CircleCI vs GitHub Actions: pricing, quotas & features (2026)
Fast, configurable CI/CD with Docker, ARM, GPU runners and orbs
vs. CI/CD native to GitHub — workflows + marketplace + hosted runners
Data sourced from vendor documentation · Last updated June 2026
Summary
CircleCI and GitHub Actions are both cicd platforms, addressing the same core use case with different implementation philosophies and trade-offs. Both offer a free tier, making it easy to prototype without a credit card. GitHub Actions's paid plans start at $0/month, lower than CircleCI's entry point at $15/month. GitHub Actions has a broader documented feature set (18 vs 17 features). Budget-sensitive teams will find GitHub Actions easier to justify early on. All pricing and quota data below is sourced from CircleCI and GitHub Actions's official documentation — not generated by AI or estimated.
CircleCI vs GitHub Actions: Comparativa de precios, cuotas y características (2026)
En esta comparativa analizamos CircleCI y GitHub Actions lado a lado — incluyendo precios mensuales, límites del tier gratuito, características técnicas, cuotas de uso (almacenamiento, transferencia, usuarios activos mensuales) y los interfaces de desarrollo disponibles. Todos los datos proceden de la documentación oficial de cada proveedor, no de respuestas generadas por IA.
CircleCI es una plataforma de la categoría cicd — Fast, configurable CI/CD with Docker, ARM, GPU runners and orbs. Ofrece 4 tiers de precio: Free gratuito, Performance desde $15/mes, Scale desde $2000/mes, CircleCI Server (personalizado). Su catálogo en Staxly documenta 17 características y 7 interfazes para desarrolladores.
GitHub Actions pertenece a la categoría cicd — CI/CD native to GitHub — workflows + marketplace + hosted runners. Ofrece 5 tiers de precio: Public Repos gratuito, Free (Personal) gratuito, Per-minute Overage desde $0/mes, Team desde $4/mes. Su catálogo documenta 18 características y 8 interfazes para desarrolladores.
A continuación encontrarás los tiers de precio completos de ambas plataformas, una matriz de cuotas del tier gratuito (transferencia, almacenamiento, MAU, llamadas a la API y otros límites), el listado completo de características y los interfaces (CLI, SDKs, REST, GraphQL, MCP) disponibles para integrar cada servicio.
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Pricing tiers
CircleCI
GitHub Actions
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing free on CircleCI vs free on GitHub Actions.
| Metric | CircleCI | GitHub Actions |
|---|---|---|
| No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers. | ||
Features
CircleCI · 17 features
- .circleci/config.yml — Single source of truth (YAML 2.1).
- ARM + GPU Runners — ARM64 + T4 GPU resource classes.
- Contexts — Org-scoped shared env vars.
- Deploy Markers — Track deployments + rollback.
- Docker Layer Caching — Reuse Docker layers.
- Dynamic Config — Generate config based on changed paths.
- Manual Approval — Gate workflows with manual step.
- Matrix Jobs — Parameterized parallel jobs.
- Orbs — Packaged reusable jobs + commands.
- Parallelism — Split a job across N parallel containers.
- Rerun with SSH — SSH into failed job.
- Restricted Contexts — RBAC for secrets.
- Scheduled Pipelines — Cron-triggered runs.
- Self-Hosted Runners — On your infra.
- Test Insights — Flaky test detection + trends.
- Test Splitting — By timings, filenames, classnames.
- Workflows (DAG) — Fan out, fan in, conditional.
GitHub Actions · 18 features
- ARC (K8s Controller) — Autoscale self-hosted on K8s.
- Actions Cache — Persistent cache across runs.
- Actions Marketplace — 20K+ reusable actions.
- Artifacts — Upload/download job outputs.
- Composite Actions — Actions made of other actions.
- Concurrency Groups — Cancel / queue overlapping runs.
- Container Jobs — Run a whole job in a Docker image.
- Environments + Approvals — Gate deploys with manual approval.
- Job Summaries — Markdown summaries in UI.
- Larger Runners — 4-64 vCPU, ARM, GPU.
- Matrix Strategy — Fan out over axes.
- OIDC Cloud Auth — Exchange JWT for cloud credentials.
- Reusable Workflows — workflow_call.
- Secrets + Variables — Encrypted org/repo/env secrets.
- Self-Hosted Runners — Your own runners.
- Service Containers — Sidecar containers (DBs, Redis) per job.
- Triggers — push, pull_request, schedule, workflow_dispatch, etc.
- Workflows — Event-driven YAML workflows.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | CircleCI | GitHub Actions |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | circleci CLI | gh run CLI |
| SDK | — | @actions/* toolkit |
| REST | CircleCI REST API v2 | GitHub Actions REST API |
| GRAPHQL | — | GitHub GraphQL (Actions) |
| OTHER | .circleci/config.yml, CircleCI Orbs Registry, CircleCI Web UI, CircleCI Webhooks, Self-Hosted Runner | Actions Marketplace, Actions Tab (Web), Workflow YAML, workflow_* webhooks |
Key takeaways
- Both CircleCI and GitHub Actions offer a free tier — CircleCI ("Free") and GitHub Actions ("Public Repos") — with no credit card required to start.
- The entry-level paid plan is $15/month for CircleCI (Performance) vs. $0/month for GitHub Actions (Per-minute Overage).
- GitHub Actions has a broader documented feature set (18 features) vs. CircleCI (17 features) in Staxly's catalog.
- Developer integrations differ: only GitHub Actions offers SDK/GRAPHQL.
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