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Buildhound vs RunsOn

RunsOn sets up GitHub Actions runners in your own AWS account and charges a yearly licence; AWS bills the machines. Buildhound runs your jobs on machines you already have, for a flat price per machine.

Set up by hand
  • Checked 16 October 2026
  • No referral agreement

At a glance

Clean runners on machines you already have$24a machine a month on Team
RunsOnRunners in your own AWS account€300a year and up, plus your AWS bill

RunsOn publishes no price we can put beside a machine, so this page compares how each works.

Choose the one that fits

Choose RunsOn when

  • Your team already runs on AWS.
  • You want runners of any size there, Linux, Windows or GPU.
  • You want compute at AWS's own price, with no per-minute fee on top.

Choose Buildhound when

  • Your CI includes macOS, which RunsOn does not run yet.
  • You would rather use machines you already have than pay for instances.
  • You want GitHub-hosted kept as the fallback when no machine can take a job.

Side by side

RunsOn 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
RunsOnRunners in your own AWS account€300a year and up, plus your AWS bill

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.
RunsOnA yearly licence€300 to €3,600 by jobs a month, free for non-commercial open source, plus your AWS bill at spot prices.
macOS
BuildhoundYour MacA fresh macOS VM per job; Apple allows two per Mac.
RunsOnNot yetAWS's Mac instances have a 24-hour minimum.
Linux
BuildhoundYour Mac or Linux boxA fresh Linux VM per job, arm64 on a Mac.
RunsOnAbout $0.0009 a minute2 vCPU at AWS spot, x64 or arm64.
Windows
BuildhoundNot yetWindows jobs stay on GitHub-hosted.
RunsOnWindows Server2022 and 2025, on your AWS bill.

Where it runs

Machines
BuildhoundYoursA spare Mac, a Linux box, or a laptop while plugged in and not in use.
RunsOnYour AWS accountSet up with CloudFormation.
Each job
BuildhoundA fresh VM, destroyed afterIt reaches the internet and never your network.
RunsOnOne EC2 instancePer job, terminated at the end.
Secrets
BuildhoundOn your hardwareOnly on a machine a person marked Trusted.
RunsOnIn your AWS account

When things change

Setup
BuildhoundOne prompt to your coding agentOr two commands by hand.
RunsOnA CloudFormation stackAnd a private GitHub App.

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.

RunsOnruns-on: runs-on=${{ github.run_id }}/runner=2cpu-linux-x64The job runs where RunsOn runs it.
Buildhoundruns-on: ${{ vars.BUILDHOUND_LINUX || 'ubuntu-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