What is the difference between continuous delivery and continuous deployment

Short answer

Continuous Delivery ensures code is always in a deployable state but requires a manual approval to release. Continuous Deployment goes further by automatically releasing every passing change to production without human intervention.

Details

Both practices rely on comprehensive automated testing, feature flags, and monitoring. Continuous Delivery suits regulated industries or teams that want final human verification before a release goes live. Continuous Deployment requires higher confidence in tests and robust rollback mechanisms because there is no approval gate.

Feature flags are essential for continuous deployment because they let you merge incomplete features safely. To learn more, see What is feature flagging and how to use it. For the automation backbone, review How to set up a CI/CD pipeline with GitHub Actions.

Tips

• Start with continuous delivery and add automated deployment once your test coverage and observability are mature.
• Implement automated rollbacks triggered by error-rate or latency thresholds.
• For infrastructure preparation, see How to use Terraform for infrastructure as code to ensure environments are ready for automated releases.