Tired of GitHub Actions Eating Your Budget? Here's Where Teams Are Actually Going

I've migrated 5 teams off GitHub Actions in the last year. Every single time, it started with the same conversation: "Our CI bill just hit $800 this month, what the fuck?"

The macOS Pricing Scam

Here's what actually happened to the last iOS team I helped. They were happily building their React Native app on GitHub Actions, paying maybe $40/month. Then iOS builds started taking longer. One day they got hit with a $600 bill.

GitHub charges $0.08/minute for macOS vs $0.008 for Linux. That's not "10x more expensive" - that's highway robbery. A 20-minute iOS build costs $1.60 every single time. The official GitHub pricing calculator shows just how expensive this gets at scale.

I moved them to Codemagic for $99/month unlimited builds. Problem solved.

Windows Runners Are Garbage

Windows builds on GitHub Actions are painfully slow. I watched a .NET Core build take 8 minutes on GitHub Actions that runs in 3 minutes on Azure DevOps. The Windows runner performance issues are well-documented but never fixed.

The Windows Server 2019 image is bloated as hell, takes forever to start, and half the time you get runners that are slower than others for no reason. Compare that to Azure DevOps Windows agents which consistently deliver better performance.

"Process Completed With Exit Code 1"

This error message makes me want to throw my laptop. Zero context, zero stack trace, just "something broke lol".

I spent 3 hours last week debugging a build that was failing on actions/setup-node@v3 with exit code 1. The actual problem? The Node version was 16.x but the action wanted exactly 16.20.2. GitHub Actions told me nothing useful.

CircleCI actually shows you the command that failed and why. Novel concept. Their mobile CI documentation is actually helpful for iOS teams.

Self-Hosted Runners Are a Nightmare

Don't even get me started on self-hosted runners. They randomly disconnect, especially in Kubernetes. I've seen them:

• Lose connection mid-build and never reconnect
• Get stuck in "offline" status requiring manual restart
• Fail to register with RUNNER_REGISTRATION_TOKEN expired errors
• Break completely when you update the GitHub Actions runner software

The self-hosted runner networking requirements alone will make you question your life choices. GitLab Runner is more reliable, and Buildkite agents offer better self-hosted management, but both mean migrating platforms entirely.

Marketplace Actions Break Everything

Three weeks ago, I'm debugging why our deployment suddenly started failing. Turns out actions/cache@v3 was trying to download some dependency that got moved, and the error message was just "cache restoration failed". Thanks for nothing.

The GitHub Actions Marketplace has thousands of actions with zero quality control. Someone pushes a broken version, your shit breaks, and you're debugging YAML at 2am figuring out which third-party action decided to change their API.

Third-party marketplace actions are a single point of failure you can't control. When they break, your deployments break, and you're stuck waiting for someone else to fix it. Compare that to CircleCI Orbs which have better versioning and Jenkins plugins with more predictable upgrade paths.

The Enterprise Feature Gap

GitHub Actions is missing basic enterprise stuff that Jenkins had 10 years ago. Modern Jenkins alternatives in 2025 offer better cloud integration and simpler configurations:

• No approval workflows (you get "environments" that suck)
• Terrible audit logging
• No pipeline dependencies across repos
• Self-hosted runner management is manual hell

What Teams Actually Do

From the teams I've migrated:

React Native/iOS teams → Codemagic or back to CircleCI with their macOS execution environments
Enterprise .NET shops → Azure DevOps with its comprehensive documentation
Teams with complex workflows → Jenkins (if they hate themselves) or GitLab CI for integrated DevOps
Startups getting price-gouged → CircleCI free tier with 30,000 credits monthly until they outgrow it

The pattern is always the same: teams hit a wall (usually cost or reliability), struggle with GitHub Actions for months, then finally give up and switch.

Don't be that team. If GitHub Actions is costing you more than $200/month or you're spending hours per week debugging YAML, it's time to look elsewhere.

What Migration Actually Looks Like (Spoiler:

It Takes 3x Longer Than You Think)

I've done this 5 times now.

Every team thinks they'll knock out the migration in a weekend. Every team is wrong. Here's what actually happens:

Day 1: \"This Will Take 2 Hours\"

Every migration starts the same way.

You look at your .github/workflows/ci.yml file and think "I'll just copy this to CircleCI's format, how hard could it be?"

Then you discover:

• Your actions/checkout@v3 doesn't exist on CircleCI

• Environment variables use completely different syntax

• Your Docker registry auth that "just worked" needs total reconfiguration

• The caching mechanism is totally different

I watched one team spend 6 hours just getting npm ci to run with proper caching on CircleCI.

On GitHub Actions it was two lines.

Week 1-2: The Discovery Phase (AKA \"Oh Shit, We Use All This Stuff\")

This is where you discover all the random integrations you forgot about:

Slack notifications

• Your webhook that posts build results?

Yeah, that needs to be completely rewritten for each platform.

Branch protection rules

• GitHub's status checks need to be reconfigured to accept your new CI platform. This means diving into repo settings you haven't touched in years.

Deployment triggers

• That neat setup where successful builds auto-deploy to staging? Now you need to figure out how Netlify or Vercel integrate with your new platform.

Marketplace actions you depend on:

• actions/setup-node@v3 → Manually install Node in your new platform

• actions/cache@v3 → Learn whatever weird caching system your platform uses

• docker/build-push-action@v3 → Write your own Docker commands like it's 2018

Week 2-4:

The Integration Hell

This is where migrations die.

You finally get basic builds working, then discover:

CircleCI migration gotchas:

• Docker layer caching costs extra money (surprise!)

• The free tier disappears faster than you expect

• Orbs are great but you need to relearn everything

GitLab CI migration gotchas:

• You need to move your repos to GitLab or deal with webhook complexity

• The YAML syntax looks similar but isn't (script: vs run: will drive you insane)

• GitLab Runner needs separate setup

Azure DevOps gotchas:

• The UI is from 2015 and makes no sense

• YAML pipelines vs Classic pipelines

• pick wrong and start over

• Licensing is confusing as hell

The Real Timeline (What I Actually See)

Simple project (basic Node.js app):

• Week 1:

Get basic build working

• Week 2: Fix all the integrations that broke

• Week 3:

Actually get it deployed somewhere with proper deployment strategies

• Result: 3 weeks for something you thought would take 3 hours

Complex project (microservices, mobile, etc):

• Week 1-2:

Basic builds working

• Week 3-4: Fix Docker builds, registry auth, secrets management

• Week 5-6:

Get mobile builds working (if applicable)

• Week 7-8: Fix all the deployment integrations

• Result: 2 months of part-time work

The Breaking Point:

Self-Hosted Runners

If you're using self-hosted runners, add another month to your timeline. Every platform handles this differently:

Jenkins: Now you're a Jenkins admin.

Enjoy managing Java versions, plugins that randomly break, and XML config files.

GitLab Runner: Actually not terrible, but requires infrastructure changes and networking setup.

Buildkite: Great flexibility, but you need to understand their agent architecture and secure your own infrastructure.

What Actually Costs Money During Migration

Engineering time: Budget 1-2 weeks for a simple project, 1-2 months for complex ones.

That's senior engineer time at $150-200/hour, and trust me, you'll be paying it.

Parallel platform costs: You'll run both platforms for weeks while testing.

Double your CI bill during migration because you can't just turn off the old one until the new one actually works.

Broken deployments: Plan for at least one production incident when something doesn't migrate correctly.

I've seen teams take down production for 2 hours because they didn't test their deployment scripts properly on the new platform.

Team productivity hit: Everyone's slower on the new platform for 2-3 months while figuring out the new YAML syntax and debugging workflow.

Teams That Succeed vs Teams That Give Up

Successful migrations I've seen:

• Started with their least critical project

• Ran old and new platforms in parallel for a month

• Actually read the documentation instead of just copying YAML

• Set realistic timelines (3x their initial estimate)

Failed migrations (teams went back to GitHub Actions):

• Tried to migrate everything at once during a sprint

• Underestimated how much they relied on marketplace actions

• CEO demanded immediate cost savings, rushed the process

• Didn't account for team learning curve

My Honest Migration Recommendations

If your GitHub Actions bill is under $100/month: Don't migrate.

The engineering cost isn't worth it.

If iOS builds are bankrupting you: Migrate to Codemagic immediately.

It's literally built for this.

If you're a .NET shop: Azure DevOps is worth the Microsoft tax.

If you like integrated DevOps: GitLab CI/CD is solid, but plan to move your repos too.

If you want ultimate control: Jenkins, but only if you have someone who actually likes maintaining Jenkins.

The dirty secret? Most teams that successfully migrate had a specific, expensive problem that alternatives solved. If GitHub Actions mostly works for you, the migration pain probably isn't worth it.