# 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.

## 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 |
| [MacRun](https://macrun.dev/pricing), checked 16 October 2026 (sold by the Mac) | $139 | $139 | $139 |
| [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. MacRun costs $139, and GitHub-hosted $124.
- At 5,000 minutes: One Mac you already have costs $24 a month on Team. MacRun costs $139, and GitHub-hosted $310.
- At 10,000 minutes: One Mac you already have costs $24 a month on Team. MacRun costs $139, and GitHub-hosted $620.

## 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's side is from its own pages ([source](https://macrun.dev/pricing)), checked 16 October 2026.

### Price

| | Buildhound | MacRun |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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. | Flat, per Mac. $139 a month for an M6 with unlimited minutes; annual billing is 10 months for 12. |
| macOS | Your Mac. A fresh macOS VM per job; Apple allows two per Mac. | The rented Mac. Jobs run one after another. |
| Linux | Your Mac or Linux box. A fresh Linux VM per job, arm64 on a Mac. | Not offered. |
| Windows | Not yet. Windows jobs stay on GitHub-hosted. | Not offered. |

### Where it runs

| | Buildhound | MacRun |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Machines | Yours. A spare Mac, a Linux box, or a laptop while plugged in and not in use. | A Mac mini rented to you alone. In MacRun's rack. |
| Each job | A fresh VM, destroyed after. It reaches the internet and never your network. | On the Mac itself. As a self-hosted runner; the Mac is wiped when you cancel. |
| Secrets | On your hardware. Only on a machine a person marked Trusted. | On the rented Mac. |

### When things change

| | Buildhound | MacRun |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Runners unavailable | New jobs route to the healthy side. GitHub-hosted, within about two minutes; a stuck job is re-run. | Jobs wait for the Mac. |
| Setup | One prompt to your coding agent. Or two commands by hand. | A self-hosted runner. Registered on the Mac, then a change to `runs-on`. |

## One line in runs-on

MacRun:

```yaml
runs-on: [self-hosted, macOS]
```

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 MacRun. Source: https://buildhound.sh/compare/macrun.