GitHub Actions vs Travis CI comparison

GitHub and Travis CI are both solutions in the Build Automation category. GitHub is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.5, while Travis CI is ranked #21 with an average rating of 6.0. GitHub holds a 11.5% mindshare in BA, compared to Travis CI’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of GitHub users are willing to recommend the solution.

GitHub Actions

Read 21 GitHub Actions reviews

2,693 Views
2,078 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Travis CI

Read 2 Travis CI reviews

391 Views
276 Comparison Views

0% willing to recommend

GitHub Actions

Travis CI

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

Travis CI and GitHub Actions compete in CI/CD tools, offering automated software testing and deployment. GitHub Actions has an advantage due to its seamless integration with GitHub repositories and a broader feature set, appealing to those within the GitHub ecosystem.

Features: Travis CI supports various languages and platforms, offers parallel job execution, and has strong debugging capabilities. GitHub Actions allows extensive customization with pre-built actions, built-in repository integration, and workflow automation features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Travis CI features straightforward deployment with simple setups and intuitive pipelines. It has comprehensive documentation and responsive customer service. GitHub Actions simplifies deployment for GitHub repositories with a streamlined, integrated approach, supported by GitHub's broader ecosystem.

Pricing and ROI: Travis CI offers transparent pricing with a free tier for open-source projects, making it flexible and cost-effective. GitHub Actions provides free usage for public repositories, useful for GitHub-centric projects, enhancing ROI despite potentially higher long-term costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Build Automation Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Build Automation

June 2025

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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

4th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Travis CI

Ranking in Build Automation

21st

Average Rating

6.0

Reviews Sentiment

3.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of GitHub Actions is 11.5%, up from 6.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Travis CI is 0.9%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Build Automation

Featured Reviews

MohamedMostafa1

Chief Software Engineer at Valeo

Handles scalability well, automatically managing execution infrastructure without requiring additional configurationsThe automation feature of GitHub Actions is

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.

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Pravar Agrawal

Senior SRE at IBM

YAML-based configuration and simple deployment but user interface needs modernizing

Travis CI is an okay tool, and I am forced to use it as part of my job. I don't maintain it; it is running somewhere else, and I don't have control over it. The interface is very basic and not user-friendly; it feels like it was stuck in 2010. It is very basic and designed for lightweight CI work, and it cannot handle heavy CI. You cannot do branched flows, and you will have to write shell scripts to send calls here and there. The pipelines are not as detailed as some other CI/CD tools. If Travis is down, you don't have any control over it and need to reach out to their customer support.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."

"It is user-friendly, with clear and organized processes, making it easy to navigate and work with."

"It improves efficiency as it involves no downtime and is managed by GitHub."

"The most valuable feature of GitHub Actions is the ability to automate various tasks, such as backups and deployments, to ease the development workflow."

"GitHub Actions is a beautiful tool that integrates smoothly with all major tools, reducing CI/CD work by 30% to 40%."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a good product that offers stability and performance."

"Creating workflows in YAML format is straightforward and easy to comprehend. This includes both understanding and writing workflows. Additionally, the downloading aspect for third-party instances can also be easily done. It's worth noting that vulnerability analysis and similar tasks should be part of our automation through data workflows. Furthermore, we can break down our processes step by step, starting from building, then moving on to analysis, testing, and finally deploying in production and the clear environment. All of these tasks can be efficiently managed within this platform."

"The level of automation achievable is really good. So, the custom workflow creation and Marketplace Actions improved our project's efficiency."

More GitHub Actions pros

"The only thing I like about Travis CI is that you have a YAML file to define a Travis flow."

Cons

"The primary area for improvement I see is in artifact management, especially for saving screenshots or videos from failed tests or data-driven actions. Currently, the configuration for saving these artifacts is complex."

"GitHub sometimes makes it difficult to debug actions."

"In our company, procedures or rules need to be completed, which is not a problem with GitHub Actions but with our process."

"The solution's integration capabilities and UI are areas of concern where improvement is required to make the product more user-friendly."

"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."

"GitHub Actions lacks a feature for automating the build process for mobile applications."

"The main improvement would be to add support for more programming languages and frameworks."

More GitHub Actions cons

"The interface is very basic and not user-friendly; it feels like it was stuck in 2010."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Regarding cost, as an enterprise, we negotiate our license and expenses, so I can't provide a specific rating for that."

"It is free and open platform, so I would rate it 1 out of 10."

"It's low-priced. Not high, but definitely low."

"The product is slightly more expensive than some alternatives."

"The tool's price is okay and reasonable."

"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."

"For our basic usage, we didn't have to pay."

"The cost for GitHub Actions may be around $45 dollars per user."

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about GitHub Actions?

I have optimized job execution time by running test scripts in parallel and creating multiple pipelines; we've significantly reduced execution times. What could take 50 minutes can be cut down to j...

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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.

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What needs improvement with GitHub Actions?

I would need to check with my team about specific shortcomings. We still use Jenkins ( /products/jenkins-reviews ) for some tasks, which suggests there may be areas for improvement in GitHub Actions.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Travis CI?

I'm not too sure about the pricing of Travis or how the agreement works.

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What needs improvement with Travis CI?

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What is your primary use case for Travis CI?

Travis CI is mainly used to run integration tests as part of the deployment, which I do on Kubernetes. The Travis workflows are integrated with any changes in my code. It will have different jobs, ...

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Comparisons

Tekton vs GitHub Actions

Compared 34% of the time

Harness vs GitHub Actions

Compared 15% of the time

Bamboo vs GitHub Actions

Compared 14% of the time

TeamCity vs GitHub Actions

Compared 9% of the time

AWS CodePipeline vs GitHub Actions

Compared 4% of the time

More GitHub Actions Competitors

Tekton vs Travis CI

Compared 100% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitHub Actions

June 2025

Download GitHub Actions product report

Buyer's Guide

Build Automation

June 2025

Download Travis CI product report

Overview

GitHub Actions streamlines CI/CD processes with an intuitive YAML workflow and robust automation, enhancing efficiency and integration with third-party tools and cloud providers.

GitHub Actions automates development pipelines, supports scalable public and private runners, and manages secure secrets. This tool integrates seamlessly with platforms like AWS, Kubernetes, Google Cloud, and Databricks. It enhances DevOps workflows with reliable task automation. Users note areas for UI and deployment tool improvements, artifact management simplification, and additional programming language support. Debugging complexity and hosting agent transitions pose challenges, along with integration enhancements for tools like OneDrive.

What are GitHub Actions' key features?

YAML Workflow Creation: Simplifies configuration with intuitive YAML.
CI/CD Integration: Provides seamless integration within DevOps pipelines.
Automation Capabilities: Automates tasks with minimal manual intervention.
Third-Party Tool Compatibility: Works well with diverse tools and platforms.
Secure Secrets Management: Protects sensitive information effectively.

What benefits do users find in GitHub Actions?

Enhanced Performance: Boosts task execution speed and reliability.
Scalability: Supports growth with flexible runner options.
Improved Release Cycles: Ensures consistent updates and deployments.
Workflow Efficiency: Reduces manual tasks, increasing operational efficiency.

Companies in tech and software development frequently utilize GitHub Actions for integrating, deploying, and versioning projects. It is often employed for deploying applications to cloud environments like AWS and Kubernetes, managing extensive CI/CD workflows, and automating test and security operations, thereby streamlining production cycles across industries.

GitHub

Easily sync your GitHub projects with Travis CI and you'll be testing your code in minutes. Travis CI for private repositories has plans for every size project. With Travis CI testing your open source project is 100% free.

Travis CI

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Facebook, Heroku, Mozilla, Zendesk, twitter, Rails

Find out what your peers are saying about GitLab, Google, Jenkins and others in Build Automation. Updated: June 2025.

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