Alternatives to Buildkite
At 5,000 minutes a month, the cheapest macOS option is one machine you already have on Buildhound Team at $24 and the cheapest Linux option is Ubicloud at $6.25. Staying with Buildkite costs $600 for macOS and $40 for Linux. Every price is the vendor's own list price.
- Prices checked 15 and 17 October 2026
- No referral agreement
A month of macOS CI
List prices, cheapest first at 5,000 minutes
At 5,000 minutes of macOS CI a month, one machine you already have on Buildhound Team costs least, $24; staying with Buildkite costs $600.
| Option | 2,000 minutes | 5,000 minutes | 10,000 minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buildhound Personalone machine you already have, on a personal account | $10 | $10 | $10 |
| Buildhound Teamone machine you already have, in an organisation | $24 | $24 | $24 |
| Xcode Cloudsold by the hour, checked 16 October 2026 | $49.99 | $49.99 | $99.99 |
| MacRunsold by the Mac, checked 16 October 2026 | $139 | $139 | $139 |
| Manzanitasold by the runner, checked 16 October 2026 | $149 | $149 | $149 |
| Bitrise Build HubM4 Large, 5 CPU, 14 GB, sold in monthly tiers, checked 17 October 2026 | $90 | $180 | $300 |
| Namespace4 vCPU, list price, checked 16 October 2026 | $120 | $300 | $600 |
GitHub-hosted runnersmacos-latest, 3 vCPU, list price, checked 15 October 2026 | $124 | $310 | $620 |
| Blacksmith6 vCPU, list price, checked 16 October 2026 | $160 | $400 | $800 |
| Depot8 vCPU, list price, at least the $200 plan, checked 16 October 2026 | $200 | $400 | $800 |
| WarpBuild6 vCPU, list price, checked 16 October 2026 | $160 | $400 | $800 |
| CodemagicMac mini M2, list price, checked 17 October 2026 | $190 | $475 | $950 |
| CircleCIM4 Pro Medium, 6 CPU, 28 GB, list price, at least the $15 plan, checked 17 October 2026 | $240 | $600 | $1,200 |
| BuildkiteStayHosted M4 Medium, 6 vCPU, list price, at least the $30 plan, checked 17 October 2026 | $240 | $600 | $1,200 |
List prices for private repositories, before free minutes or credits on any side, cheapest first at 5,000 minutes. Public repositories run free on GitHub-hosted standard runners and on Buildhound. Runner sizes differ, as each note says, and a bigger runner may finish the same work in fewer minutes, so a row is the price of the same minutes, not of the same work. One machine runs these minutes a job at a time. Personal is for a personal account, Team for an organisation.
A month of Linux CI
List prices, cheapest first at 5,000 minutes
At 5,000 minutes of Linux CI a month, Ubicloud costs least, $6.25; staying with Buildkite costs $40.
| Option | 2,000 minutes | 5,000 minutes | 10,000 minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubicloud2 vCPU, list price, checked 16 October 2026 | $2.50 | $6.25 | $12.50 |
| Buildhound Personalone machine you already have, on a personal account | $10 | $10 | $10 |
| Namespace2 vCPU, list price, checked 16 October 2026 | $6 | $15 | $30 |
| Blacksmith2 vCPU, list price, checked 16 October 2026 | $8 | $20 | $40 |
| WarpBuild2 vCPU, list price, checked 16 October 2026 | $8 | $20 | $40 |
| Buildhound Teamone machine you already have, in an organisation | $24 | $24 | $24 |
| AWS CodeBuildLinux Small, 2 vCPU, 4 GiB, list price, checked 17 October 2026 | $10 | $25 | $50 |
GitHub-hosted runnersubuntu-latest, 2 vCPU, list price, checked 15 October 2026 | $12 | $30 | $60 |
| Depot2 vCPU, list price, at least the $20 plan, checked 16 October 2026 | $20 | $30 | $60 |
| CircleCIDocker Medium, 2 CPU, 4 GB, list price, checked 17 October 2026 | $12 | $30 | $60 |
| BuildkiteStayHosted Small, 2 vCPU, list price, at least the $30 plan, checked 17 October 2026 | $30 | $40 | $80 |
| Bitrise Build HubLinux Medium, 4 vCPU, 16 GB, sold in monthly tiers, checked 17 October 2026 | $45 | $90 | $180 |
| CodemagicLinux X2, list price, checked 17 October 2026 | $90 | $225 | $450 |
List prices for private repositories, before free minutes or credits on any side, cheapest first at 5,000 minutes. Public repositories run free on GitHub-hosted standard runners and on Buildhound. Runner sizes differ, as each note says, and a bigger runner may finish the same work in fewer minutes, so a row is the price of the same minutes, not of the same work. One machine runs these minutes a job at a time. Personal is for a personal account, Team for an organisation.
Choose the one that fits
Stay with Buildkite when
- You run a large monorepo and want pipelines generated as they run.
- You want CI agents on your own machines at any scale, with Buildkite running the rest.
- Your team is moving off GitHub Actions anyway.
A machine you already have fits when
- Your CI already lives in GitHub Actions.
- You want your machines with GitHub-hosted as the fallback, without a fee per user.
- You want a fresh VM for every job on the machines you have.
Questions
What is the cheapest alternative to Buildkite for macOS CI?
At 5,000 minutes a month, one machine you already have on Buildhound Team at $24, then Xcode Cloud at $49.99, at list prices for private repositories checked 15 and 17 October 2026. Xcode Cloud is Apple's own CI rather than GitHub Actions.
Is Buildkite cheaper than GitHub-hosted runners for macOS?
No. At 5,000 minutes a month Buildkite costs $600 and GitHub-hosted $310 at list price, with 6 vCPU against GitHub's 3.
What is the cheapest alternative to Buildkite for Linux CI?
At 5,000 minutes a month, Ubicloud at $6.25, then Namespace at $15, at list prices for private repositories checked 15 and 17 October 2026.
Is Buildkite cheaper than GitHub-hosted runners for Linux?
No. At 5,000 minutes a month Buildkite costs $40 and GitHub-hosted $30 at list price.
Every alternative, by kind
All comparisonsMachines you already have
A flat price per machine, never per minute, with GitHub-hosted as the fallback.
Hosted runners
Someone else's machines.
- GitHub-hosted runnersGitHub's own machines, billed by the minute$0.062 a macOS minute
- BlacksmithHosted runners on bare metal, by the minute$0.08 a macOS minute
- DepotHosted runners on AWS, sold in monthly plans$20 a month for 2,000 minutes
- WarpBuildHosted runners by the minute, or in your cloud$0.004 a Linux minute
- NamespaceHosted runners by the minute or a monthly plan$0.06 a macOS minute, pay as you go
- UbicloudLow-cost hosted Linux runners, by the minute$0.00125 a Linux minute
- Vercel DaemonsRunner containers on Vercel, in public betaNo price published in the beta
- Bitrise Build HubHosted Mac and Linux runners for GitHub Actions, in monthly tiers$15 a month and up
Runners in your own cloud
Your cloud account's machines, some with a licence or a platform fee.
macOS only
Apple's own CI, and Macs rented by the month.
Other CI services
A different CI system with its own configuration, not GitHub Actions.
Your own machines
Other ways to run jobs on hardware you have.
- ushrOpen-source runners on your own machines, by hostFree for one host, then $49 for 3
- Actions Runner ControllerGitHub's Kubernetes operator for self-hosted runners, freeFree software, on a cluster you run
- GitHub's own self-hosted runnerGitHub's free runner, registered and kept up by hand$0, and your time
Put the machines you already have to work.
A spare Mac, a Linux box, or the laptop you code on while it is plugged in and not in use. One prompt into Claude Code, Codex or Cursor: Linux jobs run within minutes, macOS jobs once the Mac has built its image.
- The Buildhound agent holds no GitHub credential
- A fresh VM per job, off your network
- Your agent prepares, you approve
- How security works