GitHub Actions
GitHub's built-in CI/CD and workflow automation service for repositories hosted on GitHub.
Liked for easy setup on every commit and PR,123 simple cross-platform build matrices456 and free minutes that make it valuable for open source projects.789 The most common complaint is frequent outages, with jobs that queue, fail to dispatch or stall even on self-hosted runners.1011121314
Why people recommend it
Free for OSS · 3
Commenters call the free action minutes a major draw, especially for open source projects.
“Right now it's somehow all fully free on GitHub Actions.”
“I like Github Actions and it is better than what I used before (Travis)”
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“the real moat at GitHub is that sweet sweet (free) action time.”
Easy setup · 3
Simple workflows such as builds, deploys and checks on every commit are quick to set up.
“there's no beating Actions in terms of its ease of setup and ecosystem advantage”
“It's fantastic for simple jobs, I use it for my hobbyist projects”
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“having the status checks run on every PR, automatically, is great”
Cross-platform builds · 3
The matrix feature and hosted runners make multi-version and multi-OS builds easy.
“I learned how to use the GitHub Actions matrix feature and supporting multiple versions is suddenly easy”
“Building the app for different platforms and architectures was easy with GitHub Actions.”
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“I'm personally not a fan of GitHub actions, because of those dependencies outside your control and more because they're a pain to debug.”
Ecosystem · 3
Its ecosystem and integration with GitHub are seen as a strong advantage.
“Their free actions and robust ecosystem is a huge moat”
“there's no beating Actions in terms of its ease of setup and ecosystem advantage”
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“Terraform with GitHub Actions works out perfectly.”
Good value · 2
Some find the pricing cheap and good value for small or bootstrapped companies.
“The price is extremely cheap and seems reasonable considering the benefits I receive.”
“If you are that kind of company, Github is amazing value.”
Works reliably · 2
A few users report workflows that run consistently without trouble.
“we have actions that work every single time”
“With GHA I haven't had that experience”
Caveats and dissent
Outages · 3
Many report frequent downtime, stuck queues and undispatched jobs, even with self-hosted runners.
“I use github actions and it’s down multiple times each week.”
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“just the base reliability is going downhill.”
Clunky design · 3
Users describe confusing UX, missing features and workflows that are a pain to debug or test locally.
“the tooling is just... not good. The more I use it, the more I get annoyed at weird UX decisions”
“I'm personally not a fan of GitHub actions, because of those dependencies outside your control and more because they're a pain to debug.”
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“The pain is real. I think everyone that's ever used GitHub actions has come to this conclusion.”
Supply chain risk · 3
Some warn that third-party and even official actions pose supply chain security risks.
“I don’t even trust GitHub’s own actions.”
“a good first step out of the GitHub Actions supply chain attack trap.”
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“I doubt any user of GitHub would argue that GitHub Actions are a parogon of security”
Self-hosted runners · 3
Running your own runners is described as difficult, with hard-coded cache paths and flaky behavior.
“The worst part about the github runner setup is that there is no built in support for using your own cache”
“Actions was always broken.”
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“I have found runners to be unnecessarily difficult.”
Cost · 3
Some hit overage charges or storage limits, or object to pricing changes.
“Last month I ran up $45 of overage spending”
“the whole "pay a fee to bring your own bags to the grocery store" GitHub Actions pricing shenanigans”
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“which is a lot cheaper than the GitHub actions runners we used before that.”
Slow runners · 2
Some find hosted runners slower than machines they control.
“the tooling is just... not good. The more I use it, the more I get annoyed at weird UX decisions”
“I have not understood, and still do not understand, why everyone locks themselves into github's CI/CD pipeline.”
Often compared with
3 moved from GitHub Actions to BuildkiteJenkins6 comments mention both
1 moved from Jenkins to GitHub Actions
1 moved from GitLab to GitHub Actions
1 moved from GitHub Actions to GitLab CI
1 moved from GitHub Actions to Forgejo
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“Each night, GitHub Actions pulls from various sources, including news, and documents updates by country.”
Threads where it came up
- GitHub Actions Is Slowly Killing Your Engineering Team 5 mentions
- Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions 5 mentions
- Ask HN: Alternatives to GitHub 4 mentions
- I Hate GitHub Actions with Passion 3 mentions
- GitHub Incident with Actions, Pages, and Webhooks 2 mentions
- Incident with Actions, Pull Requests and Issues 2 mentions
Data: github-actions.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 47
“the tooling is just... not good. The more I use it, the more I get annoyed at weird UX decisions”
“Self-hosted GitHub Actions on AWS spot are still working.”
“migrating cicd from Jenkins to gh workflows”
“I use github actions and it’s down multiple times each week.”
“I was fighting with the GitHub Actions CI pipeline for an open source iOS app I maintain”
“I use github actions. Many open source projects use github actions since it's _there_.”
“I have not understood, and still do not understand, why everyone locks themselves into github's CI/CD pipeline.”
“My company switched to a different provider for our action runners partly for reliability reasons.”
“Last month I ran up $45 of overage spending”
“Stack is just Next.js / React + PostgreSQL hosted on Vercel + Supabase with GH Actions.”
“there's no beating Actions in terms of its ease of setup and ecosystem advantage”
“With GHA I haven't had that experience”
“I’m not happy with the Actions API.”
“The worst part about the github runner setup is that there is no built in support for using your own cache”
“GitHub Actions feels like someone's science project created while on a mushroom trip.”
“I'm convinced GitHub actions as a concept is flawed.”
“a good first step out of the GitHub Actions supply chain attack trap.”
“We use self-hosted Github runners”
“Imagine prod deploys are down for 2 days why? Because GitHub actions keep failing...”
“GitHub Actions, CI quality gates”
“I got frustrated with Github Actions reliability and inability to run or test my workflows locally”
“Hopefully the steady drumbeat of failure will keep it that way.”
“Brutal outage.”
“even self hosted workers don't work during these outages”
“GitHub Actions takes care of publishing automatically and also performs regular backups.”
“which is a lot cheaper than the GitHub actions runners we used before that.”
“on every push, GitHub Actions builds it and copies the dist/ to Bunny”
“I actually don't have a problem with runners very often”
“Finally github actions to provide a proper ALMS”
“Finally github actions to provide a proper ALMS”
“We still use GitHub Actions but our monthly bill is now flat because we pay for a server.”
“I doubt any user of GitHub would argue that GitHub Actions are a parogon of security”
“we have actions that work every single time”
“made it part of a GitHub action to produce all the formats I required”
“following today’s outage I suggested at work that we experiment with the same set up.”
“I'm still using gh and gh actions and we are mostly below the freemium layer with that. But it is kind of slow”
“through GH actions”
“Right now it's somehow all fully free on GitHub Actions.”
“Their free actions and robust ecosystem is a huge moat”
“the real moat at GitHub is that sweet sweet (free) action time.”
“I'm personally not a fan of GitHub actions, because of those dependencies outside your control and more because they're a pain to debug.”
“I learned how to use the GitHub Actions matrix feature and supporting multiple versions is suddenly easy”
“Building the app for different platforms and architectures was easy with GitHub Actions.”
“It's fantastic for simple jobs, I use it for my hobbyist projects”
“just the base reliability is going downhill.”
“I like Github Actions and it is better than what I used before (Travis)”
“having the status checks run on every PR, automatically, is great”