Head to head
CircleCI vs GitHub Actions
Both platforms are scored with the same methodology and the same category rubric. Nothing on this page is influenced by advertising.
58/100 | 70/100Higher score | |
|---|---|---|
| Category rank | #3 | #1 |
| Confidence | High confidence | High confidence |
| External Reputation | 79 | 92 |
| AI Authority | 64 | 68 |
| Web Authority | 18 | 44 |
| Expert Assessment | 57 | 64 |
| TOP10 User Score | — | — |
| Pricing | From $15/month (Performance) · free tier: $0/month, no credit card: 30,000 credits/month (page also claims up to 6,000 build minutes), up to 5 active users, 1 GB network, 2 GB storage, 30x concurrency (macOS concurrency 1), Docker layer caching, private orbs, 5 self-hosted runner tasks; credits expire monthly with no rollover | Team $4 USD per user/month for the first 12 months (3,000 CI/CD minutes/month, 2GB Packages storage, web-based support) · free tier: Free plan $0/month forever: unlimited public/private repositories, 2,000 CI/CD minutes/month (free for public repositories), 500MB Packages storage, community forum support; separate 30-day trial covering GitHub Enterprise, Copilot and Advanced Security |
| Pricing model | Credit-based (usage-based, prepaid credits) | Subscription with bundled allowance plus usage-based metered overage |
| Best for | Teams needing heterogeneous compute (Linux + Arm + Windows + macOS or GPU jobs) in one pipeline, with bursty build volume they can absorb via high concurrency, plus open-source projects and qualifying startups exploiting the large free credit allowances. | Open-source projects and small-to-mid teams already standardised on GitHub.com running mostly Linux builds near their included minute allowance, who value one control plane for code, review, packages, scanning and CI and can absorb an occasional multi-hour CI stall. |
| Avoid if | You need SSO or policy-as-code without an annual sales contract, require a predictable flat monthly bill and cannot accept auto-refill plus forfeiture-on-cancellation, are already deep in a GitHub-native workflow, or want minimal YAML authoring. | You need CI to survive independently of your SCM or cannot tolerate ten-plus hours of pipeline downtime, you run heavy macOS/iOS build matrices where round-up billing at $0.077–$0.102 per minute bites, you are a mid-sized team whose only requirement is SSO and audit logging, or you need a firm three-year TCO today. |
| Markets | Startup, SMB, Enterprise, Open source projects | SMB, Mid-Market, Enterprise, Open Source / Individual Developers |
| Founded | — | — |
| Headquarters | — | — |
A higher TOP SCORE means more of the evidence favours that platform on this methodology — it is not a recommendation, and it does not account for your specific requirements. Advertisers are never declared the winner of a comparison.