Which is cheaper, CircleCI or GitHub Actions?

Both offer free tiers. CircleCI provides "Free" and GitHub Actions offers "Free". Compare the specific limits above to determine which fits your usage.

Is CircleCI or GitHub Actions more stable?

CircleCI has 1 recorded change and is rated stable. GitHub Actions has 2 recorded changes and is rated stable.

Can I use CircleCI and GitHub Actions together?

While both are in the CI/CD category, some teams use both for different workloads. Check each vendor's free tier limits to see if they complement your stack.

Compare CircleCI and GitHub Actions free tiers side by side. Pricing, limits, change history, and risk assessment for developers.

CircleCI vs GitHub Actions

Side-by-side free tier comparison. Catalogue dates here run to 2026-08-20.

36 other ci/cd options →

Verdict

Both CircleCI and GitHub Actions offer free tiers. CircleCI provides "Free" while GitHub Actions offers "Free".

A verdict here is not a fixed property of the vendor. A one-off pricing event demotes a vendor while its recorded date falls in the last 180 days and then lapses on its own, with nothing about the vendor having changed; a standing condition — a free tier withdrawn and not restored, a product retired — does not lapse with time. A badge carrying a date states the record it rests on; a badge with no date rests on no record in force.

CircleCI profile → GitHub Actions profile →

CircleCI

Riskstable

CategoryCI/CD

TierFree

Verified2026-08-20

Last read2026-10-28

Changes1 recorded

The Free plan includes 30,000 credits/month, 5 active users, and options for different resource classes (Docker, Windows, Linux, Arm, macOS) with varying concurrency levels (30x for Docker, Linux, Arm, Windows VM, and macOS VM).

GitHub Actions

Riskstable

CategoryCI/CD

TierFree

Verified2026-08-14

Last read2026-11-09

Changes2 recorded

Free CI/CD for public repos (standard runners, unlimited minutes). Private repos on GitHub Free: $12 USD of included compute a month, which is 2,000 minutes on a standard Linux runner ($0.006/min), 1,200 on Windows ($0.010/min) or about 193 on macOS ($0.062/min). GitHub's billing docs gave the allowance as 2,000 minutes before a revision published on October 28, 2026. 500 MB artifact storage, 10 GB cache per repo. Self-hosted runners remain free — planned $0.002/min charge was postponed indefinitely after community backlash (March 2026). Hosted runner prices reduced 39% (Jan 2026)

On every plan, standard GitHub-hosted runners in private repos and cloud sandbox compute and memory draw from the same included compute usage. (From docs.github.com/en/billing/concepts/product-billing/github-actions, read 2026-11-07.)
Without a valid payment method on file, GitHub blocks usage once the month's included compute usage is used up. (From docs.github.com/en/billing/concepts/product-billing/github-actions, read 2026-11-07.)
Copilot code review runner costs draw from the included compute usage on private repositories, and are free on public repositories. (From docs.github.com/en/billing/concepts/product-billing/github-actions, read 2026-11-07.)

Pricing Change History

CircleCI

increased discovered 2026-09-03 · effective date unknown medium impact

CircleCI's plan table began listing the (x86) Docker (Gen 2) Small, Medium, Medium+ and Large resource classes as available on the Free plan, between the Internet Archive's captures of 2026-08-29 and 2026-09-01. The Free plan's 30,000 credits a month, up to 5 active users and 30x concurrency did not change. Source ↗

GitHub Actions

deprecated effective 2026-12-08 low impact

GitHub Actions keeps running. GitHub-hosted runners end support for ARM32 (32-bit ARM) jobs on Linux and Windows by December 8, 2026, including native AArch32 user-space execution, because Node 24 does not support ARM32. Self-hosted runners on ARM32 have not been supported since Node 20 was removed in September 2026. Source ↗

postponed effective 2025-12-17 low impact

On 2025-12-17 GitHub postponed the $0.002-a-minute charge for self-hosted Actions runners that it had announced the day before for 2026-03-01, to re-evaluate its approach. Self-hosted runners remain free. The price cut of up to 39% for GitHub-hosted runners went ahead on 2026-01-01 as announced. Source ↗

Watch Both Vendors for Pricing Changes

We do not push notifications. Every change we record is readable the moment it lands, and the JSON answer carries an ETag — send it back as If-None-Match and an unchanged answer costs one 304.

curl https://agentdeals.dev/api/changes?vendor=CircleCI
curl https://agentdeals.dev/pricing-changes/feed.xml?vendor=CircleCI
curl https://agentdeals.dev/api/changes?vendor=GitHub%20Actions
curl https://agentdeals.dev/pricing-changes/feed.xml?vendor=GitHub%20Actions

API docs →

CircleCI vs GitHub Actions

Verdict

CircleCI

GitHub Actions

Pricing Change History

CircleCI

GitHub Actions

Watch Both Vendors for Pricing Changes

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