Everyone's raving about ditching Jenkins for "simplicity" and "native integration." Let's talk about the actual bill.
We migrated a 50-dev team (~250 microservices, mixed Java/Node/Python) off a self-hosted Jenkins master/agent fleet to GitHub Actions last year. The Jenkins infra cost was predictable: a handful of c5.xlarge spot instances for agents, one reserved m5.large for the master. ~$300/month.
Now, with GitHub Actions, our monthly bill is consistently **$2200+**.
Why?
* **The "free" minutes vanish instantly.** 50 devs, 250 services, multiple PRs/day. We burn through the included minutes in the first week.
* **Windows/Linux minute multiplier** eats you alive if you have any .NET in the mix.
* **Self-hosted runners** become a necessity, but then you're back to managing infra, just on a different platform. And you pay for the privilege.
The config might be cleaner, but the cost equation is brutal unless your workflow is trivial.
Our current runner config (to keep costs *somewhat* sane):
```yaml
# .github/workflows/ci.yml
jobs:
build:
runs-on: [self-hosted, linux, x64]
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
# ... your steps
```
You're trading a known, controllable capex/opex for a variable, usage-based tax that scales linearly with developer activity.
Show the math: `(50 devs * ~40 min/day * 22 days * $0.008/min) + Windows multiplier + storage = ~$2200/month`.
show the math