1. Introduction to workflow automation.
Automation of work processes seems to us to be a key part modern software development. With it you can significantly speed up processes, reduce errors and improve code quality. Without a doubt, management automation can be challenging. In this context, it comes to our aid GitHub Actions.

2. What are GitHub Actions.
GitHub Actions is primarily a tool for automating workflows in GitHub repositories. It provides the ability to create and customize work processes that can be executed in response to events such as a push to repository, creating a pull request, issuing a release and others.

3. How to get started using GitHub Actions.
To use GitHub Actions:
◉ Create a file describing your workflow in the .github/workflows directory of your repository.
◉ Identify the events to which the process must respond.
◉ Describe the tasks that must be performed when the event is triggered.

4. Examples of using GitHub Actions.

Automatic continuous integration (CI):

An example of a workflow with which we check each push in repositories for compilation and test errors.

Continuous Delivery (CD):

Workflow that automatically deploys an application on the server as soon as the new release is ready.

Notifications:

GitHub Actions are used to send notifications to Slack, via email and other channels for certain events.

5. Comparison with alternatives.
Let`s start comparing GitHub Actions with alternatives:

◉ With GitLab CI/CD: GitHub Actions gives us deep integration with GitHub, while GitLab CI/CD integrates with GitLab. The choice also depends on the chosen platform.
◉ With Travis CI: GitHub Actions can be integrated directly to the GitHub repository, while Travis CI is a separate service that requires additional configuration.
◉ With CircleCI: GitHub Actions is most intuitively integrated with GitHub, and makes it easier to use.

6. Pros and cons of GitHub Actions
Pros:
◉ Deep integration with GitHub.
◉ Ease of setup and use.
◉ Free for open repositories and providing
free minutes to complete tasks of private repositories.
◉ A variety of ready-made actions and images for general
use.
Minuses:
◉ Limit on free execution minutes for private
repositories.
◉ May require learning your own syntax.

7. Conclusion.
GitHub Actions is a powerful tool for workflow automation and continuous integration in the GitHub environment.
It guarantees an easy way to automate a variety of tasks, speeds up their development and significantly improves the quality of the code. Using GitHub Actions depend on your needs and preferences, but it remains an excellent tool for modern software development provision.