# Alternatives to RunsOn

> 20 ways to run GitHub Actions jobs instead of RunsOn, each at its vendor's list price checked 17 October 2026 and ranked by what a month of CI costs. Staying with RunsOn is on the list too.

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. RunsOn has no list price by the minute to put beside them.

## A month of macOS CI

At 5,000 minutes of macOS CI a month, one machine you already have on Buildhound Team costs least, $24; there is no list price by the minute for RunsOn to put beside it. 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.

| Option | 2,000 minutes | 5,000 minutes | 10,000 minutes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Buildhound Personal (one machine you already have, on a personal account) | $10 | $10 | $10 |
| Buildhound Team (one machine you already have, in an organisation) | $24 | $24 | $24 |
| [Xcode Cloud](https://developer.apple.com/xcode-cloud/get-started/), checked 16 October 2026 (sold by the hour) | $49.99 | $49.99 | $99.99 |
| [MacRun](https://macrun.dev/pricing), checked 16 October 2026 (sold by the Mac) | $139 | $139 | $139 |
| [Manzanita](https://manzanita.run/), checked 16 October 2026 (sold by the runner) | $149 | $149 | $149 |
| [Bitrise Build Hub](https://bitrise.io/pricing), checked 17 October 2026 (M4 Large, 5 CPU, 14 GB, sold in monthly tiers) | $90 | $180 | $300 |
| [Namespace](https://namespace.so/pricing), checked 16 October 2026 (4 vCPU, list price) | $120 | $300 | $600 |
| [GitHub-hosted runners](https://docs.github.com/en/billing/reference/actions-runner-pricing), checked 15 October 2026 (`macos-latest`, 3 vCPU, list price) | $124 | $310 | $620 |
| [Blacksmith](https://www.blacksmith.sh/pricing), checked 16 October 2026 (6 vCPU, list price) | $160 | $400 | $800 |
| [Depot](https://depot.dev/docs/github-actions/runner-types), checked 16 October 2026 (8 vCPU, list price, at least the $200 plan) | $200 | $400 | $800 |
| [WarpBuild](https://www.warpbuild.com/pricing), checked 16 October 2026 (6 vCPU, list price) | $160 | $400 | $800 |
| [Codemagic](https://codemagic.io/pricing/), checked 17 October 2026 (Mac mini M2, list price) | $190 | $475 | $950 |
| [CircleCI](https://circleci.com/pricing/price-list/), checked 17 October 2026 (M4 Pro Medium, 6 CPU, 28 GB, list price, at least the $15 plan) | $240 | $600 | $1,200 |
| [Buildkite](https://buildkite.com/pricing), checked 17 October 2026 (Hosted M4 Medium, 6 vCPU, list price, at least the $30 plan) | $240 | $600 | $1,200 |

## A month of Linux CI

At 5,000 minutes of Linux CI a month, Ubicloud costs least, $6.25; there is no list price by the minute for RunsOn to put beside it. 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.

| Option | 2,000 minutes | 5,000 minutes | 10,000 minutes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Ubicloud](https://www.ubicloud.com/docs/about/pricing), checked 16 October 2026 (2 vCPU, list price) | $2.50 | $6.25 | $12.50 |
| Buildhound Personal (one machine you already have, on a personal account) | $10 | $10 | $10 |
| [Namespace](https://namespace.so/pricing), checked 16 October 2026 (2 vCPU, list price) | $6 | $15 | $30 |
| [Blacksmith](https://www.blacksmith.sh/pricing), checked 16 October 2026 (2 vCPU, list price) | $8 | $20 | $40 |
| [WarpBuild](https://www.warpbuild.com/pricing), checked 16 October 2026 (2 vCPU, list price) | $8 | $20 | $40 |
| Buildhound Team (one machine you already have, in an organisation) | $24 | $24 | $24 |
| [AWS CodeBuild](https://aws.amazon.com/codebuild/pricing/), checked 17 October 2026 (Linux Small, 2 vCPU, 4 GiB, list price) | $10 | $25 | $50 |
| [GitHub-hosted runners](https://docs.github.com/en/billing/reference/actions-runner-pricing), checked 15 October 2026 (`ubuntu-latest`, 2 vCPU, list price) | $12 | $30 | $60 |
| [Depot](https://depot.dev/docs/github-actions/runner-types), checked 16 October 2026 (2 vCPU, list price, at least the $20 plan) | $20 | $30 | $60 |
| [CircleCI](https://circleci.com/pricing/price-list/), checked 17 October 2026 (Docker Medium, 2 CPU, 4 GB, list price) | $12 | $30 | $60 |
| [Buildkite](https://buildkite.com/pricing), checked 17 October 2026 (Hosted Small, 2 vCPU, list price, at least the $30 plan) | $30 | $40 | $80 |
| [Bitrise Build Hub](https://bitrise.io/pricing), checked 17 October 2026 (Linux Medium, 4 vCPU, 16 GB, sold in monthly tiers) | $45 | $90 | $180 |
| [Codemagic](https://codemagic.io/pricing/), checked 17 October 2026 (Linux X2, list price) | $90 | $225 | $450 |

## Stay with RunsOn when

- Your team already runs on AWS.
- You want runners of any size there, Linux, Windows or GPU.
- You want compute at AWS's own price, with no per-minute fee on top.

## A machine you already have fits when

- Your CI includes macOS, which RunsOn does not run yet.
- You would rather use machines you already have than pay for instances.
- You want GitHub-hosted kept as the fallback when no machine can take a job.

## Questions

### What is the cheapest alternative to RunsOn 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.

### What is the cheapest alternative to RunsOn 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.

## Every alternative, by kind

### Machines you already have

A flat price per machine, never per minute, with GitHub-hosted as the fallback.

- [Buildhound](https://buildhound.sh): Clean runners on machines you already have. $24 a machine a month on Team.

### Hosted runners

Someone else's machines.

- [GitHub-hosted runners](https://buildhound.sh/compare/github-hosted.md): GitHub's own machines, billed by the minute. $0.062 a macOS minute.
- [Blacksmith](https://buildhound.sh/compare/blacksmith.md): Hosted runners on bare metal, by the minute. $0.08 a macOS minute.
- [Depot](https://buildhound.sh/compare/depot.md): Hosted runners on AWS, sold in monthly plans. $20 a month for 2,000 minutes.
- [WarpBuild](https://buildhound.sh/compare/warpbuild.md): Hosted runners by the minute, or in your cloud. $0.004 a Linux minute.
- [Namespace](https://buildhound.sh/compare/namespace.md): Hosted runners by the minute or a monthly plan. $0.06 a macOS minute, pay as you go.
- [Ubicloud](https://buildhound.sh/compare/ubicloud.md): Low-cost hosted Linux runners, by the minute. $0.00125 a Linux minute.
- [Vercel Daemons](https://buildhound.sh/compare/vercel-daemons.md): Runner containers on Vercel, in public beta. No price published in the beta.
- [Bitrise Build Hub](https://buildhound.sh/compare/bitrise.md): Hosted 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.

- [Cirun](https://buildhound.sh/compare/cirun.md): Runners in your own cloud, for a platform fee. $29 a month for 3 private repositories.
- [AWS CodeBuild](https://buildhound.sh/compare/aws-codebuild.md): GitHub Actions runners in your AWS account, by the build minute. $0.005 a Linux Small build minute.

### macOS only

Apple's own CI, and Macs rented by the month.

- [Xcode Cloud](https://buildhound.sh/compare/xcode-cloud.md): Apple's own CI for Apple platforms, by the hour. 25 hours free a month, then from $49.99.
- [Manzanita](https://buildhound.sh/compare/manzanita.md): macOS runners rented by the month, a VM per job. $149 a runner a month.
- [MacRun](https://buildhound.sh/compare/macrun.md): A whole Mac mini rented by the month. $139 a Mac a month.

### Other CI services

A different CI system with its own configuration, not GitHub Actions.

- [Codemagic](https://buildhound.sh/compare/codemagic.md): Mobile CI with its own workflow file, by the minute or a yearly plan. $0.095 a Mac mini M2 minute.
- [CircleCI](https://buildhound.sh/compare/circleci.md): Another CI service, billed in credits for each minute. $0.12 an M4 Pro Medium minute.
- [Buildkite](https://buildhound.sh/compare/buildkite.md): Pipelines on your own agents or its hosted machines. $0.12 a hosted M4 Medium minute.

### Your own machines

Other ways to run jobs on hardware you have.

- [ushr](https://buildhound.sh/compare/ushr.md): Open-source runners on your own machines, by host. Free for one host, then $49 for 3.
- [Actions Runner Controller](https://buildhound.sh/compare/actions-runner-controller.md): GitHub's Kubernetes operator for self-hosted runners, free. Free software, on a cluster you run.
- [GitHub's own self-hosted runner](https://buildhound.sh/docs/why-not-a-plain-runner.md): GitHub's free runner, registered and kept up by hand. $0, and your time.

Buildhound has no referral agreement with any vendor on this page. Source: https://buildhound.sh/alternatives/runs-on.