buildhound
Get started

Buildhound vs StarSling

StarSling runs Linux GitHub Actions jobs on its own AMD EPYC servers by the minute, with agents that open pull requests to speed up your workflows. Buildhound runs your jobs, macOS included, on machines you already have, for a flat price per machine, and its CI report and fix pull requests are free.

Set up by hand

What a month costs

Minutes a month
  • Buildhound Proone machine you already have$10
  • StarSling2 vCPU, list price$20
  • GitHub-hostedubuntu-latest, list price$30

One machine you already have costs $10 a month on Pro. StarSling costs $20, and GitHub-hosted $30.

List prices, before free minutes or credits on either side. One machine runs these minutes a job at a time, on Pro at $10 a machine a month on any account.

Choose the one that fits

Choose StarSling when

  • You want agents that read your runs and open pull requests to shard tests, fix caching and right-size jobs.
  • You need GPU runners, or Linux machines up to 64 vCPU.
  • Your CI is Linux only and nobody on the team has a machine to spare.

Choose Buildhound when

  • Your CI includes macOS, which StarSling does not run.
  • Your Linux CI runs past about 2,500 minutes a month.
  • You want GitHub-hosted kept as the fallback when a machine is offline.

Side by side

StarSling from its own pages, checked 20 October 2026

Two ways to run the same workflow
Clean runners on machines you already have$10a machine a month on Pro
StarSlingHosted Linux runners with CI agents$0.008a minute for the default 4 vCPU runner

Price

How it is priced
BuildhoundFlat, per machine$10 a connected machine a month on Pro, on any account. Free for public repositories and one private one. Organisations that join at launch keep $10 a machine a month for 12 months.
StarSlingBy the minute2,000 free minutes in the first month only. Queue time is not billed; its agents come with paid usage.
macOS
BuildhoundYour MacA fresh macOS VM per job; Apple allows two per Mac.
StarSlingNot offered
Linux
BuildhoundYour Mac or Linux boxA fresh Linux VM per job, arm64 on a Mac, or a fresh container on a Linux box without KVM.
StarSling$0.004 a minute2 vCPU x64; the default label is 4 vCPU at $0.008, up to 64 vCPU. GPU runners from $0.0252.
Windows
BuildhoundNot yetWindows jobs stay on GitHub-hosted.
StarSlingNot offered

Where it runs

Machines
BuildhoundYoursA spare Mac, a Linux box, or a laptop while plugged in and not in use.
StarSlingStarSling's servers5th Gen AMD EPYC, Ubuntu 26.04 or 24.04.
Each job
BuildhoundA fresh VM, destroyed afterIt reaches the internet and never your network. A Linux box without KVM uses a fresh container and never takes secrets.
StarSlingAn ephemeral runnerFor each job.
Secrets
BuildhoundOn your hardwareOnly on a machine a person marked Trusted.
StarSlingOn StarSling's machinesLike every hosted runner.

When things change

Runners unavailable
BuildhoundNew jobs route to the healthy sideGitHub-hosted, within three minutes; with fallback on, a stuck job is re-run.
StarSlingJobs wait for StarSlingMoving them to GitHub-hosted is a change to runs-on.
Jobs at once
BuildhoundAs many as your machines holdSuch 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.
StarSlingUnlimitedBy its pricing page.
Setup
BuildhoundOne prompt to your coding agentOr two commands by hand.
StarSlingIts GitHub App and a labelOptimisation pull requests are off by default.

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.

StarSlingruns-on: starsling-ubuntu-26.04The job runs where StarSling 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