Alternatives to GitHub-hosted runners
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 GitHub-hosted runners costs $310 for macOS and $30 for Linux. Every price is the vendor's own list price.
- Prices checked 15 and 16 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 GitHub-hosted runners costs $310.
| 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 |
| Namespace4 vCPU, list price, checked 16 October 2026 | $120 | $300 | $600 |
GitHub-hosted runnersStaymacos-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 |
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 GitHub-hosted runners costs $30.
| 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 |
GitHub-hosted runnersStayubuntu-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 |
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 GitHub-hosted runners when
- Your CI fits in the included minutes.
- Nobody on the team has a machine to spare.
- You need Windows, or many jobs at once without owning anything.
A machine you already have fits when
- macOS jobs queue behind the limit of 5 at a time.
- Agents open more pull requests than the included minutes cover.
- You have a recent Mac that runs the same jobs about 3x faster.
Questions
What is the cheapest alternative to GitHub-hosted runners 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 16 October 2026. Xcode Cloud is Apple's own CI rather than GitHub Actions.
What is the cheapest alternative to GitHub-hosted runners 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 16 October 2026.
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.
- 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
Runners in your own cloud
Your cloud account's machines, plus a licence or a platform fee.
macOS only
Apple's own CI, and Macs rented by the month.
Your own machines
Other ways to run jobs on hardware you have.
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