Github Actions vs Netlify Build comparison of Continuous Integration servers
What are the differences between Github Actions and Netlify Build?

Best GitHub integration possible

Deploy your sites to global Netlify infrastructure

Every commit gets its own deployed version. Automatically attach a new Deploy Preview at a unique permanent URL whenever you submit a Pull/Merge Request. Set Netlify Build to deploy every branch in the repository for unlimited staging environments.

SaaS / On Premise

SaaS

Yes

The on premise plan (not yet available) will be free, 2000 build minutes included in the free cloud plan. Completely free plan for open source projects.

Yes

300 build minutes/month, 1 concurrent CI build

Yes (partial)

While it's clear what the cost is (priced per build-minute), figuring out costs can be a hassle, especially as the price can vary quite a bit depending on commits to the project. One advantage for GitHub Actions is that the tiers define a maximum amount of minutes, so it's easier to predict the final cost. You can also purchase aditional runners with pricing dependent on the platform (MacOS, Linux, Windows)

Yes

Extra 500 build minutes costs $7/month. User seat $15/user/month.

Yes

Community support available for any tier, unclear at what point and if dedicated support is available. Safe to assume that eneterprise clients can access technical support.

Yes

99.99% uptime SLA for Starter and Pro plan. Business plan has negotiable SLA.

Yes

Matrix builds allow concurrent jobs, even multi-platform.

Yes

Starter plan (free) has only 1 concurrent build but Pro plan has 3 concurrent builds included.

N/A

No specific mention, but given the fact that tasks can be run on multiple platforms, it's likely that distributed builds are also available.

Yes

High-Performance Builds - The premium build environment gives more concurrency, processing power and asynchronous deploys.

Yes

Linux, macOS, Windows, and containers, or run directly in a VM.

Yes

When you trigger a build on Netlify, their buildbot starts a Docker container to build your website. The buildbot will look for instructions about required languages and software needed to run your command before running build command. The instructions are called dependencies, and how you declare them depends on the programming languages and tools used in build. Build image selection is available. Until recently, all Netlify sites were built using the same build image. Netlify is experimenting with allowing customers to select from multiple Docker images with different operating systems and software versions.

Yes

Minimal status overview definitely available, with live logs and GitHub integration. Unclear how far it goes.

Yes

Simple dashboard to see CI builds. Other than CI analytics Netlify has Netlify Analytics that brings data captured directly from their servers for your website.

N/A

Unclear from the available documentation

Yes

Team members managment. Role-based access control only in business plan.

Yes

Coming soon, not available yet.

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Called GitHub Action Workflows, they are defined in separate Docker containers, using the YAML syntax (they used to support HCL, but they're migrating away from that)

Yes, partially

Simple steps, define your own steps in bash commands

N/A

Unclear from the available documentation

No

Yes

Thanks to the large following, GitHub Actions already enjoys a wide varierty of available pre-made workflows, which you can browse right on the homepage: https://github.com/features/actions

No

There are only small helpful things like incoming webhooks so other services can trigger Netlify deploys, and send outgoing webhooks as a deploy starts, succeeds, or fails.

Yes

Unclear how, but they mention Ruby support specifically on the homepage

Yes

It has support for Ruby.

Yes

Unclear how, but they mention Javascript (Node.js) support specifically on the homepage

Yes

It has support for JavaScript.

Yes

Integrations made possible via the shared third party workflows available (AWS, Azure, Zeit, Kubernetes and many more)

Yes

Netlify has incoming webhooks so other services can trigger Netlify deploys, and send outgoing webhooks as a deploy starts, succeeds, or fails. For instance you can integrate it with Slack.

N/A

Unclear at the moment, but assume GitHub Actions will be integrated with the GitHub GraphQL API (one of the more mature GraphQL API implementations available)

No

N/A

N/A