# Buildhound vs CircleCI

> CircleCI is a CI service with its own .circleci/config.yml, billed in credits for each minute a job runs. Buildhound runs your GitHub Actions workflows 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 |
| [GitHub-hosted](https://docs.github.com/en/billing/reference/actions-runner-pricing), checked 15 October 2026 (`macos-latest`, list price) | $124 | $310 | $620 |
| [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 |

- At 2,000 minutes: One Mac you already have costs $24 a month on Team. CircleCI costs $240, and GitHub-hosted $124.
- At 5,000 minutes: One Mac you already have costs $24 a month on Team. CircleCI costs $600, and GitHub-hosted $310.
- At 10,000 minutes: One Mac you already have costs $24 a month on Team. CircleCI costs $1,200, 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 |
| [CircleCI](https://circleci.com/pricing/price-list/), checked 17 October 2026 (Docker Medium, 2 CPU, 4 GB, list price) | $12 | $30 | $60 |
| [GitHub-hosted](https://docs.github.com/en/billing/reference/actions-runner-pricing), checked 15 October 2026 (`ubuntu-latest`, list price) | $12 | $30 | $60 |

- At 2,000 minutes: CircleCI costs less here, $12 against $24 for one machine on Team. One machine pays off from about 4,000 minutes a month.
- At 5,000 minutes: One machine you already have costs $24 a month on Team. CircleCI costs $30, and GitHub-hosted $30.
- At 10,000 minutes: One machine you already have costs $24 a month on Team. CircleCI costs $60, and GitHub-hosted $60.

## Choose CircleCI when

- Your team already runs CircleCI.
- You want its orbs, test splitting and insights.
- Nobody on the team has a machine to spare.

## Choose Buildhound when

- Your CI already lives in GitHub Actions.
- You want a flat price per machine instead of credits.
- You have a recent Mac and want macOS jobs off the per-minute meter.

## Side by side

CircleCI's side is from its own pages ([source](https://circleci.com/pricing/price-list/)), checked 17 October 2026.

### Price

| | Buildhound | CircleCI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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. | Credits for each minute. 200 credits a minute for macOS, 10 for Linux, at $15 for 25,000 credits. |
| macOS | Your Mac. A fresh macOS VM per job; Apple allows two per Mac. | $0.12 a minute. M4 Pro Medium, 6 CPU, 28 GB, on Performance and Scale. |
| Linux | Your Mac or Linux box. A fresh Linux VM per job, arm64 on a Mac. | $0.006 a minute. Docker Medium, 2 CPU, 4 GB. |
| Windows | Not yet. Windows jobs stay on GitHub-hosted. | Windows VM. Medium, 4 CPU and 16 GB. |

### Where it runs

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

### When things change

| | Buildhound | CircleCI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Setup | One prompt to your coding agent. Or two commands by hand. | .circleci/config.yml. CircleCI's own configuration, not GitHub Actions. |

## One line in runs-on

CircleCI jobs run from .circleci/config.yml, not from runs-on in GitHub Actions. 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 CircleCI. Source: https://buildhound.sh/compare/circleci.