Compare
Every way to run GitHub Actions, side by side
Where each runs your jobs, what macOS, Linux and Windows cost, and how it is priced. Every price comes from the vendor's own page, with the date we checked. Buildhound has no referral agreement with any of them.
Smallest standard size, list price
| Option | Where jobs run | macOS | Linux | Windows | How it is priced | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BuildhoundYour machines | YoursA spare Mac, a Linux box, or a laptop while plugged in and not in use. | Your MacA fresh macOS VM per job; Apple allows two per Mac. | Your Mac or Linux boxA fresh Linux VM per job, arm64 on a Mac. | Not yetWindows jobs stay on GitHub-hosted. | Flat, per machine$10 a machine a month on a personal account, $24 in an organisation, counted only on days it runs a job. Public repositories free. | |
| GitHub-hosted runnersHosted | GitHub's machinesHosted by GitHub. | $0.062 a minutemacos-latest, 3 vCPU. | $0.006 a minuteubuntu-latest, 2 vCPU x64; arm64 at $0.005. | $0.01 a minutewindows-latest, 2 vCPU. | By the minuteIn private repositories, each job rounded up to the whole minute. Free and Team include 2,000 and 3,000 minutes a month; a macOS minute uses about ten. | |
| BlacksmithHosted | Blacksmith's bare metalIn the US and Europe. | $0.08 a minuteM4, 6 vCPU. | $0.004 a minute2 vCPU x64; arm64 at $0.0025. | $0.008 a minute2 vCPU, in public beta. | By the minute3,000 free minutes a month per organisation, no minimum. | |
| DepotHosted | EC2 on AWSIn Depot's account, or yours. | $0.08 a minuteM4 or M2, 8 vCPU, on the $200 plan and above. | $0.006 a minute2 vCPU, x64 or arm64. | $0.008 a minute2 vCPU. | A plan a month$20 with 2,000 minutes or $200 with 20,000 minutes, then $0.006 a minute. No free tier; a 7-day trial. | |
| WarpBuildHosted | WarpBuild's cloudOr your AWS, GCP or Azure account, for Linux and Windows. | $0.08 a minuteM4 Pro, 6 vCPU. | $0.004 a minute2 vCPU x64; arm64 at $0.003. | $0.016 a minute4 vCPU, the smallest size. | By the minutePay as you go, with no plan. | |
| NamespaceHosted | Namespace's hardwareAt several sites. | $0.06 a minuteM5 Max or M4 Pro, 4 vCPU, pay as you go. | $0.003 a minute2 vCPU, pay as you go. | $0.006 a minute2 vCPU, pay as you go. | By the minute or a plan$100 a month with 100,000 unit minutes or $250 a month with 250,000 unit minutes, about two thirds of the pay-as-you-go price. | |
| UbicloudHosted | Ubicloud's serversIn Germany, with an optional US fleet. | Not offered | $0.00125 a minute2 vCPU x64 or arm64 on Standard; new accounts start on the faster Premium tier, which costs more. | Not offered | By the minuteWith a $2.50 credit each month. | |
| Vercel DaemonsHosted | Vercel's serversOn Fluid compute, in the regions you pick. | Not offered | amd64 containersBuilt from a Dockerfile in your project, up to 4 vCPUs and 8 GiB each. | Not offered | No price publishedFor Daemons in the public beta; Hobby includes 10 vCPU-hours a month. | |
| RunsOnYour cloud | Your AWS accountSet up with CloudFormation. | Not yetAWS's Mac instances have a 24-hour minimum. | About $0.0009 a minute2 vCPU at AWS spot, x64 or arm64. | Windows Server2022 and 2025, on your AWS bill. | A yearly licence€300 to €3,600 by jobs a month, free for non-commercial open source, plus your AWS bill at spot prices. | |
| CirunYour cloud | Your cloud accountSuch as AWS, GCP, Azure or Hetzner, or your machines with its agent. | Your own MacsIn VMs through Lume. | Your cloudOr VMs on your own machines. | Not stated | A fee by repository$29 a month for 3 private repositories, $79 a month for 10 private repositories, free for public ones, plus your cloud bill. | |
| Xcode CloudmacOS only | Apple's machines | Apple platformsBuilds, tests and ships apps on the Xcode and macOS versions you pick. | Not offered | Not offered | Compute hours a month25 come with the Apple Developer Program, then 100 for $49.99, 250 for $99.99, 1,000 for $399.99, 10,000 for $3999.99. | |
| ManzanitamacOS only | Manzanita's MacsIn Menlo Park, California. | M4 Pro, 6 vCPU, 22 GBOne job at a time per runner, up to two hours each. | Not offered | Not offered | Flat, per runner$149 a month, no per-minute charge; past 15,000 minutes a runner in 30 days it asks for a conversation. | |
| MacRunmacOS only | A Mac mini rented to you aloneIn MacRun's rack. | The rented MacJobs run one after another. | Not offered | Not offered | Flat, per Mac$139 a month for an M6 with unlimited minutes; annual billing is 10 months for 12. | |
| ushrYour machines | YoursYour own Macs and Linux machines. | Your MacIn a Tart or Lume VM. | Your machineIn a Docker or Podman container on the host. | Not offered | By hostFree for one host and one GitHub account or organisation; $49 a month for up to 3 hosts, then $19 a host. |
Each row opens its own page: the side by side, what a month costs at three volumes, and when each is the better choice. Free minutes and credits are left out of the prices so they compare like for like.
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