GitHub Actions vs Trigger.dev

GitHub Actions

Trigger.dev

GitHub Actions · 18 features

• Actions Cache — Persistent cache across runs.
• Actions Marketplace — 20K+ reusable actions.
• ARC (K8s Controller) — Autoscale self-hosted on K8s.
• Artifacts — Upload/download job outputs.
• Composite Actions — Actions made of other actions.
• Concurrency Groups — Cancel / queue overlapping runs.
• Container Jobs — Run a whole job in a Docker image.
• Environments + Approvals — Gate deploys with manual approval.
• Job Summaries — Markdown summaries in UI.
• Larger Runners — 4-64 vCPU, ARM, GPU.
• Matrix Strategy — Fan out over axes.
• OIDC Cloud Auth — Exchange JWT for cloud credentials.
• Reusable Workflows — workflow_call.
• Secrets + Variables — Encrypted org/repo/env secrets.
• Self-Hosted Runners — Your own runners.
• Service Containers — Sidecar containers (DBs, Redis) per job.
• Triggers — push, pull_request, schedule, workflow_dispatch, etc.
• Workflows — Event-driven YAML workflows.

Trigger.dev · 13 features

• Batch Trigger — Trigger many runs at once with limits.
• Environment Variables — Manage secrets in dashboard.
• Idempotency Keys — Prevent duplicate runs.
• Machine Sizing — Pick CPU/RAM per task.
• Queues + Concurrency — Named queues for controlled throughput.
• Realtime + React Hooks — Subscribe to run progress from client.
• Retries — Exponential + custom strategies.
• Schedules — Cron-triggered runs.
• Self-Hosting — Run locally or on your infra.
• Subtasks + triggerAndWait — Compose tasks by triggering children.
• Task Metadata — Attach arbitrary metadata to runs.
• Tasks — Define long-running TS tasks.
• wait.for / wait.until — Durable waits — minutes, hours, days.