GitHub Actions vs GitLab CI/CD for multi-cloud deployments?

We're migrating from Jenkins to a modern CI/CD platform and need to support deployments across AWS, Azure, and GCP simultaneously. Currently leaning towards GitHub Actions for simplicity, but GitLab CI seems more powerful for matrix builds.

Key requirements:

• Deploy to 3 cloud providers in parallel
• Docker image builds (~15min each)
• Terraform infrastructure changes
• Cost-aware (execution minutes matter)

Anyone running both at scale? Which handles multi-cloud better? Concerned about GitHub's 20-minute job timeout and artifact limits.

Thanks!

GitLab CI wins here imo. The matrix feature is actually useful for multi-cloud—you can define cloud provider as a variable and parallelize across AWS/Azure/GCP without duplicating job configs. GitHub Actions feels clunky doing the same thing.

Big catch though: GitLab's pricing on execution minutes is way better if you're self-hosting the runners. We spun up a few Hetzner boxes as dedicated runners and cut costs in half. With GitHub you're locked into their runners unless you want the complexity of self-hosted. For 15min Docker builds × 3 clouds, that difference adds up fast.

Yeah, the matrix approach in GitLab CI is looking pretty appealing for exactly that reason—avoiding the config duplication across three providers. Quick follow-up though: how does GitLab CI compare on execution costs? We're trying to keep the minute burn under control, and I've heard GitHub Actions can be cheaper for parallel jobs.

Don't sleep on GitHub Actions' reusable workflows for this—you can abstract the cloud-specific logic into separate workflows and call them from a parent workflow, which sidesteps the duplication issue. That said, if you're cost-conscious with those 15min Docker builds, GitLab's caching layer is genuinely better. We switched and cut our CI minutes by ~30% just from smarter artifact caching across parallel jobs. GitLab also gives you more granular control over runner resource allocation per job, which matters when you're burning through execution time across 3 clouds simultaneously.

Real talk: if cost is a top concern, watch your minutes closely. GitLab CI's free tier gives 400 mins/month, GitHub Actions gives 2000 mins on private repos. For 15min Docker builds across 3 clouds, you'll burn through quota fast either way. I'd factor in self-hosted runners early—both support them, but GitLab's runner setup is slightly smoother imo. Also consider caching layers across builds; that 15min per image adds up quick when parallelized 3x.