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GitHub Actions pros and cons

Vendor: GitHub
4.2 out of 5
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Creating workflows in YAML format is straightforward and comprehensible, facilitating both writing and understanding workflows and enabling seamless downloading of third-party instances.
The platform supports comprehensive automation, enabling efficient management of complex tasks like pipeline management, release management, and work item tracking, while seamlessly integrating with technologies such as Linux, Windows, and Oracle applications.
Collaboration is enhanced by allowing developers from different locations to work together effortlessly, with GitHub Actions offering platform-agnostic functionality.
Automation features, including Marketplace Actions and parallel test script execution, significantly improve project efficiency and speed up job execution times.
GitHub Actions provides seamless integration within GitHub, simplifying CI/CD pipeline setup, enhancing deployment flexibility, and automating various tasks like backups and deployments, which streamline the development workflow.

CONS

There should be improvements in deployment tools and enhancements in integration capabilities.
Artifact management, especially saving screenshots or videos from failed tests, requires improvement.
There is a need for better logging for debugging complex workflows and improvements in dashboard and pipeline run management.
Issues with authorization and configuring the GitHub token correctly have been problematic.
Integrating with platforms like OneDrive poses challenges, particularly difficult compared to Google Drive or AWS S3 bucket.
 

GitHub Actions Pros review quotes

reviewer2268420 - PeerSpot reviewer
it specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Aug 31, 2023
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.
Prabhat-Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineering lead at Docusign
Oct 9, 2023
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.
WH
Business Mobility Development (AVP-BMD) at SC Asset
Nov 21, 2023
The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a good product that offers stability and performance.
Learn what your peers think about GitHub Actions. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.
MM
Software Engineer at Mercedes-Benz AG
Jan 23, 2024
The main benefit is collaboration. It allows us to easily collaborate with other developers, regardless of location. For example, we can collaborate with both our African and German colleagues seamlessly. It's platform-agnostic, so it is flexible and not tied to any OS, so we can work on Linux, Windows, web, and even Oracle applications. It's flexible, reliable, and overall an excellent tool for our needs.
NB
Software Architect at AIOPS group
Jan 29, 2024
The level of automation achievable is really good. So, the custom workflow creation and Marketplace Actions improved our project's efficiency.
Muzammil Riaz - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Test Engineer at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
Feb 27, 2024
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 just 8 to 10 minutes through these optimizations.
MohamedMostafa1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Software Engineer at Valeo
May 27, 2024
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.
Andrea Carella - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at Politecnico di Milano
Jun 4, 2024
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.
Sandeep Mutalik - PeerSpot reviewer
Co-Founder at S2R2 Technologies Pvt Ltd
Aug 12, 2024
It is a very stable solution as we have not faced any issues.
Mahender Nirwan - PeerSpot reviewer
Software developer at TAIGLE LLC
Aug 12, 2024
The product's most beneficial feature is the ability to create workflows within the solution.
 

GitHub Actions Cons review quotes

reviewer2268420 - PeerSpot reviewer
it specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Aug 31, 2023
We can leverage this database tool to manage everything within our environment and data burners, allowing for customization and execution. An additional advantage is the capability to modify aspects like file size, making processes more efficient and faster across the pipelines. Regarding improvements or implementations, I believe there should be enhancements made to the deployment tool. It should be integrated as part of the solution. Infrastructure-wise, we already have tools like GitHub and RobSpot, and data enables us to automate various processes, which is quite beneficial. As for further enhancements, I'm uncertain. I've shared everything I know. However, if there's something specific you'd like to see in future releases, a feature that may not exist yet but would be desirable, I can't provide any input on that matter.
Prabhat-Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineering lead at Docusign
Oct 9, 2023
The reporting capabilities are somewhat limited.
WH
Business Mobility Development (AVP-BMD) at SC Asset
Nov 21, 2023
The solution's integration capabilities and UI are areas of concern where improvement is required to make the product more user-friendly.
Learn what your peers think about GitHub Actions. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.
MM
Software Engineer at Mercedes-Benz AG
Jan 23, 2024
There is a part that detects outdated libraries. If that feature could be more intuitive and informative, that would be nice.
NB
Software Architect at AIOPS group
Jan 29, 2024
The UI could be better.
Muzammil Riaz - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Test Engineer at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
Feb 27, 2024
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.
MohamedMostafa1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Software Engineer at Valeo
May 27, 2024
In terms of improvements, I think better logging for debugging purposes would be helpful, especially for complex workflows.
Andrea Carella - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at Politecnico di Milano
Jun 4, 2024
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.
Sandeep Mutalik - PeerSpot reviewer
Co-Founder at S2R2 Technologies Pvt Ltd
Aug 12, 2024
My company would want to see some AI features in the tool as it can add value to the product.
Mahender Nirwan - PeerSpot reviewer
Software developer at TAIGLE LLC
Aug 12, 2024
There could be more integration options with different platforms.