Azure Test Plans vs GitHub Actions

Azure Test Plans gives teams tools to plan, run, and track manual and exploratory testing for apps. For scripted tests, teams can track actionable defects and connect test cases and suites to user stories, features, or requirements. Exploratory sessions let testers design and run tests at the same time. During manual tests, Test Runner can capture screenshots, image action logs, and screen recordings. Reports, dashboard widgets, and customizable Power BI reports show plan progress and trends. The service integrates with Azure Pipelines for CI/CD testing and offers REST APIs and an extension contribution model. Manual testing is available in the web portal through supported browsers on major platforms; a free Test & Feedback extension supports exploratory testing in Chrome and Microsoft Edge. The free Stakeholders plan does not allow users to create or manage Test Plans. Basic is free for the first five users, then $6 per user per month; Basic + Test Plans costs $52 a month, billed at $52 per user per month. A 30-day trial is listed. Azure DevOps cloud-based load testing is deprecated; Microsoft points users to Azure Load Testing for managed load testing.

GitHub Actions is a CI/CD workflow service using YAML pipeline configuration. It runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, and the web, with hosted options and self-hosted runners. Projects can use pull-request checks, artifact or dependency caching, and up to 60 parallel jobs. The Free plan costs nothing, billed forever, and includes 2,000 CI/CD minutes per month plus 500 MB of Packages storage. Team costs $4 a month per user and includes 3,000 minutes and 2 GB of storage. Enterprise costs $21 a month per user and includes 50,000 minutes and 50 GB of storage. The listed Team and Enterprise prices apply to the first 12 months. GitHub Actions is freemium, so teams can start without payment and choose paid per-user plans when they need larger monthly minute or package-storage allowances. Hosted and self-hosted runner choices support different workflow arrangements.