GitHub Actions vs Zapier
CI/CD native to GitHub — workflows + marketplace + hosted runners
vs. The OG automation platform — 8,000+ app integrations + Zapier Copilot AI
Pricing tiers
GitHub Actions
Public Repos
$0. Free unlimited minutes on hosted runners (Linux). No private runners.
$0 base (usage-based)
Free (Personal)
$0. 2,000 minutes/mo private repos (Linux). 500MB Packages storage.
Free
Per-minute Overage
$0.008/min Linux ($0.08 macOS, $0.016 Windows) after included minutes.
$0/mo
Team
$4/user/mo. 3,000 minutes/mo. 2GB storage. Org management.
$4/mo
Enterprise
$21/user/mo. 50,000 minutes/mo. 50GB storage. SAML SSO, audit.
$21/mo
Zapier
Free
100 tasks/month. Two-step Zaps. Zapier Copilot with daily limits. Unlimited Zaps, Tables, Interfaces.
Free
Professional
$19.99/month annual. Multi-step Zaps. Unlimited premium apps. Webhooks. Email + chat support. AI fields.
$20/mo
Team
$69/month annual. 25 users. Shared Zaps/folders. Shared connections. SAML SSO. Premier support.
$69/mo
Enterprise
Custom. Unlimited users, advanced admin, VPC peering, observability, TAM.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing free on GitHub Actions vs free on Zapier.
| Metric | GitHub Actions | Zapier |
|---|---|---|
| No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers. | ||
Features
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.
Zapier · 18 features
- AI Actions — LLM-powered actions inside Zaps (summarize, extract, classify).
- Chatbots — AI chatbots that trigger Zaps.
- Code by Zapier — Run JS or Python inside a Zap step.
- Delays — Schedule step execution.
- Filters — Condition-based step skipping.
- Formatter — Data transforms (date, text, number, utilities).
- Paths — If/else branching inside Zaps.
- Premier Support — Team+ chat + email priority.
- SAML SSO — Team+ SAML authentication.
- Storage by Zapier — Simple key-value store across Zaps.
- Webhooks by Zapier — Custom HTTP triggers + actions.
- Zapier Agents — Autonomous AI agents with 8k+ app access.
- Zapier Canvas — Visual workflow diagrams for planning.
- Zapier Copilot — Build Zaps from natural-language description.
- Zapier Interfaces — No-code forms + pages + chatbots from Zaps.
- Zapier MCP — Bring 8k+ Zapier integrations to Claude + other MCP clients.
- Zapier Tables — No-code DB integrated with Zaps.
- Zaps (workflows) — Multi-step automations across apps.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | GitHub Actions | Zapier |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | gh run CLI | Zapier Platform CLI |
| SDK | @actions/* toolkit | — |
| REST | GitHub Actions REST API | Zapier Platform API |
| GRAPHQL | GitHub GraphQL (Actions) | — |
| MCP | — | Zapier MCP |
| OTHER | Actions Marketplace, Actions Tab (Web), workflow_* webhooks, Workflow YAML | Webhooks by Zapier, Zapier Web App |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Outbound links to GitHub Actions and Zapier are plain references to their official websites. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
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