Buildhound vs MacRun

MacRun rents you a whole Mac mini by the month, with unlimited minutes, to register as your own runner. Buildhound runs jobs on a Mac you already have, each in a fresh VM.

Set up by hand

Checked 16 October 2026
No referral agreement

What a month costs

Minutes a month

Buildhound Teamone machine you already have$24
MacRunsold by the Mac$139
GitHub-hostedmacos-latest, list price$310

One Mac you already have costs $24 a month on Team. MacRun costs $139, 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 MacRun when

Nobody on the team has a Mac to spare.
You want a whole Mac with unlimited minutes.
You want full control of what is installed on it.

Choose Buildhound when

You already have a Mac, or rent one from MacRun, since Buildhound runs on it too.
Each job should get a fresh VM instead of a shared machine.
You want GitHub-hosted kept as the fallback when the Mac is offline.

Side by side

MacRun from its own pages, checked 16 October 2026

Two ways to run the same workflow

Clean runners on machines you already have$24a machine a month on Team

MacRunA whole Mac mini, rented by the month$139a Mac a month

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.; MacRunFlat, per Mac$139 a month for an M6 with unlimited minutes; annual billing is 10 months for 12.
macOS: BuildhoundYour MacA fresh macOS VM per job; Apple allows two per Mac.; MacRunThe rented MacJobs run one after another.
Linux: BuildhoundYour Mac or Linux boxA fresh Linux VM per job, arm64 on a Mac.; MacRunNot offered
Windows: BuildhoundNot yetWindows jobs stay on GitHub-hosted.; MacRunNot offered

Where it runs

Machines: BuildhoundYoursA spare Mac, a Linux box, or a laptop while plugged in and not in use.; MacRunA Mac mini rented to you aloneIn MacRun's rack.
Each job: BuildhoundA fresh VM, destroyed afterIt reaches the internet and never your network.; MacRunOn the Mac itselfAs a self-hosted runner; the Mac is wiped when you cancel.
Secrets: BuildhoundOn your hardwareOnly on a machine a person marked Trusted.; MacRunOn the rented Mac

When things change

Runners unavailable: BuildhoundNew jobs route to the healthy sideGitHub-hosted, within about two minutes; a stuck job is re-run.; MacRunJobs wait for the Mac
Setup: BuildhoundOne prompt to your coding agentOr two commands by hand.; MacRunA self-hosted runnerRegistered on the Mac, then a change to runs-on.

One line in runs-on

Both ask you to change the runner label in your workflow. Your coding agent makes the Buildhound change in a pull request.

MacRunruns-on: [self-hosted, macOS]The job runs where MacRun runs it.

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