GitHub Action Runner Alternatives

binhong@binhong.me (BinHong Lee) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Last Updated: Apr 25th 2026

A while ago, I wrote about my attempt and reasoning behind managing my own fleet of self-hosted GitHub Action Runners. I’ve since learnt that there are quite a few hosted alternative runners that are both faster and cheaper than GitHub’s default runners. This article is just a quick summary of what I’ve found.

Hosted Runners #

These are essentially “full service” GitHub Action Runners. You don’t have to do anything else except to create an account, setup billing, then change the runs-on label in your GitHub Action YAML file. It’s easy to adopt but you’re still essentially running on servers that are managed by the service providers. If you prefer to bring your own cloud services (AWS, Azure etc.), check out the BYOC section below!

Linux Runners Comparison #

Provider	Free Tier	Paid Pricing (2vCPU, 8GB)	Performance	Special Features
Blacksmith	3,000 minutes/month	$0.004/min	2x faster builds, 4x faster cache	Unlimited concurrency, gaming CPUs
Depot	❌ None	$20 for 2,000 minutes, then $0.004/min	30% faster, 10x faster cache	Docker-focused
GitHub	2,000 minutes/month	$0.006/min	Baseline	Official support
Namespace	❌ None	$0.004/min	2x-10x faster	250GB storage, SSH access
puzl.cloud	400 vCPU-minutes/month, 800 GB-minutes/month	€0.00002/vCPU second + €0.000001/GB second	2x faster	Fine grained per vCPU per GB RAM usage billing
Shipfox	3,000 minutes/month	$0.004/min	2x faster builds	Unlimited concurrency
Tenki	1,700 minutes/month	$0.003/min	30% faster	Bundled AI Code Reviewer service
Ubicloud	~1,250 minutes ($1 credit)	$0.0008/min	~30% faster	Open source, Hetzner hardware
WarpBuild	❌ None	$0.004/min	2x faster	Unlimited concurrency

macOS Runners Comparison #

Provider	Free tier	Paid Pricing	Hardware	Performance	Special Features
Blacksmith	~98 minutes/month	$0.08/min	M4 Macs	2x faster builds, 4x faster cache	Unlimited concurrency
Depot	❌ None	$20 for 100 minutes, then $0.08/min	30% faster, 10x faster cache	Docker-focused
GetMac	100 minutes/month	~$0.012/min	M4 Macs	3x faster builds	SSH/VNC access, 100% renewable energy
GitHub	200 minutes/month	$0.062/min	Intel Mac + M2 Pro XL ($0.102/min)	Baseline	Official support
Namespace	❌ None	$0.09	M4 Pro + M2 Pro	Up to 3x faster	SSH/VNC access
Tenki	❌ None	$0.05/min	M4 Pro	30% faster	Bundled AI Code Reviewer service
WarpBuild	❌ None	$0.08/min	M4 Pro	25% faster	Unlimited concurrency

Windows Runners Comparison #

Provider	Free tier	Paid Pricing	Performance	Special Features
Blacksmith	1,500 minutes/month	$0.008/min	2x faster builds, 4x faster cache	Unlimited concurrency
Depot	❌ None	$20 for 1,000 minutes, then $0.008/min	30% faster, 10x faster cache	Docker-focused
GitHub	~1197 minutes/month	$0.01/min	Baseline	Official support
Namespace	❌ None	$100 for 50,000 minutes, then $0.008/min	2x-10x faster	250GB storage, SSH/VNC access
WarpBuild	❌ None	$0.008/min	25% faster	Unlimited concurrency

Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) #

Unlike the full service hosted runners, BYOC is designed for users who are already using an existing cloud service (or have their own bare-metal hosts) would prefer to use that as the action runners instead of using the external party’s server.

Provider	Free Tier	Pricing	Supported Cloud	Supported Images
Actuated	❌ None	$250/month	Any bare-metal hosts and / or VM with nested virtualisation	Ubuntu
Cirun	Free for public repositories	$29/month for 3 private repositories, $79/month for 10 private repositories	All major cloud services and / or on-prem servers	Ubuntu, Windows, macOS, Custom Images
RunsOn	15 days free trial	300€/year	AWS	Ubuntu, Windows, macOS, Custom Images
Sprinters.sh	Free for public repositories	$0.01/job	AWS	Ubuntu
WarpBuild	❌ None	$0.002/min	AWS, GCP, Azure	Linux, Windows

I built a very basic widget that tries to take into account of the “supposed” faster speed (leading to less action minutes) with each of their rates so you can find out which platform fits you best based on your usage (with GitHub’s Action Runner minutes as baseline comparison).

GitHub Action Minutes

Platform

Ignore Speed

BYOC

Jobs per Month

Private Repositories

Provider	Speed*	Monthly Cost

Note (Speed): loosely defined based on acclaimed performance but not verified in any way, shape, or form.

Note (puzl.cloud): puzl.cloud has a rather complex calculation that heavily depends on how your job was ran rather than a fix per machine per minutes cost so I’m using best guess estimate (of around $0.0008 - $0.0025). Check out their pricing page for more details.

Wrap up #

Obviously this is a rather simplistic view of the cost comparison (as well as the speed factor being unverified) between different options available in the market. Personally, I opted for Blacksmith for all my linux needs ~~while continue to host my own M4 mac mini at home as the macOS runner (since the electricity cost is still cheaper than any of the above options)~~ moved my macOS runs to use GetMac as I was moving countries and can’t self-host reliably.

Note: This was initially released on Sept 2nd 2025 but has since gained a lot more traffic than I’ve expected so I decided to try my best in keeping this article upated. (This changelog section details dates whenever I make an edit. Or you could just lookup the commit history of this on GitHub through the “Source” linked at the bottom.)

Changelog #

Apr 25th 2026

New BYOC section
- Re-added Sprinters.sh
- Re-added RunsOn
- Added Actuated
- Added Cirun
Integrate BYOC into the widget
Added a Windows section under hosted runners

Apr 24th 2026

Removed BuildJet (service shutdown 😢)
Removed CarbonRunner (service shutdown 😢)
Removed Cirrus Runners (service shutdown post OpenAI acquisition)
Added Blacksmith to macOS runner (newly added)
Added GetMac to macOS runner
Added Shipfox to linux runner
Added Tenki to both linux and macOS runner
Removed Sprinters.sh (will readd later to BYOC section)
Removed RunsOn (will readd later to BYOC section)

GitHub Action Runner on BinHong Lee's Blog