Artifactory

Benefits:

Works will all artifact types, can work for any organization, very visual tool, intuitive and professional tool, gets updates frequently.

Drawbacks:

Takes a while to feel comfortable around, can be very overwhelming at first, there is quite a learning curve.

In sum:

We use Artifactory for all of our packages, the Ui is amazing.

Benefits:

Any software company, after a while, has its own internal tools that you can't keep copying to each new project. Also, any Continuous Integration/Deployment system needs a repository for the artifacts. Artifactory serves perfectly to these needs. The web UI is simple enough, with a nice search engine, good integration with main CI servers and a REST API. Maven support is available in the OOS version and many other packages are supported in the Pro one (eg. NPM, Docker). If you're behind a corporate proxy you'll love the repository mirroring to limit the hassle with IT. Available on-premise and as cloud service. Upgrade is easy.

Drawbacks:

It mostly works transparently, but be careful if you're behind a too strict proxy: recently our client's IT security decided that many JARs from Maven Central were dangerous, redirecting to a "forbidden" page. We soon ended up with the repository full of JARs actually containing that page. It took a while to figure out, so remember to keep the MD5 check enabled. Sometimes it seems that Artifactory starts leaking memory and we need to restart it. The Pro version is not really cheap.

Benefits:

It is a clean, efficient central point for your CI to run through. Build and store versioned packages of any component you need, deploy via docker, setup custom build scripts and notifications, do virtually any task need through automation. Takes deployment times from days to hours (at least it did in our environment)

Drawbacks:

I'm not sure if this is specific to this piece of software or just a fact of the function but it is definitely a large setup and management overhead. We use a team of 3 to manage and contribute to it. Because there are so many technologies feeding into it and so much research needing to be done I don't think you could manage what becomes the core of your CI setup without some serious complexity

Benefits:

We use the WebDAV shares functionality to our source control so when a developer commits/delivers code and binary to the source control (RTC) it moves the binaries to Artifactory so it keeps the source control safe from binaries. I also like the support for all types of packages including Conan C/C++ packages. It has a connector to almost anything including Jenkins, Docker, K8S, etc.

Drawbacks:

The free/open source version lacks functionality comparing to it competitors such as supporting comiting more than one file and some packages support.

In sum:

It's very intuative and a standard of binary repositories, the basic verion supports all packages and Jenkins and other tools. Highly recommended!

Benefits:

I like the intuitive UI, the search option, our whole company uses the same Artifactory, good integration with Docker and Git, great for Jenkins.

Drawbacks:

Steep learning curve, takes up relatively large disk space, I'd like to customize the way the data is displayed.

In sum:

The Artifactory makes it easy for us to manage a lot of dependencies in different repos. Also, it enables us to verify builds, versions, and overall health of our products.

Benefits:

Works with all major artifact types: npm, docker, helm, debian. Universal login support through SSO. Easy to generate unique tokens for each app.

Drawbacks:

Could be more clear in the instructions about how to set up the server for development vs a hardened production instance.

Benefits:

The ease of use and the learning curve of Artifactory is worth the time learning and making yourself comfortable with it. The UI is very welcoming and not overwhelming. Team integration is easy since Artifactory is widely used among my peers.

Drawbacks:

With lots of options and paths available, it's easy to get lost on your way of finding the better way of achieving the desired results for your project.

In sum:

Very satisfied with our teams choice of working with Artifactory. As our projects keep growing, the integration with said service is making the transition to a more scale-able project smoother than ever.

Benefits:

I'll admit that I've been very intrigued by the fancy digital mapping used in JFrog's general interface, and especially so in Artifactory. Cool graphics let me know exactly what all my information is doing or going, and is intended to provide clarity.

Drawbacks:

The software provides so much clarity that I'm not actually sure if I need it! Seriously, it's a cool product, but the features are so automatically included in other products that we already use... it seems like an unnecessary add-on.

In sum:

Cool graphics, easy to understand, but ultimately not needed.

Benefits:

Container registry, vagrant repository, rich API, OOB integration with Jenkins for CI/CD, Role based access control, virtual repositories concept

Drawbacks:

Reporting and Analytics is a weak point. Also vulnerabilities scanning is not available by default and you need to purchase XRAY which is a separate product. Ideally they should integrate the both into 1 tool.

In sum:

Overall I am happy with the tool, and use it on daily basis for build Artifact management via CICD pipelines in Jenkins.

Benefits:

Web interface very intuitive. I also like the availability of virtual repositories, so that you can "merge" a local with a remote repositories showing as a unique repo.

Drawbacks:

When I manually update a package the definition of path to upload to is a little complex.

In sum:

We use artifactory as repository for both applications packages and infrastructuse as a code software.