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 11.4% mindshare in BA, compared to Travis CI’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of GitHub users are willing to recommend the solution.

GitHub Actions

Read 21 GitHub Actions reviews

2,461 Views
2,124 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Travis CI

Read 2 Travis CI reviews

409 Views
379 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: May 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Build Automation

May 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 May 2025, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of GitHub Actions is 11.4%, up from 5.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Travis CI is 0.8%, down from 1.8% 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

"I am familiar with the entire life cycle of the product."

"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 product's most beneficial feature is the ability to create workflows within the solution."

"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."

"The solution has saved us approximately 20% in terms of efficiency and productivity."

"GitHub Actions is valuable for its ease of use and integration."

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

"It offers numerous built-in features for pipeline management, release management, and even work item tracking on boards, which makes it a versatile tool that seamlessly integrates with hardware and facilitates optimization."

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 main challenge I've experienced is with integration, particularly uploading to OneDrive, which was more complex compared to Google Drive or AWS S3 bucket."

"The reporting capabilities are somewhat limited."

"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."

"Switching between hosted and self-hosted agents can be a bit complex, as self-hosted agents need to be provisioned in platforms like Azure or AWS."

"There could be more integration options with different platforms."

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

"Sometimes incremental steps should be taken during deployment instead of trying to execute all tasks simultaneously, particularly when dealing with AWS EKS clusters and Helm charts."

"My company would want to see some AI features in the tool as it can add value to the product."

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

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

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

"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 tool's price is okay and reasonable."

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

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

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

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

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

12%

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 36% of the time

Bamboo vs GitHub Actions

Compared 15% of the time

Harness vs GitHub Actions

Compared 13% of the time

TeamCity vs GitHub Actions

Compared 10% of the time

CircleCI vs GitHub Actions

Compared 4% of the time

More GitHub Actions Competitors

Tekton vs Travis CI

Compared 100% of the time

More Travis CI Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitHub Actions

May 2025

Download GitHub Actions product report

Buyer's Guide

Build Automation

May 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: May 2025.

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