Introduction
Today's software engineers need efficient ways to update code repositories without spending a lot of money on infrastructure. Several companies have built hosted package repository services to fill this need. You may even find you have so many options that it's hard to choose one. Packagecloud uses a cloud-based approach to package repository management, so you don't need to invest in infrastructure. That's just one of the many benefits you could get from Packagecloud.
The following Packagecloud reviews will give you more information (and unbiased perspectives) to help you decide whether it's the right tool for your team.
Recommended reading: Pushing Packages to Packagecloud
Packagecloud reviews on G2
Packagecloud users give the hosted package repository service 4.8 out of 5 stars on G2.
Many of the Packagecloud reviews point out that the service offers:
- Easy-to-follow instructions that help developers start using it quickly.
- Simple integrations with GitHub Actions and other CI/CD tools.
- A hosted alternative to maintaining repositories.
- An open-source plan.
- A "Promote" feature that easily moves packages from one repository to another.
- The option to use command-line interface (CLI) commands or the Web user interface (UI).
Positive statements from Packagecloud reviews
Here are some of the positive statements left on G2's Packagecloud reviews:
"Simple to use interface and command-line tool that allows for us to quickly deploy our installation packages for all flavors of Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, and Raspbian for our clients. We used the command-line tool and integrated it into our CI server to quickly deploy these packages. They also include scripts that allow our users to install the repository to access our packages easily. Adding a new distro or version is as simple as updating our CI to deploy that new version, and it is immediately available."
"The incredible services around CI/CD and the easy way to integrate within Maven builds."
Michael L, senior software engineer
"Packagecloud offers usage statistics, and we can create as many repositories as we need. Their documentation was easy to follow and made moving to the service a breeze. The repositories are also signed with a GPG key. The API is pretty straightforward to use with Travis CI."
"We are using packagecloud.io with open-source plan for https://milter-manager.osdn.jp/
For every new milter-manager release, we don't need to maintain our own APT/YUM repository by ourselves anymore.
As milter-manager is developed for a long time, the repository also contains many packages, it takes disk space a lot.
packagecloud.io provides enough disk spaces for keeping milter-manager repository.
And one more thing, we don't need to maintain signing-key by ourself."
Recommended reading: What Is a CI/CD Pipeline?
You don't have to rely on Packagecloud reviews written by other people to determine whether it has the features your team needs. Experience it for yourself by creating an account and starting your free trial.
Critical feedback from Packagecloud reviews
Of course, no service can fulfill every user's needs perfectly. Here are some critical statements people left in their Packagecloud reviews.
"A nice addition would be a way to prune old package versions in a repo from the web UI, or the ability to set a retention policy on how many old versions should be kept.
Currently we use the API to achieve this behaviour, as described in this blog post: https://blog.packagecloud.io/api/2015/07/06/pruning-packages-using-the-API/"
"It would be great if there was an easy way to integrate GitHub Actions and packagecloud. The idea is that packages built by GitHub Actions would automatically upload to our Dev repo."
Jiri B, technical solutions architect
Updated: One of our team members submitted the packagecloud and GitHub Actions (GH) action to the GH Marketplace, and we are now using that.
"Sometimes when all of us are using it at once it gets slow and that disrupts our work flow."
Administrator in government administration
"The only dislike is that one package can support multiple versions of a distro, and this is not something you can do with Packagecloud. Having Packagecloud handle this requires us to push several copies of the package to our repository. We handle this in our CI server, but it would be nicer to "deploy" with a single upload to multiple repositories at once."
Recommended reading: Automatically parsing metadata when distributing packages
Do you find it difficult to decide whether software that works well for other people will also serve your needs? That's a common problem for software developers working within diverse tech ecosystems. Gain first-hand experience with Packagecloud by starting a free trial. Then, you can make an informed decision.
What Packagecloud can do for you
Packagecloud is a cloud-based service for distributing software packages to your machines and environments. It lets users store all of the packages that are required by their organizations, regardless of OS or programming languages, and repeatedly distributes them to their destination machines.
This seamless approach enables users to efficiently, reliably, and securely set up and update machines without owning any of the infrastructure typically required for those tasks.
Check out the Packagecloud free trial to see how easy it is to distribute packages throughout your entire organization. You'll never need to worry about your packages' scaling, consistency, or security again. Start your free trial now.
