# 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.

## 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 |
| [Codemagic](https://codemagic.io/pricing/), checked 17 October 2026 (Mac mini M2, list price) | $190 | $475 | $950 |

- At 2,000 minutes: One Mac you already have costs $24 a month on Team. Codemagic costs $190, and GitHub-hosted $124.
- At 5,000 minutes: One Mac you already have costs $24 a month on Team. Codemagic costs $475, and GitHub-hosted $310.
- At 10,000 minutes: One Mac you already have costs $24 a month on Team. Codemagic costs $950, 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 |
| [Codemagic](https://codemagic.io/pricing/), checked 17 October 2026 (Linux X2, list price) | $90 | $225 | $450 |

- At 2,000 minutes: One machine you already have costs $24 a month on Team. Codemagic costs $90, and GitHub-hosted $12.
- At 5,000 minutes: One machine you already have costs $24 a month on Team. Codemagic costs $225, and GitHub-hosted $30.
- At 10,000 minutes: One machine you already have costs $24 a month on Team. Codemagic costs $450, and GitHub-hosted $60.

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

### Price

| | Buildhound | Codemagic |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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. | By the minute, or a yearly plan. 500 free Mac mini M2 minutes a month, then by the minute; fixed yearly plans have unlimited minutes. |
| macOS | Your Mac. A fresh macOS VM per job; Apple allows two per Mac. | $0.095 a minute. Mac mini M2; newer Macs cost more or are on Enterprise. |
| Linux | Your Mac or Linux box. A fresh Linux VM per job, arm64 on a Mac. | $0.045 a minute. Linux X2, the same as Windows. |
| Windows | Not yet. Windows jobs stay on GitHub-hosted. | $0.045 a minute. The same as Linux. |

### Where it runs

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

### When things change

| | Buildhound | Codemagic |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Setup | One prompt to your coding agent. Or two commands by hand. | codemagic.yaml. Codemagic'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. 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 Codemagic. Source: https://buildhound.sh/compare/codemagic.