# Buildhound vs Ubicloud

> Ubicloud runs Linux GitHub Actions runners on its own servers at a fraction of GitHub's price. Buildhound runs your jobs, macOS included, on machines you already have, for a flat price per machine.

## A month of Linux 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Ubicloud](https://www.ubicloud.com/docs/about/pricing), checked 16 October 2026 (2 vCPU, list price) | $2.50 | $6.25 | $12.50 |
| Buildhound Personal (one machine you already have) | $10 | $10 | $10 |
| Buildhound Team (one machine you already have) | $24 | $24 | $24 |
| [GitHub-hosted](https://docs.github.com/en/billing/reference/actions-runner-pricing), checked 15 October 2026 (`ubuntu-latest`, list price) | $12 | $30 | $60 |

- At 2,000 minutes: Ubicloud costs less here, $2.50 against $24 for one machine on Team. One machine pays off from about 19,200 minutes a month.
- At 5,000 minutes: Ubicloud costs less here, $6.25 against $24 for one machine on Team. One machine pays off from about 19,200 minutes a month.
- At 10,000 minutes: Ubicloud costs less here, $12.50 against $24 for one machine on Team. One machine pays off from about 19,200 minutes a month.

## Choose Ubicloud when

- Your CI is Linux only.
- It costs less than one machine on Team until about 19,200 minutes a month.
- Its monthly credit covers light use.

## Choose Buildhound when

- Your CI includes macOS, which Ubicloud does not offer.
- Your Linux minutes run past that line and you already have a machine.
- You want GitHub-hosted kept as the fallback when a machine is offline.

## Side by side

Ubicloud's side is from its own pages ([source](https://www.ubicloud.com/docs/about/pricing)), checked 16 October 2026.

### Price

| | Buildhound | Ubicloud |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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. | By the minute. With a $2.50 credit each month. |
| macOS | Your Mac. A fresh macOS VM per job; Apple allows two per Mac. | Not offered. |
| Linux | Your Mac or Linux box. A fresh Linux VM per job, arm64 on a Mac. | $0.00125 a minute. 2 vCPU x64 or arm64 on Standard; new accounts start on the faster Premium tier, which costs more. |
| Windows | Not yet. Windows jobs stay on GitHub-hosted. | Not offered. |

### Where it runs

| | Buildhound | Ubicloud |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Machines | Yours. A spare Mac, a Linux box, or a laptop while plugged in and not in use. | Ubicloud's servers. In Germany, with an optional US fleet. |
| Each job | A fresh VM, destroyed after. It reaches the internet and never your network. | A clean VM. For each job. |
| Secrets | On your hardware. Only on a machine a person marked Trusted. | On Ubicloud's machines. Like every hosted runner. |

### When things change

| | Buildhound | Ubicloud |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Runners unavailable | New jobs route to the healthy side. GitHub-hosted, within about two minutes; a stuck job is re-run. | Jobs wait for Ubicloud. Moving them to GitHub-hosted is a change to `runs-on`. |
| Setup | One prompt to your coding agent. Or two commands by hand. | Its GitHub App and a label. |

## One line in runs-on

Ubicloud:

```yaml
runs-on: ubicloud-standard-2
```

Buildhound, on your machine while one can take the job and on GitHub-hosted when none can:

```yaml
runs-on: ${{ vars.BUILDHOUND_LINUX || 'ubuntu-latest' }}
```

Buildhound has no referral agreement with Ubicloud. Source: https://buildhound.sh/compare/ubicloud.