripts and easier debugging when something goes wrong – no more git commit -m "try again".
It leverages and augments popular build tools instead of replacing them, so you don’t have to rewrite all your builds no matter what languages you use.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Repeatable Builds – Write builds once, and run them anywhere – on your laptop, remote, and in any CI.
- Super Simple – Instantly recognizable syntax with most engineers able to read an Earthfile instantly, without prior knowledge of Earthly. .
- Compatible with Every Language, Framework, and Build Tool – If it runs on Linux, it runs on Earthly. No need to rewrite your existing builds or replace your package.json, go.mod, build.gradle, or Cargo.toml files.
- Great for Monorepos and Polyrepos – Organize your build logic however makes the most sense for your project.
- Fast Builds – Build caching and parallel execution makes builds fast automatically. Powerful shared caching capabilities that speed up builds frequently run across a team or in sandboxed environments, such as Earthly Satellites, GitHub Actions, or your CI.
- Reuse, Don’t Repeat – Never write the same code in multiple builds again.
Website: earthly.dev
Support: GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Earthly
License: Mozilla Public License 2.0
Earthly is written in Go. Learn Go with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Continuous Integration Tools | |
|---|---|
| Jenkins | Self-contained automation server with an awesome array of plugins |
| Buildbot | Python-based continuous integration testing framework |
| Tekton | Powerful and flexible framework for creating CI/CD systems |
| Earthly | CI/CD framework that runs every pipeline inside containers |
| Dagger | Powerful, programmable CI/CD engine |
| GoCD | Easily model and visualize complex workflows |
| Concourse | Presents a general approach to automation for CI/CD |
| Woodpecker | Uses docker containers to execute pipeline steps |
| Agola | CI/CD redefined |
| Laminar | Lightweight and modular Continuous Integration service |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Continuous Delivery Tools | |
|---|---|
| Jenkins | Self-contained, open source automation server with a huge array of plugins |
| Tekton | Powerful and flexible framework for creating CI/CD systems |
| Earthly | CI/CD framework that runs every pipeline inside containers |
| Dagger | Powerful, programmable CI/CD engine |
| GoCD | Easily model and visualize complex workflows |
| Spinnaker | Cloud native continuous delivery |
| Concourse | Presents a general approach to automation for CI/CD |
| Woodpecker | Uses docker containers to execute pipeline steps |
| Agola | CI/CD redefined |
| Screwdriver | Build platform designed for Continuous Delivery |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |

