Jenkins vs GitLab vs GitHub Actions: 2025 CI/CD Comparison Guide

Looking for the best CI/CD tool in 2025? This guide breaks down Jenkins, GitLab, and GitHub Actions with practical insights and decision criteria.

Introduction: Three Titans Enter the Arena

It’s 2 AM. A deployment has failed, production is down, and every alert channel is lighting up. In that moment, your choice of CI/CD platform isn’t a tooling debate — it’s the difference between sleeping peacefully and firefighting until sunrise.

In one corner: Jenkins, the open-source veteran and endlessly customisable automation engine. In another: GitLab, the all-in-one DevOps platform bringing SCM, CI/CD, and security into a single application. And finally: GitHub Actions, the cloud-native CI/CD system tightly integrated with the world’s largest code host.

Each platform has loyal advocates, and none is perfect for every organisation. Instead of declaring a universal winner, this article helps you evaluate the right choice for your environment.

The Origin Stories: Understanding the Contenders

Jenkins: The Open-Source Grandfather (Est. 2011)

Evolving from the Hudson project, Jenkins became the default CI engine for more than a decade. With over 1,800 plugins, it integrates with almost anything — but that flexibility also introduces operational burden. Jenkins’ architecture requires teams to maintain controllers, agents, plugins, security patches, and infrastructure.

Managed Jenkins offerings (including Stacktrack’s) allow teams to retain Jenkins’ flexibility without absorbing full lifecycle ownership.

Key DNA Traits

• 100% open source

• Self-hosted, deeply extensible

• Massive community adoption (1.8M+ installations)

• Plugins vary significantly in maturity and maintenance quality

GitLab: The All-in-One Revolutionary (Est. 2011, CI/CD added 2012)

GitLab reimagined the DevOps toolchain by combining planning, SCM, CI/CD, security scanning, and governance into a single platform. The result: fewer integrations, fewer tools, more consistency.

GitLab’s open-core model means the Community Edition is open source, while premium tiers unlock enterprise functionality.

Key DNA Traits

• Unified platform from planning → deployment → security

• Built-in container registry and Kubernetes integrations

• SaaS, self-hosted, and hybrid deployment options

• Public roadmap and transparent development

GitHub Actions: The Cloud-Native Prodigy (Est. 2018)

A late arrival — but launched on top of GitHub’s enormous ecosystem. Actions aligns naturally with GitHub’s workflow model: PR-driven events, issue triggers, reusable actions, and tight SCM integration.

Hosted runners are convenient, but performance can vary depending on GitHub capacity. Self-hosted runners offer control, especially in regulated or high-volume environments, though they introduce operational responsibility. Managed runner platforms (such as Stacktrack’s) provide hardened, dedicated compute without that burden.

Key DNA Traits

• Native integration with GitHub repositories and PR workflows

• 20,000+ marketplace actions

• Cloud-native design with fast workflow startup

• Support for matrix builds, ephemeral environments, reusable workflows

• Available on GitHub SaaS and GitHub Enterprise Server

Round 1: Setup and First Impressions

Jenkins: The DIY Adventure

Setting up Jenkins offers great control but demands engineering involvement.

Typical Setup Process

• Install Java

• Deploy Jenkins WAR or container

• Configure proxies, SSL, authentication

• Install and vet essential plugins

• Configure RBAC and credentials

• Establish backup and recovery processes

Time to First Pipeline: Days to weeks, depending on complexity and ability.

Verdict: A powerful option for teams with DevOps expertise, or for organisations adopting managed Jenkins services to reduce overhead while retaining flexibility.

GitLab: The Guided Experience

GitLab CI/CD is built into the platform — no external service required.

Sample pipeline

stages: [build, test, deploy]
 
build:
  stage: build
  script:
    - echo "Building..."

Time to First Pipeline: 15–30 minutes.

Verdict: Fast onboarding and smooth defaults. Runner setup is slightly more involved than GitHub Actions but well-documented.

GitHub Actions: The Cloud-First Sprint

If your code lives on GitHub, onboarding is frictionless.

on: [push]
 
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - run: npm test

Time to First Pipeline: 10–20 minutes.

Verdict: Minimal setup, intuitive workflow syntax, and extremely low barrier to entry.

Round 2: Features and Capabilities

Jenkins: The Infinite Customiser

Strengths

• Unmatched extensibility via plugins

• Scripted and declarative pipelines (Groovy)

• Multi-branch pipelines and repo scanning

• Master-agent topology supports complex environments

• Integrates with legacy and modern ecosystems alike

Weaknesses

• Plugin sprawl and dependency issues

• Significant maintenance overhead

• UI/UX feels dated

• Security and patching are entirely your responsibility

Real-World Fit: Enterprises with bespoke pipelines, on-prem systems, or strict compliance often choose Jenkins for its flexibility.

GitLab: The Integrated Ecosystem

Strengths

• Complete DevOps lifecycle in one platform

• Auto DevOps for rapid onboarding

• SAST, DAST, dependency scanning, container scanning

• Kubernetes-native deployments

• Governance features: compliance pipelines, merge request approvals, audit events

Weaknesses

• Some security features gated behind Premium/Ultimate tiers

• High resource usage for runners

• Pipeline visualisation struggles with very large DAGs

• Token and permissions management can become complex

Real-World Fit: Teams looking to reduce tool sprawl, enforce governance, and adopt standardised workflows.

GitHub Actions: The Modern Minimalist

Strengths

• Deep integration with GitHub SCM

• GitHub Apps and fine-grained permissions reduce token sprawl

• 20,000+ marketplace actions

• Fast matrix builds

• Strong secrets management and OIDC integration

• Works with GitHub SaaS and GitHub Enterprise Server

Weaknesses

• Coupled to GitHub as SCM

• Hosted runner capacity can fluctuate

• Debugging steps are less mature than competitor alternatives

• Some enterprise features require GitHub Enterprise licensing

Real-World Fit: Developer-heavy organisations, open-source projects, and GitHub-native teams.

Round 3: Performance and Scalability

Jenkins: The Heavyweight Champion

Performance depends entirely on how you provision it.

• Can scale to hundreds of agents

• Supports dedicated high-performance nodes

• Fully controllable caching strategies

• Proven at extreme scale

Managed Jenkins platforms offer predictable performance without the operational burden.

GitLab: The Balanced Contender

• SaaS shared runners vary in performance

• Dedicated or self-hosted runners can be highly performant

• Autoscaling runners compatible with major cloud providers

• Good caching mechanisms

A strong choice for Kubernetes-native teams or organisations wanting hybrid deployment models.

GitHub Actions: The Speed-Focused Cloud Native

• Very fast boot times for ephemeral runners

• Global Azure compute footprint

• Pay-as-you-go concurrency

• Self-hosted runners allow predictable throughput

Managed runner platforms add performance isolation and private networking for enterprise use cases.

Round 4: Cost Analysis

Jenkins: “Free” — With Considerations

Direct Cost: £0 (open source) Hidden Costs:

• Infrastructure and storage

• Maintenance, patches, plugin updates

• Hardening agents and controllers

• Backup and monitoring

• Engineering time (10–20 hours/month)

Typical TCO for mid-sized teams: £6,000–£25,000+/year.

GitLab: Transparent Tiered Pricing

• Free: basic CI/CD and SCM

• Premium: $29/user/month

• Ultimate: $99/user/month

• Self-hosted available at same tier structure (plus infrastructure cost)

For GitLab.com, CI minutes vary by plan.

GitHub Actions: Pay-As-You-Go

• Unlimited minutes for public repos

• 2,000 minutes/month on free private repos

• Additional minutes billed per OS

• Included minutes vary across GitHub Team and Enterprise

• Self-hosted runners remove minute costs but incur infra/ops costs

Suitable for GitHub-native teams and organisations with variable workloads.

Round 5: Security and Compliance — Trust But Verify

Jenkins

• Flexible RBAC

• Credentials store and Vault integrations

• Audit logs via plugins

• Large plugin attack surface

• Security posture depends entirely on your operations

Security Score: 7/10

GitLab

• First-class security scans (SAST, DAST, secret detection)

• Dependency and container scanning

• Compliance pipelines and frameworks

• Protected branches and fine-grained approvals

• Enterprise audit logs (Premium/Ultimate)

Security Score: 9/10

GitHub Actions

• OIDC for short-lived cloud credentials

• Branch protection rules and required reviews

• Dependabot updates and alerts

• CodeQL analysis

• Secret scanning and policy enforcement

• Enterprise audit logs

Security Score: 9/10

Round 6: Community and Ecosystem

Jenkins: The Legacy Giant

• 1,800+ plugins

• 2,000+ contributors

• 15+ years of community adoption

• Documentation and plugin quality vary widely

GitLab: The Transparent Modern Community

• 3,500+ contributors

• Public issue tracker and roadmap

• Strong documentation and active maintainers

GitHub Actions: The Rapidly Growing Ecosystem

• Over 20,000 marketplace actions

• 100M+ developers on GitHub

• Broad vendor integration

• Marketplace action quality varies

The Verdict: Which Platform Wins?

There is no single winner — only the best tool for your organisation’s requirements.

Choose Jenkins if you need:

• Maximum customisation and control

• Integration with legacy systems

• Complex or unique pipelines

• Strict compliance environments

• A highly extensible automation engine

Choose GitLab if you want:

• A complete DevOps platform in one tool

• Integrated security and governance

• Reduced tool sprawl

• Flexibility across SaaS, self-hosted, and hybrid

Choose GitHub Actions if:

• Your code already lives on GitHub

• You want extremely fast onboarding

• You value cloud-native simplicity

• You manage or contribute to open-source projects

The Hybrid Approach: Often the Real Solution

Many engineering organisations run multiple CI/CD engines simultaneously:

• Jenkins for complex or long-running workloads

• GitHub Actions for PR checks and lightweight pipelines

• GitLab CI/CD where governance and security scanning are priorities

Use the right tool for each workflow — not a single hammer for every nail.

Final Thoughts: Automation Wins

A reliable CI/CD pipeline today is worth more than a “perfect” pipeline next year. Define your requirements, evaluate real-world performance, and iterate continuously. Many organisations; including large enterprises and digital-first companies; use managed CI/CD services such as Stacktrack to reduce operational burden, achieve predictable performance, and free engineering teams to focus on product delivery rather than infrastructure maintenance.

When CI/CD just works, innovation accelerates.