GitHub Actions vs. Jenkins: Popular CI/CD Tools Comparison

Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines automate how you build, test, and deploy your applications and infrastructure. The tool you choose to run them shapes your daily workflow for years, so it pays to choose deliberately.

Jenkins is a self-hosted, open-source server you run and tune yourself, with a plugin for almost everything. GitHub Actions is a managed service wired into your GitHub repositories, ready the moment you push code.

This guide compares them on hosting, setup, configuration language, cost, and security, so you can pick the right one for your stack.

What we will cover:

1. What is Jenkins?
2. What is GitHub Actions?
3. GitHub Actions vs. Jenkins table comparison
4. GitHub Actions and Jenkins similarities
5. GitHub Actions and Jenkins differences
6. Is GitHub Actions better than Jenkins?
7. Is there an alternative to GitHub Actions and Jenkins?

Jenkins is a self-hosted CI/CD platform that is highly customizable and extendable. It allows users to automate different tasks from the SDLC. Due to its vast ecosystem of plugins, Jenkins is adaptable to different workloads and environments.

Key features of Jenkins

• Open-source – Jenkins is open-source and has a rich ecosystem of plugins
• Declare pipeline as Code – With Jenkins, you can use the DSL language to define your pipelines as code
• Integrates with many programming languages – You can build pipelines for anything you can imagine
• Distributed builds – Jenkins gives you the ability to distribute workloads across multiple servers

Pros and cons of using Jenkins

Pros	Cons
Open-source	Steep learning curve for beginners
Vast ecosystem of plugins	Hard to set up in large environments
Large community support	At scale, Jenkins can become really resource-intensive, so you will either need to provide more infrastructure for your builds or wait for others to finish.
Multiple programming languages and tooling support	Plugin maintenance – with the ability to integrate with many tools, comes the responsibility of maintaining all of them

How to use Jenkins?

Jenkins can be installed on any VM, or you can even install it on your Kubernetes cluster.

To show you an example, we will install it on an existing K8s cluster using Helm:

helm repo add jenkins https://charts.jenkins.io
helm repo update

The above commands will add the Jenkins Helm charts inside my environment. Next, I will create a namespace for Jenkins:

kubectl create namespace jenkins

To install Jenkins on the K8s cluster you can run:

helm install jenkins jenkins/jenkins --namespace jenkins

We will need to get the initial admin password for it:

kubectl exec --namespace jenkins -it svc/jenkins -c jenkins -- /bin/cat /run/secrets/additional/chart-admin-password && echo

To access Jenkins locally, we will need to do port forwarding (you can also define an ingress if you would like to access it):

kubectl --namespace jenkins port-forward svc/jenkins 8080:8080

Then, go to your browser and navigate to localhost:8080.

After logging in, you can set up a pipeline by going to the Dashboard and selecting a new item.

Example Jenkins pipeline that runs your Terraform workflow:

pipeline {
   agent any
  
   environment {
       TF_IN_AUTOMATION = 'true'
       AWS_CREDENTIALS = credentials('aws-credentials')
   }
  
   stages {
       stage('Checkout') {
           steps {
               checkout scm
           }
       }
      
       stage('Terraform Init') {
           steps {
               sh 'terraform init'
           }
       }
      
       stage('Terraform Plan') {
           steps {
               sh 'terraform plan -out=tfplan'
           }
       }
      
       stage('Approval') {
           steps {
               input message: 'Do you want to apply this plan?', ok: 'Apply'
           }
       }
      
       stage('Terraform Apply') {
           steps {
               sh 'terraform apply -auto-approve tfplan'
           }
       }
   }
 
   post {
       always {
           cleanWs()
       }
   }
}

Read more: Terraform with Jenkins Tutorial – How to Manage Workflows

GitHub Actions is a CI/CD platform that automates your SDLC processes. It allows you to build, test, and deploy infrastructure and applications directly from your GitHub repository by creating custom workflows. It offers various configuration options for triggers based on commits and merges, and it is highly extensible with its actions marketplace.

You can create and publish the actions you want to contribute and make other people’s lives easier.

Key features of GitHub Actions

• Native CI/CD integration with your GitHub repositories
• Event-driven – Pipelines and steps inside the pipelines can run based on various events
• Built-in marketplace – GitHub Actions has a rich marketplace of reusable actions that you can use inside your workflows
• Self-hosted runners – GitHub Actions gives you the ability to use your own runners for building and running your workflows

Pros and cons of using GitHub Actions

Pros	Cons
Tightly integrated with your GitHub repositories	Limited customization when compared to other CI/CD pipelines
Free for public repositories	Can become costly for large-scale usage on private repositories
Easy to set and use	Dependent on GitHub’s infrastructure and potential downtime
Runs as a SaaS but can be leveraged in self-hosted installations too	Can be less flexible for complex, non-standard build processes

How to use GitHub Actions?

You can use GitHub Actions by simply creating a .github/workflows directory in your repository. In this workflows directory, you can define as many yaml files as you want, and each of these files will correspond to a pipeline.

Example GitHub Actions pipeline that runs your Terraform workflow:

name: "Terraform pipeline"

on:
  push:
    branches: ["main"]
  pull_request:
    branches: ["main"]

permissions:
  id-token: write
  contents: read

env:
  TF_IN_AUTOMATION: true

jobs:
  terraform:
    name: "Terraform"
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v6

      - name: Setup Terraform
        uses: hashicorp/setup-terraform@v6
        with:
          terraform_wrapper: false

      - name: Configure AWS Credentials (OIDC)
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
        with:
          role-to-assume: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/gha-oidc-role
          aws-region: us-west-2

      - name: Terraform Init
        run: terraform init

      - name: Terraform Plan
        run: terraform plan -out=tfplan

      - name: Terraform Apply
        if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' && github.event_name == 'push'
        run: terraform apply -auto-approve tfplan

Read more: How to Manage & Scale Terraform with GitHub Actions

The table below summarizes the differences and similarities between GitHub Actions and Jenkins.

Feature	GitHub Actions	Jenkins
Hosting model	SaaS and Self-Hosted	Self-Hosted only
Setup	Easy to set up	Manual process, can be hard to set up
Configuration language	YAML	Groovy
Learning curve	Generally easier, especially for GitHub users	Steeper, more complex setup and management
Ecosystem	GitHub Marketplace for actions	Extensive plugins ecosystem
Customization	You can build your own steps and actions but also leverage custom actions	Highly customizable with plugins and scripts
Scalability	Auto scaling	Manual scaling and maintenance required
Security	Leverages GitHub’s security features	Customers are responsible for implementing security mechanisms
Cost	Free tier available + usage-based pricing	It’s open source, you will pay only for the underlying infrastructure
Artifact storage	Integrate with GitHub	Requires separate configuration or plugins
Self-hosted runners	Supported	Native, as there are no public workers
UI and dashboards	Integrated into GitHub	Separate application with customizable dashboards
Scheduling	Cron-like syntax	Built-in scheduling options
Secrets management	Built-in secrets at the repo level and org level + integrations with secret managing applications	Credentials plugin and integrations with secret managing applications

Both GitHub Actions and Jenkins are CI/CD tools that let engineers automate the SDLC. Both offer deep customization. GitHub Actions through its marketplace, and Jenkins through its plugin ecosystem.

With both tools, you can automate the deployment of your applications regardless of the programming language used, and you can also automate your infrastructure workflows (which can be cumbersome in both cases).

GitHub Actions and Jenkins allow you to run jobs on your own infrastructure using self-hosted runners and to store and use secrets.

GitHub Actions runs as a managed service or self-hosted, whereas Jenkins is self-hosted only. The two also configure pipelines differently. GitHub Actions uses YAML, whereas Jenkins uses Groovy.

Jenkins takes more time to master because it carries more complexity and customization options, whereas GitHub Actions has a gentler learning curve. Their cost models differ too. Because Jenkins is open source, you pay only for the infrastructure that hosts it, whereas GitHub Actions gives you a free tier with usage-based pricing beyond it.

1. Hosting

GitHub Actions eliminates the need for server management by running entirely on GitHub’s managed cloud infrastructure. It handles scaling, updates, and maintenance behind the scenes, making it ideal for teams that prefer a hands-off DevOps experience. 

Optional self-hosted runners are available for custom environments, but they’re easy to connect and don’t change the underlying platform model.

In contrast, Jenkins places the responsibility for infrastructure squarely on the user. Whether hosted on-premise or deployed to a cloud provider like AWS or GCP, Jenkins requires manual setup, configuration, and ongoing server maintenance. 

Scalability and high availability are possible, but they are entirely up to the team to implement.

2. Integration

With GitHub Actions, CI/CD is woven directly into the GitHub platform. Events like code pushes, pull request updates, or issue changes automatically trigger workflows without any extra plugins or integrations. It’s a native experience designed for GitHub repositories, reducing setup time and minimizing friction.

Jenkins takes a more agnostic approach. It integrates with almost any tool or system through its plugin ecosystem. That flexibility is real, but it usually demands extra setup, plugin management, and maintenance. Connecting Jenkins to GitHub, for example, means installing and configuring specific plugins, webhooks, and authentication layers.

Connecting Jenkins to GitHub, for example, requires installing and configuring specific plugins, webhooks, and authentication layers.

3. Ease of use

Setting up automation in GitHub Actions is as simple as writing a YAML file in your repository. The learning curve is shallow, particularly for developers already working in GitHub. Built-in documentation and a large marketplace of reusable actions make it accessible even for non-DevOps engineers.

Jenkins, on the other hand, presents a steeper curve. New users face a layered experience, starting with installing Jenkins itself, navigating its somewhat dated UI, and learning Groovy-based pipelines. 

Recent Jenkins UI work has modernized the pipeline view with better scrolling, zoom, and stage progress indicators, but the overall experience is still more “classic CI server” compared to GitHub’s integrated developer UI.

Managing plugins, credentials, and distributed builds introduces additional overhead, making it more suitable for experienced DevOps teams or complex legacy environments.

4. Cost

Teams using GitHub Actions benefit from a predictable pricing model: public repositories are free, and private usage is billed based on minutes used and runner type. 

For many teams, the included free tier is sufficient, and there’s no need to budget for servers or DevOps staffing unless opting for self-hosted runners.

Although Jenkins is open-source and free to download, it rarely comes without hidden costs. Hosting infrastructure, monitoring uptime, managing backups, and allocating admin resources can quickly accumulate into significant operational expenses, especially for enterprise-scale deployments.

5. Security and compliance

With GitHub Actions, a lot of the security model comes baked into the platform: you get short-lived cloud credentials via OpenID Connect (OIDC) instead of long-lived keys, encrypted secrets scoped to repos or environments, patched and regularly rotated hosted runners, plus audit logs and branch protection that tie into your wider GitHub governance story. 

For many teams, this is “secure enough by default,” as long as you’re careful about which marketplace actions you trust and what permissions you grant them.

With Jenkins, you get maximum control and maximum responsibility. You decide where it runs, how the OS and network are hardened, how credentials are stored, and which plugins you install. That is ideal for strict compliance or air-gapped environments, but it means your team owns patching, plugin upkeep, and locking down a much larger attack surface.

In practice, GitHub Actions favors strong defaults in a managed SaaS, while Jenkins lets you design exactly the security posture you want, if you’re willing to invest in it.

GitHub Actions is newer than Jenkins and offers many reusable actions you can leverage to build your pipelines. However, if you are not using GitHub for your VCS, GitHub Actions doesn’t make too much sense. Jenkins is more versatile on this point, and it can be used with any VCS. It is highly extendable with plugins but lacks a SaaS version.

There is no right or wrong in choosing between these two, but it should always depend on the tooling you are using and whether you want to maintain a self-hosted tool for your tooling.

GitHub Actions and Jenkins are built for application CI/CD. Point them at infrastructure and you end up wiring together state handling, approvals, drift detection, and dependency ordering yourself. Spacelift is built for that job.

Spacelift is an infrastructure orchestration platform for Terraform, OpenTofu, CloudFormation, Pulumi, Terragrunt, Kubernetes, and Ansible. It gives platform teams one control plane for provisioning, configuration, and governance, without the pipeline glue.

With Spacelift, you get:

• Policies to control what kind of resources engineers can create, what parameters they can have, how many approvals you need for a run, what kind of task you execute, what happens when a pull request is open, and where to send your notifications
• Stack dependencies to build multi-infrastructure automation workflows with dependencies, having the ability to build a workflow that, for example, generates your EC2 instances using Terraform and combines it with Ansible to configure them
• Self-service infrastructure via Blueprints enabling your developers to do what matters – developing application code while not sacrificing control
• Creature comforts such as contexts (reusable containers for your environment variables, files, and hooks), and the ability to run arbitrary code
• Drift detection and optional remediation
• Spacelift Intelligence — an AI layer across the platform. Developers describe what they need, Intent provisions it, and your policies still apply. Intent gives you natural-language provisioning for non-critical workloads like prototypes, tests, and POCs, whereas IaC and GitOps stay the system of record for production. An AI assistant handles diagnostics, drift analysis, and policy authoring across both paths.

	Spacelift	Jenkins	GitHub Actions
SaaS	✅Yes	❌No	✅Yes
Configuration process	✅The SaaS version requires almost no configuration; the self-hosted version is easy to configure	⚠️Requires manual setup and configuration, which can be complex	✅The SaaS version requires almost no configuration; the self-hosted version is easy to configure.
Maintenance	✅No maintenance is required for SaaS; you are in charge of updates for self-hosted.	❌Requires regular maintenance	✅No maintenance is required for SaaS; you are in charge of updates for self-hosted.
Ease of use	✅Easy to use — you don’t need to learn a new language.	❌Can be hard to use — you need to learn Groovy.	⚠️Easy to use, but you need to build your pipelines using YAML and learn new concepts.
Dependencies workflows	✅Yes – works out of the box	⚠️Requires complex configuration – you need to change your code configuration and pipeline(s) to accommodate a use case like this.	⚠️Requires complex configuration – you need to change your code configuration and pipeline(s) to accommodate a use case like this.
Drift detection	✅Yes – works out of the box	⚠️Yes – not supported natively but can be configured using third-party tools (hard process)	⚠️Yes – not supported natively but can be configured using third-party tools (hard process)
Self-service workflows	✅Yes – works out of the box	⚠️Requires complex configuration – build dedicated pipelines for self-service that can be hard to maintain	⚠️Requires complex configuration – build dedicated pipelines for self-service that can be hard to maintain
Advanced scheduling	✅Yes – works out of the box	⚠️Requires complex configuration – dedicated pipelines required	⚠️Requires complex configuration – dedicated pipelines required
Dynamic credentials for AWS, Azure, GCP	✅Yes – native integrations, no long-lived keys	⚠️ Possible via cloud-specific plugins and custom OIDC setups	⚠️ Possible via OIDC + cloud provider roles, but requires manual configuration
Policy as Code	✅Yes – works out of the box	⚠️Yes – you need to implement the policy + the pipeline logic.	⚠️Yes – you need to implement the policy + the pipeline logic.

If you want to learn more about what you can do with Spacelift, check out this article.

GitHub Actions is the faster choice when your code already lives in GitHub and you want managed CI/CD with little setup. Jenkins is the more flexible choice when you need full control, run any version control system, or operate in self-hosted or air-gapped environments.

GitHub Actions uses YAML and runs as a managed service or on self-hosted runners. Jenkins uses Groovy and runs only on infrastructure you manage. For infrastructure provisioning specifically, neither is purpose-built, which is where a dedicated orchestration platform like Spacelift fits.

If you want one platform to orchestrate provisioning, configuration, and governance across your infrastructure, Spacelift is the answer. Create a free account with Spacelift today, or book a demo with one of our engineers.