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Buildhound vs Codemagic

Codemagic is a CI service for mobile apps with its own codemagic.yaml, billed by the build minute or at a fixed yearly price. Buildhound runs your GitHub Actions workflows on a Mac you already have, for a flat price per machine.

Set up by hand

What a month costs

Minutes a month
  • Buildhound Teamone machine you already have$24
  • GitHub-hostedmacos-latest, list price$310
  • CodemagicMac mini M2, list price$475

One Mac you already have costs $24 a month on Team. Codemagic costs $475, and GitHub-hosted $310.

List prices, before free minutes or credits on either side. One machine runs these minutes a job at a time; Personal is $10 a machine on a personal account.

Choose the one that fits

Choose Codemagic when

  • You build mobile apps and want one service from build to the stores.
  • You would rather not run mobile CI in GitHub Actions at all.
  • Nobody on the team has a Mac to spare.

Choose Buildhound when

  • Your CI already lives in GitHub Actions.
  • You want a flat price per Mac instead of build minutes.
  • The repository has web or backend jobs in the same workflows.

Side by side

Codemagic from its own pages, checked 17 October 2026

Two ways to run the same workflow
Clean runners on machines you already have$24a machine a month on Team
CodemagicMobile CI with its own workflows$0.095a Mac mini M2 minute

Price

How it is priced
BuildhoundFlat, 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.
CodemagicBy the minute, or a yearly plan500 free Mac mini M2 minutes a month, then by the minute; fixed yearly plans have unlimited minutes.
macOS
BuildhoundYour MacA fresh macOS VM per job; Apple allows two per Mac.
Codemagic$0.095 a minuteMac mini M2; newer Macs cost more or are on Enterprise.
Linux
BuildhoundYour Mac or Linux boxA fresh Linux VM per job, arm64 on a Mac.
Codemagic$0.045 a minuteLinux X2, the same as Windows.
Windows
BuildhoundNot yetWindows jobs stay on GitHub-hosted.
Codemagic$0.045 a minuteThe same as Linux.

Where it runs

Machines
BuildhoundYoursA spare Mac, a Linux box, or a laptop while plugged in and not in use.
CodemagicCodemagic's machines
Secrets
BuildhoundOn your hardwareOnly on a machine a person marked Trusted.
CodemagicOn Codemagic's machinesLike every hosted runner.

When things change

Setup
BuildhoundOne prompt to your coding agentOr two commands by hand.
Codemagiccodemagic.yamlCodemagic's own workflow file or its editor, not GitHub Actions.

One line in runs-on

Codemagic builds run from codemagic.yaml, not from runs-on in GitHub Actions.

Buildhoundruns-on: ${{ vars.BUILDHOUND_MACOS || 'macos-latest' }}The job runs on your machine while one can take it, and on GitHub-hosted when none can.

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.

Set up by hand
  • The Buildhound agent holds no GitHub credential
  • A fresh VM per job, off your network
  • Your agent prepares, you approve
  • How security works