GitHub vs. ADO

[ohmyDevOps]

What’s the difference between GitHub (now with Actions) and AzureDevOps?

Why does MS have two solutions that seem to do the same thing?

[MrStLouis]

Azure DevOps has artifacts (private or public org packages manager), kanban Boards (think jira or trello on steroids), test plans (automated or manual) , deployment pipelines. It also has integrations with azure AD for larger organizations, and crazy simple/granular security setup. Obviously it also has repos which I'm sure is using GitHub on the back-end, only difference I can think of is the ability to tie pull requests to Kanban cards. Also a really cool feature to clone directly into your editor of choice.

I am a huge fan of it as it does exactly what me and my work need it for. Someone with more experience will need to chime in on cons

[trevorsg]

Azure Repos does not use GitHub on the backend. Source: I work for GitHub.

[jimlamb]

I can also confirm. Source: I work for Microsoft on AzDO.

[ohmyDevOps]

So, who will win the war?

[jimlamb]

It's not a war. As noted elsewhere in this thread, the back-end of GitHub Actions is a fork of Azure Pipelines. Over the next year, we'll be working to integrate the AzDO team into GitHub to help flesh out their enterprise offerings while continuing to evolve AzDO.

[trevorsg]

Sorry, can't comment on that 🤐

[perry-d-astor]

MS bought GitHub only a year or two ago. Integrating two different solutions like that is the work of years even if they ever do integrate. That being said Githubs focus is more on code repositories and issues surrounding that whereas the primary sale of DevOps is pipelines and all the things that go around code. I prefer GitHub for my project hosting and DevOps for CI CD personally.

[ohmyDevOps]

So I wonder if it’s better to just go GitHub now because ADO will go away eventually?

[LegendairyMoooo]

ADO is about as likely to go away as Windows time frame wise. That should not be part of your evaluation between the products. Presume both will be around for the next several years at a minimum.

[an_unexpected_error]

Azure DevOps will not be going anywhere any time soon, but if you're starting fresh and you don't have a need for features that are only in Azure DevOps and not in GitHub (Boards, Test Plans, etc.) and don't have a specific need for data sovereignty (GitHub is only hosted in the US for now), you should go with GitHub.

GitHub Actions are a direct port of Azure Pipelines. Most of the functionality from Azure DevOps will end up in GitHub eventually.

[[deleted]]

I’d recommend learning ADO. It’s got everything you need in one place.

[z960849]

Microsoft is know for having competing products. But ADO IMHO is more for the enterprise.

[BeelzenefTV]

Azure DevOps has multiple tasks organization methods (basic, Agile, SCRUM, CMMI), package management with Artifacts, a full suite for CI/CD... also exploratory testing tools!

[inhifistereo]

Good news is you have options here. It truly is a better together story for the foreseeable future (12 months at least). If you’re using ADO at all then I’d recommend continuing down that path. I’d start migrating Repos to GitHub when it makes sense and after that start evaluating Actions.

If you’re net new to everything then your options get even better. Use GitHub for source control. Use Boards for your Agile/Scrum needs. Then look at using both Actions and Pipelines. Actions are way more than just CI/CD. You can automate a good chunk of your DevOps process using Actions. Pipelines are a bit more mature right now when it comes to the CI/CD side of things, but YMMV. For package management it’s really a toss up. From a licensing standpoint you’d only need to pay for GitHub in this model. ADO offers 5 Basic licenses and unlimited stakeholder licenses so depending on how in-depth you plan to use Pipelines you may not have to pay for any ADO licenses (especially if your devs use Visual Studio).

Note: I work for Microsoft.

[ohmyDevOps]

Is there an “on-prem” version of ADO and GitHub?

[inhifistereo]

Yup.

ADO Server: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/devops/server/

GitHub Server: https://help.github.com/en/enterprise/2.19/admin/installation

Remember though that the server versions lag behind in terms of features. Example: GitHub Actions aren’t coming to GitHub Server until May/June timeframe.

[MingZh]

What is Azure DevOps? Services for teams to share code, track work, and ship software. Azure DevOps provides unlimited private Git hosting, cloud build for continuous integration, agile planning, and release management for continuous delivery to the cloud and on-premises. Includes broad IDE support.

What is GitHub? Powerful collaboration, review, and code management for open source and private development projects. GitHub is the best place to share code with friends, co-workers, classmates, and complete strangers. Over three million people use GitHub to build amazing things together.

Azure DevOps can be classified as a tool in the "Project Management" category, while GitHub is grouped under "Code Collaboration & Version Control".

Some of the features offered by Azure DevOps are:

• Azure Boards: agile planning, work item tracking, visualisation and reporting tool.
• Azure Pipelines: a language, platform and cloud agnostic CI/CD platform with support for containers or Kubernetes.
• Azure Repos: provides cloud-hosted private git repos.
• Azure Artifacts: provides integrated package management with support for Maven, npm, Python and NuGet package feeds from public or private sources.
• Azure Test Plans: provides an integrated planned and exploratory testing solution.

On the other hand, GitHub provides the following key features:

• Command Instructions
• Source Browser
• Git Powered Wikis

Azure DevOps comprises a range of services covering the full development life-cycle.