Travis CI is a free continuous integration service for open source projects that automatically runs builds and tests after code commits. It integrates with GitHub and allows customizing builds through a .travis.yml file. This file specifies the language, versions, environment variables, install and test scripts, notifications, and more. Travis CI supports many languages including PHP and runs builds on Linux environments across different versions in parallel. It provides notifications, encryption, browser testing through services like Sauce Labs, and continuous deployment options.