What's the Difference Between AWS CodeBuild and AWS CodePipeline?

Compare AWS CodeBuild and AWS CodePipeline side by side — features, pricing, and ideal use cases to help you choose the right product.

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Comparisons	AWS CodeBuild	AWS CodePipeline
Category	Developer Tools, CI/CD	Developer Tools, CI/CD
Description	Fully managed continuous integration service that compiles source code, runs tests, and produces software packages.	Fully managed continuous delivery service for fast and reliable application and infrastructure updates.
Best for	Build automation Testing Container image builds Static analysis	CI/CD Automated deployments Release automation Multi-stage pipelines
Key features	Managed build environments Custom Docker images Caching Batch builds Reports	Visual pipeline editor Multiple source providers Parallel actions Manual approvals Cross-region
Pricing model	Pay per build minute	Pay per active pipeline per month
Free tier	Yes	Yes
Expert take	“CodeBuild scales to thousands of concurrent builds with no servers to manage. Use caching (S3 or local) to speed up dependency downloads. For container image builds, CodeBuild can push directly to ECR. Batch builds run a matrix of environments in parallel for comprehensive testing.” — Didier Durand, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]	“CodePipeline orchestrates the entire release process: source, build, test, deploy, approve. V2 pipelines support parallel stages and triggers from multiple sources. Pair it with CodeBuild for builds and CodeDeploy or CloudFormation for deployment targets.” — Oleksii Bebych, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]
Product page	Learn more about AWS CodeBuild »	Learn more about AWS CodePipeline »

When to use AWS CodeBuild or AWS CodePipeline

Use AWS CodeBuild when:

Build automation
Testing
Container image builds
Static analysis

Learn more about AWS CodeBuild »

Use AWS CodePipeline when:

CI/CD
Automated deployments
Release automation
Multi-stage pipelines

Learn more about AWS CodePipeline »

Next steps with AWS for Developer Tools

Create a free account

Start building with AWS CodeBuild and AWS CodePipeline on the AWS Free Tier.

Get started with AWS CodeBuild

Fully managed continuous integration service that compiles source code, runs tests, and produces software packages.

Go to AWS CodeBuild

Get started with AWS CodePipeline

Fully managed continuous delivery service for fast and reliable application and infrastructure updates.

Go to AWS CodePipeline

AWS product comparisons

What's the difference between Amazon Aurora and Amazon RDS?

Both are fully managed relational database services on AWS, but Aurora is a cloud-native engine built for higher performance and availability, while RDS gives you familiar open-source and commercial engines with less operational overhead than self-managed.

What's the difference between Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon RDS?

DynamoDB is a serverless NoSQL database for applications with well-defined access patterns that need consistent single-digit millisecond performance. RDS is a managed relational database for applications that need SQL, joins, and transactional integrity across multiple engines.

What's the difference between Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon Keyspaces?

Both are fully managed, serverless-capable NoSQL databases on AWS. DynamoDB is AWS-native with its own API and data model; Keyspaces is Apache Cassandra-compatible, letting you use existing Cassandra drivers, tools, and expertise.

What are the differences between Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon DocumentDB?

Both are fully managed NoSQL databases on AWS, but they serve different data models. DynamoDB is a key-value store optimized for known access patterns at massive scale; DocumentDB is a document database for flexible JSON schemas with MongoDB compatibility.

What's the difference between Amazon DocumentDB and Amazon Neptune?

Both handle semi-structured data, but they're optimized for different query patterns. DocumentDB stores and queries JSON documents; Neptune stores and traverses relationships between entities.

What's the difference between Amazon Aurora and Amazon RDS?

Both are fully managed relational database services on AWS, but Aurora is a cloud-native engine built for higher performance and availability, while RDS gives you familiar open-source and commercial engines with less operational overhead than self-managed.

What's the difference between Amazon Aurora and Amazon Neptune?

Both are purpose-built, fully managed AWS databases, but they solve fundamentally different problems. Aurora handles structured relational data with SQL; Neptune handles highly connected data where relationships between entities are the primary query pattern.

What's the difference between Amazon Aurora and Amazon DynamoDB?

Both are fully managed AWS database services, but they serve fundamentally different data models and access patterns. Aurora is a relational database for structured data with relationships; DynamoDB is a NoSQL key-value store built for single-digit millisecond performance at any scale.

What's the difference between Amazon RDS and Amazon Redshift?

Both run SQL queries, but they're optimized for fundamentally different workloads. RDS handles transactional operations (inserts, updates, lookups) for your application. Redshift handles analytical queries (aggregations, scans, joins across billions of rows) for your data team.

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