Let’s be honest for a moment. When you think of “cool” CI/CD tools in 2025, your mind probably jumps to GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or maybe some niche tool that only runs on Arch Linux. Azure Pipelines? It feels a bit like the dad of the bunch. It wears a suit, loves spreadsheets (read: enterprise reports), and has been around for a while. But here’s the thing: it’s actually quite good. I’ve been working with Azure Pipelines for a while now, mainly in a .NET-heavy environment but also for some Node and Python projects. Here’s my casual, straightforward review of Microsoft’s CI/CD giant.
Azure Pipelines is part of the Azure DevOps (ADO) suite. It’s the engine that takes your code, builds it, tests it, and deploys it to a server or the cloud. It supports Linux, macOS, and Windows, and it doesn’t matter if you aren’t hosting your code in Azure Repos—you can connect it to GitHub, Bitbucket, or nearly any Git provider.
My Lab Configuration
For this test, I used the following: Physical 2 x Raspberry Pi5 2 x Raspberry Pi4 MSI NUC Mini PC 32 Cores 32GB RAM and 250GB NVME Router Dedicated 1GBps Network Switch
Logical 4 (2VMs) Master\Control Plane Nodes -running ubuntu with k3s 4 (2VMs) Worker Nodes -running ubuntu with k3s Proxmox K8s Cluster Azure Account
Workloads/Services Cert Manager Nginx Prometheus ArgoCD Azure Pipelines GitHub —
The Good Stuff (The Advantages)
- The “Ecosystem” Play
If you are already in the Microsoft world—using Azure for hosting, Active Directory for auth, and maybe Visual Studio—this tool is a no-brainer. The integration is seamless. You don’t have to fiddle with complex service principals or secrets half the time; “Managed Identity” just handles it. It feels like cheating.
- Enterprise-Grade Gates & Approvals
This is where Azure Pipelines flexes on the competition. If you need a deployment process where: Unit tests must pass. A release manager must click “Approve”. It must be between 2 AM and 4 AM on a Tuesday. An API call to ServiceNow must return “OK”. Azure Pipelines handles this natively with Environments and Release Gates. GitHub Actions is catching up here, but ADO still feels more robust for complex, bureaucratic release flows.
- The YAML Templating System
Okay, YAML is a pain (more on that later), but the templating system in Azure Pipelines is powerful. You can create a central “governance” repo with standard pipeline templates. Want every team to run the exact same security scan? Force them to extend a template. Need to standardize how Docker images are tagged? Template it. It allows a DevOps team to scale standards without copy-pasting code into 50 different repositories.
- It’s Generous
For public projects, they give you 10 parallel jobs for free. That is insane value. Even for private projects, the free tier is usually enough to get a startup off the ground without hitting a paywall immediately.
The Not-So-Good Stuff (The Drawbacks)
- The UI/UX Identity Crisis
Azure DevOps is currently stuck in a weird limbo. Some pages look modern and slick. Others look like they haven’t been touched since the “Team Foundation Server” days. Navigating the menus can be a click-fest. “Where did I put that Variable Group? Is it under Pipelines? Library? Project Settings?” Spoiler: It’s under Library, but good luck remembering that next week.
- YAML vs. Classic UI
Microsoft is pushing YAML pipelines hard (and you should use them), but the “Classic” (drag-and-drop) UI is still lurking around. This splits the documentation. You’ll Google “how to cache npm packages azure pipelines,” and half the answers will be screenshots of a UI that you aren’t using, and the other half will be YAML snippets that don’t quite match your schema version.
- Speed
It’s not slow, but it’s not exactly instantaneous. Spinning up a Microsoft-hosted agent usually takes a few seconds, but I’ve had days where I’m staring at “Waiting for an available agent” for long enough to go make a coffee. It varies, but the “cold start” feel is real.
- The “Hydra” of Permissions
If you have ever tried to debug why User A cannot see the logs for Pipeline B, welcome to hell. The permission inheritance model is incredibly granular, which is great for security but terrible for your sanity. You have Organization permissions, Project permissions, Team permissions, Pipeline permissions, and Repository permissions. One “Deny” anywhere in that chain and you’re blocked.
The Verdict
Should you use it?
YES if you are an Enterprise, a .NET shop, or your team lives in Azure. The integration and governance features are top-tier and will save you headaches in audits. NO if you are a small open-source team or a solo dev working on a simple JS app. GitHub Actions will get you up and running faster with less configuration overhead.
Azure Pipelines is the pickup truck of CI/CD. It’s not the sexiest vehicle on the road, it’s a bit big to park, but it will haul a massive load without complaining.
Rating
3/5 - It’s OK
References
- Azure Pipelines Documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/?view=azure-devops
- CNCF: https://landscape.cncf.io/?item=app-definition-and-development–continuous-integration-delivery–azure-pipelines