# Buildhound vs Manzanita

> Manzanita rents macOS runners on its own Macs for a flat monthly price, each job in a fresh VM. Buildhound gives the same clean VM per job on a Mac you already have.

## 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 |
| [Manzanita](https://manzanita.run/), checked 16 October 2026 (sold by the runner) | $149 | $149 | $149 |
| [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. Manzanita costs $149, and GitHub-hosted $124.
- At 5,000 minutes: One Mac you already have costs $24 a month on Team. Manzanita costs $149, and GitHub-hosted $310.
- At 10,000 minutes: One Mac you already have costs $24 a month on Team. Manzanita costs $149, and GitHub-hosted $620.

## Choose Manzanita when

- Nobody on the team has a Mac to spare.
- You want a clean VM per macOS job at a flat price.
- You would rather not buy hardware.

## Choose Buildhound when

- You already have a Mac, where the same clean VM per job costs $24 a month on Team.
- Linux jobs should run on the same machine.
- You want GitHub-hosted kept as the fallback when the Mac is offline.

## Side by side

Manzanita's side is from its own pages ([source](https://manzanita.run/)), checked 16 October 2026.

### Price

| | Buildhound | Manzanita |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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 runner. $149 a month, no per-minute charge; past 15,000 minutes a runner in 30 days it asks for a conversation. |
| macOS | Your Mac. A fresh macOS VM per job; Apple allows two per Mac. | M4 Pro, 6 vCPU, 22 GB. One job at a time per runner, up to two hours each. |
| 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 | Manzanita |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Machines | Yours. A spare Mac, a Linux box, or a laptop while plugged in and not in use. | Manzanita's Macs. In Menlo Park, California. |
| Each job | A fresh VM, destroyed after. It reaches the internet and never your network. | A fresh VM. Destroyed after each job. |
| Secrets | On your hardware. Only on a machine a person marked Trusted. | On Manzanita's Macs. |

### When things change

| | Buildhound | Manzanita |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Runners unavailable | New jobs route to the healthy side. GitHub-hosted, within about two minutes; a stuck job is re-run. | A `runs-on` variable. Its docs suggest one with a GitHub-hosted default. |
| Jobs at once | As many as your machines hold. Such as one macOS and one Linux job on a 24 GB Mac mini. When every machine is busy, new jobs go to GitHub-hosted after two and a half minutes. | One per runner. More at once means more runners. |
| Setup | One prompt to your coding agent. Or two commands by hand. | Its GitHub App and a label. An invitation-only pilot. |

## One line in runs-on

Manzanita:

```yaml
runs-on: manzanita-standard
```

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 Manzanita. Source: https://buildhound.sh/compare/manzanita.