Skip to content
devops

Stop Using Jenkins: Why GitHub Actions Is the CI/CD Tool You Actually Need

5 min read
devops ci/cd github actions

Also available in Spanish

Jenkins Was Revolutionary, But It’s Not 2007 Anymore

If you’ve been around the DevOps block for a while, you’ve probably encountered Jenkins. It was the go-to CI/CD tool for years, and it definitely deserves credit for paving the way for automated pipelines when most teams were still manually testing and deploying software. But let’s face it: Jenkins is showing its age. From crusty configuration files to plugin dependency hell, maintaining Jenkins often feels like a full-time job.

And then GitHub Actions entered the chat.

GitHub Actions isn’t perfect—no tool is—but it’s a breath of fresh air in the CI/CD space. If you’re still clinging to Jenkins for dear life, I’m here to convince you that it’s time to let go.

Jenkins: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Before I start roasting Jenkins, let me give credit where it’s due. Jenkins was built for flexibility, and it’s incredibly powerful when set up correctly. You can use it to automate just about any workflow you can imagine.

The Good

  • Extensibility: Jenkins has an enormous plugin ecosystem. If you can think of a feature, there’s probably a plugin for it.
  • Open Source: Jenkins is free and open source, which makes it accessible to teams with tight budgets.
  • Community: There’s a massive community of users and contributors who’ve kept Jenkins alive and kicking for over 15 years.

The Bad

  • Complex Setup: Setting up Jenkins from scratch feels like bootstrapping an operating system. You need to maintain a server, install plugins manually, and fiddle with arcane configuration files.
  • Plugin Chaos: The plugin ecosystem is both a blessing and a curse. Dependencies between plugins can break pipelines if you don’t keep everything updated (good luck with that).
  • User Experience: The UI is straight out of the early 2000s, and declarative pipelines in Jenkinsfiles are verbose and lack modern conveniences.

The Ugly

Let’s talk maintenance. Jenkins requires constant babysitting: monitoring builds, addressing plugin compatibility issues, troubleshooting failed jobs. If you’re not careful, Jenkins ends up becoming its own “special snowflake” server that you’re terrified to touch.

Why GitHub Actions Is a Game-Changer

Enter GitHub Actions, the CI/CD tool that’s built directly into GitHub. If your code lives on GitHub (and honestly, whose doesn’t these days?), Actions makes it ridiculously easy to automate your workflows. Here’s why it blows Jenkins out of the water.

Native GitHub Integration

GitHub Actions is baked into GitHub itself, which means no external servers, no separate accounts, and no painful setup. Your workflows live alongside your code in your repository, making everything feel cohesive.

Want to trigger a pipeline on a pull request? It’s literally as easy as this:

name: CI Pipeline

on:
  pull_request:
    paths:
      - '**.py'

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: pip install -r requirements.txt
      - name: Run tests
        run: pytest

That’s it. No dealing with Jenkins agents, custom plugins, or writing groovy scripts. It’s just plain YAML—easy to read, write, and debug.

Zero Infrastructure Headaches

Maintaining Jenkins means you’re also maintaining the server it runs on, whether it’s on-prem or in the cloud. GitHub Actions eliminates that burden. You don’t need to worry about spinning up instances, patching operating systems, or scaling build agents. GitHub takes care of all of that for you.

You can even run your workflows on self-hosted runners if you need more control, but for most teams, GitHub’s managed runners (Linux, macOS, Windows) are more than enough.

Marketplace of Pre-Built Actions

GitHub Actions leverages the GitHub Marketplace, which is packed with reusable actions for common tasks. Need to deploy to AWS? There’s an action for that. Need to lint your codebase? Definitely an action for that.

Here’s an example of deploying a Node.js app to AWS Elastic Beanstalk:

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Deploy to AWS Elastic Beanstalk
        uses: einaregilsson/beanstalk-deploy@v20
        with:
          aws_access_key: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
          aws_secret_key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
          application_name: my-node-app
          environment_name: production-env
          region: us-east-1

This action is maintained by the community, so you don’t need to write a custom deployment script from scratch.

Scalable Pricing

Jenkins is free, but free isn’t really free when you factor in the cost of infrastructure and maintenance. With GitHub Actions, you get 2,000 free minutes per month for GitHub-hosted runners on public repositories. For private repositories, the cost is proportional to your usage, and unless you’re running massive pipelines, it’s pretty affordable.

When Is Jenkins Still Relevant?

Alright, I know I’ve been harsh on Jenkins, but there are scenarios where Jenkins still makes sense:

  1. Legacy Systems: If your team has already invested years configuring Jenkins and it’s working fine, switching tools might not be worth the effort.
  2. Non-GitHub Repositories: If your code isn’t hosted on GitHub, Actions might not be an option. Jenkins supports pretty much everything.
  3. Custom Infrastructure: If you need total control over your build servers or if you’re running pipelines in air-gapped environments, Jenkins can still be the right choice.

But let’s be real—these scenarios are becoming rarer by the day.

Migrating from Jenkins to GitHub Actions

Switching from Jenkins to GitHub Actions might feel daunting at first, but it’s easier than you think. Start small—pick one pipeline and migrate it to Actions. Here’s a quick checklist:

  1. Audit Your Pipelines: Identify what your Jenkins pipelines are doing. Break them down into discrete steps.
  2. Set Up Actions Workflows: Create .github/workflows directories in your repositories and start translating your Jenkins jobs into YAML.
  3. Test and Iterate: Run your Actions workflows and tweak them until they’re stable.
  4. Decommission Jenkins: Once your workflows are solid, shut down Jenkins. Enjoy your newfound freedom.

The Bottom Line

Jenkins had its day in the sun, but GitHub Actions is the CI/CD tool you actually need in 2023. It’s simpler, faster, and significantly less painful to maintain. Unless you have a very specific reason to stick with Jenkins, it’s time to move on.

Seriously: stop wasting your time babysitting Jenkins servers and wrestling with plugins. GitHub Actions is built for modern workflows, and it shows.

So what are you waiting for? The future is YAML—and it’s pretty damn good.

Back to blog