**Jenkins** has been a popular choice for CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous delivery) solutions among DevOps professionals. However, the fast popularity of cloud-focused development has given rise to Jenkins X.  



## Jenkins
**Jenkins** is an open-source automation tool written in Java. It uses various plugins built for continuous integration purposes. 

## Jenkins X
James Strachan, a distinguished engineer at CloudBees and chief architect of **Jenkins X**, defines it as an *“open-source opinionated way to do continuous delivery with Kubernetes, natively”*, without worrying too much about the underlying infrastructure.





# Jenkins vs. Jenkins X

- **Opinionated:** Jenkins X takes an opinionated approach, using the best practices of DevOps for containerization and orchestration tools like Docker and Kubernetes. On the other hand, Jenkins is more flexible and can be configured in different ways.  

- **Configuration:** Jenkins can perform the same tasks as Jenkins X. However, it would need several plugins and integrations to configure. Jenkins X automates this setup. 
 
- **Processes:** Jenkins X defines the processes while Jenkins adapts to the processes that are required or needed.

- **GUI/CLI:** Jenkins has a GUI that admins can use to create pipelines and jobs. Jenkins X uses a CLI or API approach and uses code as configuration.



| **Jenkins**  |  **Jenkins X** |
| - | - |
| Jenkins is unopinionated and more flexible.   |  Jenkins X takes an opinionated approach to follow best practices. |
| It's configuration requires several plugins and integrations.  | It has a very simplified configuration.  |
| It adapts the processes.  | It defines the processes.  |
|  Jenkins has a GUI for admins to use to configure jobs, pipelines, etc.| Jenkins X uses CLI and code as configuration approach.   |



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What is the difference between Jenkins and Jenkins X?

Jenkins is flexible and GUI-based, while Jenkins X is opinionated with CLI use, automating Kubernetes-native continuous delivery.

Jenkins	Jenkins X
Jenkins is unopinionated and more flexible.	Jenkins X takes an opinionated approach to follow best practices.
It’s configuration requires several plugins and integrations.	It has a very simplified configuration.
It adapts the processes.	It defines the processes.
Jenkins has a GUI for admins to use to configure jobs, pipelines, etc.	Jenkins X uses CLI and code as configuration approach.