# Buildhound vs Bitrise Build Hub

> Bitrise Build Hub runs GitHub Actions jobs on Bitrise's Macs and Linux machines, sold in monthly tiers that each cover a budget of minutes. Buildhound runs them on machines you already have, for a flat price per machine.

## A month of macOS CI

List prices, before free minutes or credits on any side, cheapest first at 5,000 minutes. One machine runs these minutes a job at a time; more jobs at once need more machines, each counted only on days it runs a job.

| Option | 2,000 minutes | 5,000 minutes | 10,000 minutes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Buildhound Personal (one machine you already have) | $10 | $10 | $10 |
| Buildhound Team (one machine you already have) | $24 | $24 | $24 |
| [Bitrise Build Hub](https://bitrise.io/pricing), checked 17 October 2026 (M4 Large, 5 CPU, 14 GB, sold in monthly tiers) | $90 | $180 | $300 |
| [GitHub-hosted](https://docs.github.com/en/billing/reference/actions-runner-pricing), checked 15 October 2026 (`macos-latest`, list price) | $124 | $310 | $620 |

- At 2,000 minutes: One Mac you already have costs $24 a month on Team. Bitrise Build Hub costs $90, and GitHub-hosted $124.
- At 5,000 minutes: One Mac you already have costs $24 a month on Team. Bitrise Build Hub costs $180, and GitHub-hosted $310.
- At 10,000 minutes: One Mac you already have costs $24 a month on Team. Bitrise Build Hub costs $300, and GitHub-hosted $620.

## A month of Linux CI

List prices, before free minutes or credits on any side, cheapest first at 5,000 minutes. One machine runs these minutes a job at a time; more jobs at once need more machines, each counted only on days it runs a job.

| Option | 2,000 minutes | 5,000 minutes | 10,000 minutes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Buildhound Personal (one machine you already have) | $10 | $10 | $10 |
| Buildhound Team (one machine you already have) | $24 | $24 | $24 |
| [GitHub-hosted](https://docs.github.com/en/billing/reference/actions-runner-pricing), checked 15 October 2026 (`ubuntu-latest`, list price) | $12 | $30 | $60 |
| [Bitrise Build Hub](https://bitrise.io/pricing), checked 17 October 2026 (Linux Medium, 4 vCPU, 16 GB, sold in monthly tiers) | $45 | $90 | $180 |

- At 2,000 minutes: One machine you already have costs $24 a month on Team. Bitrise Build Hub costs $45, and GitHub-hosted $12.
- At 5,000 minutes: One machine you already have costs $24 a month on Team. Bitrise Build Hub costs $90, and GitHub-hosted $30.
- At 10,000 minutes: One machine you already have costs $24 a month on Team. Bitrise Build Hub costs $180, and GitHub-hosted $60.

## Choose Bitrise Build Hub when

- Nobody on the team has a Mac to spare.
- You want newer Macs than GitHub's standard runner without owning any.
- A fixed monthly budget suits you better than a bill by the minute.

## Choose Buildhound when

- You have a recent Mac that runs the same jobs about 3x faster than GitHub's standard runner.
- You want a flat price per machine with no budget of minutes to run out.
- You want GitHub-hosted kept as the fallback when no machine can take a job.

## Side by side

Bitrise Build Hub's side is from its own pages ([source](https://bitrise.io/pricing)), checked 17 October 2026.

### Price

| | Buildhound | Bitrise Build Hub |
| --- | --- | --- |
| How it is priced | 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. | Monthly tiers. From $15 to $810 a month, each a budget of minutes shared by macOS and Linux. |
| macOS | Your Mac. A fresh macOS VM per job; Apple allows two per Mac. | About $0.03 a minute. M4 Large, 5 CPU, 14 GB. |
| Linux | Your Mac or Linux box. A fresh Linux VM per job, arm64 on a Mac. | About $0.0125 a minute. Linux Medium, 4 vCPU, 16 GB. |
| Windows | Not yet. Windows jobs stay on GitHub-hosted. | Not offered. |

### Where it runs

| | Buildhound | Bitrise Build Hub |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Machines | Yours. A spare Mac, a Linux box, or a laptop while plugged in and not in use. | Bitrise's machines. |
| Secrets | On your hardware. Only on a machine a person marked Trusted. | On Bitrise's machines. Like every hosted runner. |

### When things change

| | Buildhound | Bitrise Build Hub |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Setup | One prompt to your coding agent. Or two commands by hand. | A machine pool in Bitrise. Its labels go in `runs-on`. |

## One line in runs-on

Build Hub's runs-on labels are the ones you set on a machine pool in Bitrise. Buildhound, on your machine while one can take the job and on GitHub-hosted when none can:

```yaml
runs-on: ${{ vars.BUILDHOUND_MACOS || 'macos-latest' }}
```

Buildhound has no referral agreement with Bitrise Build Hub. Source: https://buildhound.sh/compare/bitrise.