Background
At Cornflea Technologies, we’ve always been big on automation. For years, Jenkins was our go-to tool for CI/CD. It did the job well enough, but as our projects grew and our team got bigger, Jenkins started feeling more like a chore than a helper.
We were spending more time managing Jenkins than actually benefiting from it. That was the turning point—we knew we needed something simpler, faster, and better integrated with the tools we were already using.
The Pain with Jenkins
To be fair, Jenkins is powerful. But in practice, here’s what we kept running into:
Maintenance headaches: Our engineers were constantly updating plugins, fixing pipelines, and babysitting servers.
Too many moving parts: Every pipeline had its own scripts and quirks. Small changes can have unexpected consequences.
Slow pipelines: Builds are often queued up, wasting valuable developer time.
Security concerns: With numerous plugins and an exposed server, Jenkins always felt like it needed extra protection.
Disconnected from GitHub: Since all our code lives on GitHub, the extra setup just to keep Jenkins in sync was… tiring.
Over time, Jenkins stopped being “set it and forget it.” Instead, it became a system that required constant attention.
Why GitHub Actions Made Sense
We looked at a few alternatives, but GitHub Actions clicked almost immediately. Why? Because it lives right inside GitHub—the place where all our code already is.
Here’s what sold us:
Native integration: Workflows kick off the moment we push or open a pull request. No extra plumbing.
Simple setup: A few lines of YAML, and a new pipeline is ready to roll.
No servers to manage: GitHub-hosted runners scale automatically. We don’t worry about infrastructure anymore.
Huge ecosystem: There’s an action for almost everything—deployments, tests, notifications, security scans—you name it.
Safer by design: Built-in secrets management and permissions gave us peace of mind.
In short, it just felt natural.
Life After the Switch
Moving over wasn’t without a learning curve, but the payoff was quick:
New pipelines in hours, not days
Less maintenance—our engineers focus on code, not Jenkins servers
Faster builds with parallel jobs and scalable runners
Happier developers—no one misses those Jenkins plugin errors 😉
One of the biggest wins was speed. With Jenkins, setting up a new pipeline for a project could take a couple of days. With GitHub Actions, it’s often done before lunch.
Final Thoughts
For us, switching from Jenkins to GitHub Actions wasn’t just about tools. It was about freeing up our team. We no longer have to be part-time DevOps just to keep our pipelines alive. Instead, we get to focus on building, testing, and shipping great software.
Looking back, Jenkins served us well. But GitHub Actions is helping us move faster, stay secure, and keep our developers happy. And that’s a trade we’d make any day.
