Azure DevOps vs GitHub: My Take After Using Both
Spent 3 years with Azure DevOps. Last year switched to GitHub. Here’s my honest comparison.
What Azure DevOps Does Better
Work item tracking. Boards, queries, hierarchies—ADO’s work items are more powerful.
Enterprise features. Permission models, audit logs, compliance—ADO has more mature enterprise tooling.
Repos at scale. For giant monorepos, ADO performs better.
Test management. Built-in test plans and management. GitHub has nothing comparable.
Reporting. Better built-in analytics and reporting tools.
What GitHub Does Better
Community. Open source ecosystem. Discoverability. Social coding features.
Actions. More flexible than ADO pipelines. Larger marketplace. Easier to use.
Code review experience. Pull requests, inline comments, review workflows—GitHub’s UX is cleaner.
Documentation. README rendering, wikis, GitHub Pages—better doc experience.
Cost. For small teams, GitHub is cheaper or free.
What’s Basically The Same
- Git functionality (they’re both Git)
- Basic CI/CD capabilities
- Security scanning
- Package management
When I Choose ADO
- Enterprise clients requiring strict governance
- Teams heavily invested in Azure
- Need sophisticated work item tracking
- Compliance requirements
When I Choose GitHub
- Open source or public projects
- Startup/small team
- Want better community features
- Prioritize developer experience
The Hybrid Approach
Some clients use both:
- GitHub for repos and PR workflow
- ADO for project management and enterprise features
- Sync between them with integrations
Works surprisingly well.
My Personal Preference
For my own projects: GitHub For enterprise clients: Depends on requirements
GitHub has better DX. ADO has better enterprise features.
Neither is “better”—they’re optimized for different scenarios.
The Bottom Line
If you’re starting fresh:
- Small team or open source? GitHub
- Large enterprise? Azure DevOps
If you’re migrating:
- Consider what you’ll lose before switching
- Neither migration is trivial
- Might be worth staying where you are
Both are good tools. Pick based on your actual needs, not hype.