When it comes to choosing a CI/CD tool for your development workflow, two popular options are GitHub Actions and Jenkins.
GitHub Actions, a cloud-based solution integrated directly with GitHub repositories, offers ease of use with simple YAML configurations and automatic scalability. It’s a go-to choice for teams looking for quick setup and seamless cloud-native workflows.
On the other hand, Jenkins is a self-hosted powerhouse, known for its flexibility and vast plugin ecosystem. While it requires more setup and manual infrastructure management, Jenkins provides advanced customization, making it ideal for complex, large-scale projects.
Lets compare these two for better understanding.
| Jenkins | GitHub Actions | |
| Hosting | Self-hosted on your own infrastructure or cloud platform, giving more flexibility | Cloud-based, fully managed by GitHub with GitHub-hosted runners |
| Configuration | Managed via web interface or Jenkinsfiles using Pipeline DSL, often stored separately from the code | Uses YAML files in .github/workflows directory, version-controlled alongside code |