# Practical Comparison Between the CI/CD Platforms Azure DevOps and GitHub
## 5 Security Aspects
While supporting commit verification, Azure DevOps emphasizes enterprise-grade repository controls, including project-level access hierarchies and integration with Azure Policy for compliance checks. Both platforms offer automated security scanning features that proactively detect vulnerabilities in source code, dependencies, and CI/CD configurations. Azure DevOps integrates with Microsoft Defender for DevOps, providing real-time threat detection, anomaly detection in pipelines, and integration with Microsoft Security Graph to identify and mitigate security risks across the software development lifecycle. This makes Azure DevOps particularly effective for organizations that require advanced threat intelligence, automated security alerts, and compliance-driven security assessments. GitHub Advanced Security suite provides code scanning, Dependabot, and secret scanning, enabling automated vulnerability detection at the repository level. Dependabot automatically monitors dependencies for security vulnerabilities, generating pull requests with patched versions of affected libraries. GitHub's secret scanning feature detects leaked API keys, database credentials, and authentication tokens within repositories, helping developers prevent accidental exposure of sensitive information [29; 30]. CI/CD pipelines are often targeted by attackers attempting to inject malicious code, compromise build artifacts, or alter deployment configurations. Azure DevOps and GitHub implement different strategies for securing CI/CD workflows, each with unique advantages and potential limitations. Azure DevOps provides pipeline isolation mechanisms, allowing teams to configure self-hosted agents within private networks and restrict access to external dependencies and unauthorized build environments. Enterprises can enforce artifact signing, immutable build verification, and release approvals, ensuring that only validated artifacts are deployed to production. GitHub Actions, which offers flexibility and automation, has faced security concerns related to untrusted third-party actions, where malicious workflows can be introduced into repositories. To mitigate this, GitHub introduced workflow approval processes, ephemeral workflow environments, and enhanced access restrictions for self-hosted runners. However, Azure DevOps remains the more substantial option for enterprises requiring fine-grained CI/CD security governance. As software supply chain attacks become increasingly prevalent, both platforms have implemented security features to mitigate risks associated with open-source dependencies, third-party integrations, and deployment workflows. Azure DevOps integrates with Microsoft's Zero Trust security model, ensuring end-to-end security validation of source code, build artifacts, and infrastructure configurations before deployment. Microsoft's Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) compliance framework provides organizations with complete visibility into dependencies, version tracking, and security audits. GitHub has also taken a strong stance on supply chain security, particularly with the GitHub Advisory Database, npm security advisories, and GitHub Actions for supply chain verification. GitHub's approach prioritizes automation, open-source security intelligence, and real-time vulnerability patching, while Azure DevOps focuses on compliance, governance, and risk management frameworks tailored for large enterprises [31; 32]. Azure DevOps and GitHub provide strong security capabilities, but their primary focus areas differ significantly, as reflected in Table 3. Azure DevOps is designed for enterprises that require strict compliance, centralized security governance, and Microsoft native threat intelligence, making it the preferred option for regulated industries and complex DevOps environments. GitHub's developer-first approach excels in security automation, proactive vulnerability detection, and seamless integration with Git-native workflows, making it ideal for agile teams, open-source projects, and rapid development cycles.