GitHub Actions vs Earthly

Struggling to choose between GitHub Actions and Earthly? Both products offer unique advantages, making it a tough decision.

GitHub Actions is a Development solution with tags like automation, cicd, testing, deployment, workflows.

It boasts features such as Workflow automation, Built-in CI/CD, Event-driven triggers, Reusable workflows, Flexible environment, GitHub integration, Third-party app integration, Security and access controls and pros including Seamless GitHub integration, Flexible and customizable workflows, Large ecosystem of actions and templates, Free for public repositories, Scales to any size project, Built-in secret management, Supports many languages and frameworks.

On the other hand, Earthly is a Development product tagged with build, automation, monorepo, caching, reproducible.

Its standout features include Declarative build definitions, Automatic caching and parallelization, Built specifically for monorepos, Integration with Docker containers, Support for incremental builds, Cross-platform support, and it shines with pros like Fast and reproducible builds, Simplifies build configuration, Improves developer productivity, Makes dependency management easier, Good for large, complex projects.

Feature	GitHub Actions	Earthly
Overall Score	1	N/A
Primary Category	Development	Development

Product Overview

GitHub Actions

Description: GitHub Actions is a continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) platform that allows you to automate your software development workflows. You can build, test, and deploy your code right from GitHub.

Earthly

Description: Earthly is an open-source build automation tool for monorepo-style codebases. It allows developers to define builds and dependencies in a declarative way, then automatically parallelizes and caches builds for fast, reproducible development.

Key Features Comparison

GitHub Actions Features

• Workflow automation
• Built-in CI/CD
• Event-driven triggers
• Reusable workflows
• Flexible environment
• GitHub integration
• Third-party app integration
• Security and access controls

Earthly Features

• Declarative build definitions
• Automatic caching and parallelization
• Built specifically for monorepos
• Integration with Docker containers
• Support for incremental builds
• Cross-platform support

Pros & Cons Analysis

GitHub Actions

Pros

• Seamless GitHub integration
• Flexible and customizable workflows
• Large ecosystem of actions and templates
• Free for public repositories
• Scales to any size project
• Built-in secret management
• Supports many languages and frameworks

Cons

• Steep learning curve
• Can get complex for larger projects
• Limited debugging and troubleshooting
• No official support offered
• Limited to 2000 minutes per month for free tier

Earthly

Pros

• Fast and reproducible builds
• Simplifies build configuration
• Improves developer productivity
• Makes dependency management easier
• Good for large, complex projects

Cons

• Limited adoption so far
• Steep learning curve
• Less flexibility than general build tools
• Only supports Docker containers
• Mainly aimed at monorepos

Pricing Comparison

GitHub Actions

• Free
• Open Source

Earthly

• Open Source