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GitHub Actions vs Jenkins comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

GitHub Actions
Ranking in Build Automation
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Jenkins
Ranking in Build Automation
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
92
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of GitHub Actions is 6.3%, down from 11.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Jenkins is 9.1%, down from 10.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Build Automation Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Jenkins9.1%
GitHub Actions6.3%
Other84.6%
Build Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Bharadwaj Deepak Mohapatra - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at ENTERPRISE SYSTEM SOLUTIONS LIMITED
Has supported repository management and demonstrates potential in workflow flexibility
While GitHub Actions offers a range of functionalities, it is newer compared to more established tools such as Jenkins and Azure DevOps. There is still room for improvement, especially in areas concerning deeper capabilities akin to those provided by Jenkins and Azure DevOps. Given the evolving nature of technology, there are potential improvements GitHub Actions can focus on, including enhancing support and reliability to match its competitors.
JI
Principal Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Efficient resource allocation and robust workflow with autoscaling capabilities
In Kubernetes, we use node-based architecture with nodes and pods and follow practices like RBAC and rollback. Multiple pods can run concurrently. We benefit from Kubernetes' ability to autoscale pods and use horizontal pod autoscalers to adjust the number of pods based on metrics like CPU or memory usage, ensuring efficient resource allocation and stability under load.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a good product that offers stability and performance."
"I find the automation feature of GitHub Actions most valuable for our building processes. It integrates seamlessly with GitHub, so there's no extra configuration needed, making the building process easy and efficient. GitHub Actions handles scalability well, automatically managing execution infrastructure without requiring additional configurations. We haven't yet explored GitHub Actions' support for AI projects, as we haven't used its AI capabilities."
"The most valuable feature of GitHub Actions is that it is completely free, can be integrated with different environments and cloud providers supporting all major cloud providers, and improves efficiency as it involves no downtime and is managed by GitHub."
"GitHub Actions can be easily configured, especially for environment variables and secrets. The UI is understandable and user-friendly for setting up CI/CD pipelines. I prefer tools like GitLab, where the pipeline starts quickly and is accessible near the commits for easy access. However, many CI/CD tools are interchangeable due to similar features of GitHub Actions and other similar tools."
"The most valuable feature of GitHub Actions is the ability to automate various tasks, such as backups and deployments, to ease the development workflow."
"It is easy to use, especially if you are accustomed to using GitHub."
"GitHub Actions is valuable for its ease of use and integration."
"The most valuable features of GitHub Actions include its seamless integration within GitHub, which simplifies the CI/CD pipeline setup. The scalability of using different types of runners—both public and private runners—enhances deployment flexibility."
"Jenkins's open-based framework is very valuable."
"Jenkins is very user-friendly."
"We have branches in Egypt and branches in Dubai that are using Jenkins for the whole automation process and we're really enjoying using it."
"It's very easy to learn."
"Jenkins has allowed for streamlined automated testing, building, and smoke testing of release candidates."
"The initial setup is simple."
"I highly recommend Jenkins, it is my favourite CI/CD system."
"Jenkins has been instrumental in automating our build and deployment processes."
 

Cons

"The reporting capabilities are somewhat limited."
"There could be more integration options with different platforms."
"We still use Jenkins for some tasks, which suggests there may be areas for improvement in GitHub Actions."
"The main improvement would be to add support for more programming languages and frameworks."
"The only issue I have faced is with authorization, particularly when configuring the GitHub token correctly."
"The minor drawback of GitHub Actions is the management of the dashboard and pipeline runs, which needs improvement. The dashboard for running pipelines could be better."
"There is a part that detects outdated libraries. If that feature could be more intuitive and informative, that would be nice."
"In our company, procedures or rules need to be completed, which is not a problem with GitHub Actions but with our process."
"It is not always easy to control the permissions for each user."
"Many of the plugins needs to be streamlined, their terminology needs to be the same and some plugins should be split into multiple smaller plugins."
"There are a lot of things that they can try to improvise. They can reduce a lot of configurations."
"This solution would be improved with the inclusion of an Artifactory (Universal artifact repository manager)."
"The solution can be improved by introducing a handbook describing the variety of plugins that are available and what each one is used for."
"Jenkins can be improved, but it's difficult for me to explain. The initial setup could be more straightforward. If you connect Jenkins with bookings and lockouts, it can be challenging."
"Jenkins can sometimes run slow, especially when restarting after a plugin installation or when returning from a pipeline view to the dashboard."
"I would like to have an integrated dashboard on top of it and a better UX to look at. The dashboard could be better in terms of integration with other tools. We should be able to have a single pane of glass across all the tools that we use where Jenkins is the pipeline. This can be a very good upgrade to it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is slightly more expensive than some alternatives."
"For our basic usage, we didn't have to pay."
"The tool's price is okay and reasonable."
"It is free and open platform, so I would rate it 1 out of 10."
"Price-wise, GitHub Actions is okay. If I want to use the product's advanced features, then I need to pay the licensing charges for the solution."
"The cost for GitHub Actions may be around $45 dollars per user."
"It's low-priced. Not high, but definitely low."
"Regarding cost, as an enterprise, we negotiate our license and expenses, so I can't provide a specific rating for that."
"It could be cheaper because there are many solutions available in the market. We are paying yearly."
"The solution is open source."
"We are using the free version of Jenkins. There are no costs or licensing."
"Jenkins is not expensive and reasonably priced."
"I used the free OSS version all the time. It was enough for all my needs."
"The tool is open-source."
"In our company, we do pay for the licensing of the solution."
"Jenkins is open-source, so it is free."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
University
6%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Construction Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise58
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GitHub Actions?
I would rate pricing a seven, which leans toward the expensive side. However, there is still value for money, and that's why we continue using it.
What needs improvement with GitHub Actions?
While GitHub Actions offers a range of functionalities, it is newer compared to more established tools such as Jenkins and Azure DevOps. There is still room for improvement, especially in areas con...
What is your primary use case for GitHub Actions?
The main use case for GitHub Actions is maintaining enterprise repositories in private for security reasons, because we have multiple enterprise clients. We're using the premium GitHub service for ...
How does Tekton compare with Jenkins?
When you are evaluating tools for automating your own GitOps-based CI/CD workflow, it is important to keep your requirements and use cases in mind. Tekton deployment is complex and it is not very e...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Jenkins?
Jenkins is used in many companies to save money, especially within R&D divisions, by avoiding the expenses of proprietary tools.
What needs improvement with Jenkins?
I do not have any notes for improvement.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Airial, Clarus Financial Technology, cubetutor, Metawidget, mysocio, namma, silverpeas, Sokkva, So Rave, tagzbox
Find out what your peers are saying about GitHub Actions vs. Jenkins and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.