A faster, more reliable GitHub Actions alternative: Run Actions on CircleCI
Senior Technical Content Marketing Manager
GitHub Actions’ frequent outages and long queue times are pushing more and more teams to look for alternatives. But most options solve only part of the problem.
Third-party runner services can speed up your compute, but they still depend on GitHub’s orchestration. When GitHub goes down, your builds go down with it. Meanwhile, newer platforms that can run GHA syntax independently are still maturing and often lack the depth, scale, and delivery capabilities required for high-volume software delivery.
With CircleCI, you can now preview running your GitHub Actions workflows on a more capable CI/CD platform.
Starting today we are previewing the ability to run existing GitHub Actions YAML directly on CircleCI. That means sampling 40% faster builds, sub-30-second queue times even under the heaviest loads, and the reliability of a mature delivery platform built for today’s AI-driven scale, with the GitHub Actions YAML you already wrote.
GitHub Actions support on CircleCI is currently available in open preview for standard Linux environments. Sign up for free and select your GitHub Actions config during project setup to try it out today.
Not sure if your workflow is supported? Check the supported features in the FAQ below, and drop us a note in Canny if we’re missing something you need.
Why teams are reconsidering GitHub Actions
For many teams, GitHub Actions became the default because it was already there. Source code, pull requests, repository events, and CI lived in the same place, so getting started required little additional tooling.
But putting so much of the delivery process behind one provider creates a major operational risk. When GitHub has a serious incident, teams can lose access to both the place they collaborate on code and the system they rely on to build, test, and ship it. Recent outages have made the danger of that concentration impossible to dismiss.
Between May 2025 and April 2026, GitHub Actions recorded 57 separate outages, making it the most frequently affected service on the platform. GitHub has continued to struggle under load, at one point falling to zero nines of availability.
The impact can be severe:
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August 6, 2026: At peak, 71% of workflow runs hit infrastructure failures, with significant delays affecting many remaining runs.
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August 17, 2026: A GitHub outage lasted close to eight hours and affected Actions alongside other core GitHub services.
GitHub-hosted runners can spend minutes waiting for capacity, adding idle time to builds, tests, and pull requests. As CI volume grows through larger codebases, parallel development, and agentic workflows, queueing can become a persistent drag on developer feedback.
A growing market of GitHub Actions alternatives promises faster, more reliable CI, but the products behind that label solve very different problems. Some improve the runners underneath Actions. Others replace Actions itself. If reducing your dependence on GitHub is part of the goal, a faster runner only gets you so far.
Not every Actions alternative is a true replacement
Different Actions alternatives solve different parts of the problem. Some replace only the compute layer, while others move orchestration and execution off GitHub entirely.
| Approach | What changes | Tradeoff |
|---|---|---|
| Third-party runners | Compute | Better performance/cost, but GitHub still orchestrates CI and remains a downtime risk |
| Self-hosted runners | Runner fleet ownership | More control over execution, but more infrastructure to manage and the same GitHub dependency |
| Independent CI with Actions compatibility | Orchestration and execution | Moves CI off GitHub while preserving existing workflows, but GHA syntax can limit access to deeper platform features |
| Native CI migration | Workflow model, orchestration, and execution | Full platform capability and independence, with more migration work |
For teams that want to keep their existing GitHub Actions workflows, there are two main paths: keep GitHub Actions as the control plane and change the runner layer, or move orchestration and execution to an independent CI platform that can run those workflows itself.
Third-party runner services
Third-party runner services can be a good fit when execution speed, hardware choice, or compute cost is the main problem.
- Blacksmith provides managed runners for existing GitHub Actions workflows.
- Namespace provides alternative compute for Actions jobs.
- RunsOn provisions ephemeral runners inside your own AWS account.
These services preserve your existing workflows, but GitHub Actions still handles workflow events, queueing, and job dispatch. When Actions is unavailable, the runner never receives the job.
Self-hosted runners follow the same basic model: you control the infrastructure, but GitHub Actions still orchestrates the workflow. You take on provisioning, scaling, maintenance, and security without reducing your exposure to Actions outages.
Independent CI platforms with GitHub Actions compatibility
A smaller set of CI platforms can run GitHub Actions workflows on their own infrastructure, removing Actions from the critical path while preserving familiar workflow syntax.
Depot CI runs GitHub Actions YAML on its own orchestration and compute. Its CI model is currently centered on GHA syntax, so teams looking for a deeper native CI model have fewer options beyond the GitHub Actions workflow structure.
Buildkite can run supported GitHub Actions workflows on its own infrastructure through an open source compatibility layer currently in public preview. Support is still partial, and Buildkite recommends checking existing workflows against its compatibility documentation before migrating.
CircleCI can now orchestrate and run supported GitHub Actions workflows directly on CircleCI infrastructure. That means transferring your workflows onto a mature CI/CD platform built for high-volume software delivery. GitHub Actions workflows and CircleCI-native config can run together, so teams can start with the workflows they already have and adopt deeper CircleCI capabilities where they provide value.
Moving off GitHub? Keep CI independent of the forge
The choice of Git host is becoming less fixed. Cursor Origin has entered the market alongside Forgejo, Gitea, GitLab, Bitbucket, and other alternatives. Moving repositories already affects authentication, pull requests, integrations, developer tooling, and automation. Adding a complete CI rewrite makes the project considerably larger.
Portable config separates the two decisions. Existing GitHub Actions YAML can continue serving as CI config even when GitHub Actions itself is no longer running it.
CircleCI provides a consistent delivery layer across a variety of source-control platforms, including multi-VCS environments. Teams can change where code lives without rebuilding delivery infrastructure around every new forge.
What to look for when evaluating your options
When comparing GitHub Actions alternatives, look at how completely each option addresses the problems you’re trying to solve:
- Reliability: Does GitHub Actions remain in the critical path?
- Performance and scale: Does the alternative improve execution and queueing, and can it keep feedback fast as workload volume grows?
- Migration effort: Can existing workflows run directly, or do they need to be copied, converted, or rewritten?
- Compatibility: Does it support the Actions features your production workflows rely on?
- Platform depth: What testing, orchestration, deployment, policy, analytics, and developer capabilities come with the move?
- VCS flexibility: Can the same CI layer support another forge or a multi-provider environment?
If faster runners are all you need, a runner service may be enough. But if reliability, scale, platform capability, or independence from GitHub are part of the problem, look beyond the compute layer and evaluate what the alternative replaces across the rest of your CI system.
Run your GitHub Actions workflows on CircleCI
CircleCI’s open preview supports Linux-based GitHub Actions workflows, including checkout, caching, matrix builds, test splitting, and secrets through CircleCI project environment variables or contexts.
Getting started is straightforward:
- Sign up for free and create an organization.
- Create a project and select your repository.
- Choose the existing GitHub Actions workflow file in your repo and when builds should run.
- Add any secrets your workflow needs, then push a commit and watch it run.
The walkthrough below runs through those steps on a real workflow.
Running your existing YAML is only the starting point. CircleCI-native config gives teams capabilities beyond the GitHub Actions workflow model, including dynamic config for generating pipelines based on the change being built and orbs for packaging and reusing delivery logic across projects.
You can introduce those capabilities where they provide value while continuing to work with the GitHub Actions workflows you already have. CircleCI also adds high-concurrency compute, test intelligence, policy controls, and developer and agent interfaces as your needs grow. Explore the CircleCI optimization guides for ways to take advantage of more of the platform.
GitHub Actions support on CircleCI is currently available in open preview on Linux.
Keep the workflow. Upgrade the platform.
Moving away from GitHub Actions no longer has to mean rewriting your CI from scratch or settling for faster runners attached to the same orchestration layer.
Bring the workflows your team already relies on to CircleCI for faster execution, greater reliability, and the scale and capabilities of a mature CI/CD platform.
Start with one real workflow. Compare CircleCI against your current setup using your own workload, then move more workflows as you see the gains in speed, reliability, and scale.
