Build 2× Faster with Semaphore Compared to Travis CI

With Semaphore, you get:
🔹 2x faster builds than Travis CI
🔹 Easy setup & zero maintenance
🔹 Clear test reports & pipeline insights 
🔹 Flexible pricing — starts at $0 
🔹 Built for high-performance CI/CD teams

Travis CI vs. Semaphore: key differences

Travis CI pain 😖	Semaphore gain 🚀
🐢 Slower build times	⚡ High-performance builds with auto-scaling
🔄 Limited workflow customization	🛠️ Flexible, visual pipeline editor
🔒 Basic secret management	🔐 Advanced secrets handling with fine-grained control
📉 Inconsistent support and updates	🤝 Proactive, expert support team
🧩 Limited integrations and extensibility	🔌 Rich ecosystem with extensive integrations

See full comparison ⬇

Why teams choose Semaphore over Travis CI

Stay fast—even during peak hours.

Less waiting, more deploying.

Spot and fix issues faster.

No more build limits or slowdowns

Travis CI often struggles with job limits and unreliable performance. With Semaphore:

✔️ No job queue delays
✔️ Auto-scaling CI/CD infrastructure
✔️ Predictable performance under load

“With TravisCI, builds were flaky and these issues only occurred on TravisCI. With Semaphore, the Ruby gem builds run perfectly, no random failures, and it’s done a lot faster.”

Tom de Bruijn

Developer

Read full review

Ship faster with smart parallelism

Travis builds often stall due to limited concurrency. Semaphore unlocks speed with:

✔️ Optimized parallel testing
✔️ Flexible resource allocation
✔️ Instant feedback for devs

“Travis CI was slow and our custom script for parallel tests was a pain to maintain. With Semaphore, test splitting just works — no upkeep needed. It’s saved us time and made the team happier.”

Nicolas Medda

Developer

Read full review

Better visibility, easier debugging

Travis lacks insights into what’s going wrong. Semaphore gives you:

✔️ Real-time logs and workflow visibility
✔️ Easy-to-navigate pipelines
✔️ Built-in debugging tools

“I think SemaphoreCI is a great way to supervise CI/CD workflows. What is very useful for me is the SSH debugging feature helping with troubleshooting pipelines.”

Verified G2 user

Consulting

🔍 Compare Semaphore Cloud and Community Edition 🆚 Travis CI

Semaphore Cloud

🌥️

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Saas

SaaS subscription model for cloud CI/CD, with pay-as-you-go and per-seat Enterprise plans.

Semaphore Community Edition

🌐

⭐⭐⭐

Open source

Open-Source and free to use. Must be installed on your hardware or cloud. Licensed under Apache 2 model.

Travis CI

🕰️

⭐⭐⭐

SaaS

Travis CI is easy to set up and free for open source, but has slow build times, limited concurrency and higher private-repo costs.

Full feature comparison

👉 Swipe to compare →

Features
Product type
SaaS
Hybrid
Fully on-premises
Features
Standard project set up in a few clicks
GitHub support
Bitbucket support
Gitlab support
Standardized product
Graphical pipeline configuration
Standardized configuration language
Command-line interface
Dashboards
Test reports
Flaky test detection
Monorepo support
Promotions
Preflight checks
Parameterized promotions
Deployment targets
Ease of Maintenance
No maintenance required for hardware
No maintenance required for platform software
No maintenance required for user-facing product
Declarative configuration of services
Hot upgrades without downtime
Operating system support
Linux, macOS
Windows, ARM
Performance
Guaranteed desktop-grade performance
Autoscaling parallelism
Allocate more CPUs and RAM to complex jobs
Each job runs in a pristine, isolated environment
Scalable dependency cache
Built-in artifacts store
Built-in Docker registry
Debugging feedback loop
Permission management
Mirror permissions from GitHub
Role-based access
Okta / SAML for LDAP integration
Declarative configuration of permissions
Security
Application-level security
Runtime isolation
IP allow list
Audit logs
ISO 27001 certificate
SOC 2 certificate
Support
Email-based support
Video call support
Support SLAs
Custom solution engineering
Dedicated customer success manager
Private Slack channel
Community support via Discord

- 🌥️ Cloud
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
  ⓘSaaS with autoscaling resources
- ✅
  ⓘHybrid: run Semaphore agents on customer-managed infrastructure, use cloud-based UI
- ✅
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
  ⓘAuthenticate with Git provider, select repository, import repository as project
- ✅
- ✅
- Pending
- ✅
  ⓘAll users use the same product maintained by Semaphore
- ✅
  ⓘWorkflow Builder: point-and-click interface to create and edit pipelines
- ✅
  ⓘDeclarative YAML configuration for all features
- ✅
  ⓘCLI can manage projects and do everything the UI can.
- ✅
  ⓘTrack perfromance and project health with dashboards. Define dashboards to track development metrics.
- ✅
  ⓘProvides a unified dashboard for failures across all runs in a project
- ✅
  ⓘDetects flaky tests and provides interface to track and manage them
- ✅
  ⓘSupport for big monorepo repositories
- ✅
  ⓘCreate branching workflows for complex CI/CD
- ✅
  ⓘEnsure user-defined conditions are met before deploying the application
- ✅
  ⓘUse parameters inside your pipelines for greater flexibility
- ✅
  ⓘSecure your deployments by defining who and when deployment jobs can run
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
- ✅
  ⓘOfficial VMs and Docker images are refreshed weekly, include popular OSS tools out-of-the-box
- ✅
  ⓘAll UI, including real-time and historical pipeline visualizations, logs, and test results is made and continuously improved by Semaphore
- ✅
  ⓘSupported via CLI
- ✅
  ⓘUse new product features as soon as they are released
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
- ✅
  ⓘVia self-hosted agents
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
  ⓘIn SaaS version
- ✅
  ⓘServerless model
- ✅
  ⓘChange one line of configuration
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
  ⓘFast debugging via SSH access to both running and finished jobs
- ⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
  ⓘVia official GitHub App
- ✅
  ⓘAdmins can limit access to deployment, secrets
- ✅
  ⓘOnly SaaS version supports Okta
- ❌
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
- ✅
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- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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- ✅
- ❌
- 🌐 CE
- ⭐⭐⭐
- ❌
- ✅
- ✅
- ⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
  ⓘAuthenticate with Git provider, select repository, import repository as project
- ✅
- ✅
- Pending
- ✅
  ⓘAll users use the same product maintained by customer
- ✅
  ⓘWorkflow Builder: point-and-click interface to create and edit pipelines
- ✅
  ⓘDeclarative YAML configuration for all features
- ✅
  ⓘCLI can manage projects and do everything the UI can.
- ❌
- ✅
  ⓘProvides a unified dashboard for failures across all runs in a project
- ❌
- ✅
  ⓘSupport for big monorepo repositories
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ⭐⭐⭐
- ❌
  ⓘRun Semaphore on your hardware or the cloud
- ❌
  ⓘEnd user in charge of updating Semaphore
- ❌
  ⓘEnd user in charge of updating Semaphore
- ✅
  ⓘSupported via CLI
- ❌
  ⓘUpgrade in place with minimal downtime
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
- ✅
  ⓘVia self-hosted agents
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ❌
- ✅
  ⓘAWS autoscaler is supplied
- ✅
  ⓘVia self-hosted agents
- ✅
  ⓘBoth epehemeral and non-ephemeral environments are supported
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
  ⓘFast debugging via SSH access to both running and finished jobs
- ⭐⭐
- ❌
- ✅
- ❌
- ❌
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
- ✅
- ❌
- ❌
- ✅
- ✅
- ⭐⭐
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ✅
- 🕰️ Travis CI
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ⭐⭐
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ❌
- ❌
- ✅
- ❌
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- ❌
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- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ✅
- ⭐⭐⭐
- ✅
- ❌
  ⓘThere is a limited, early beta support for windows.
- ⭐⭐
- ❌
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- ✅
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ⭐⭐
- ❌
- ❌
- ✅
- ❌
- ⭐⭐
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ✅
- ✅
- ❌
- ⭐⭐
- ✅
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌
- ❌

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