Last verified August 2026 · 12 min read
The external GitHub Actions runner shootout, 2026 edition
Every vendor has published their own numbers. Nobody has published them side by side with a neutral methodology until now. This is the page that did not exist.
Vendor links below are direct and unpaid: we run no affiliate links and earn no commission from any provider here. The comparison uses each vendor’s published rates and benchmark citations from independent sources.
Rate and capability comparison
| Provider | Linux x86 $/min | ARM $/min | macOS $/min | Start-up (vendor-stated) | Warm cache | Setup (our est.) | Min/base cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GH Actions (baseline) | $0.006 | $0.005 | $0.062 | Not published | actions/cache | Built-in | None |
| Depot | $0.006 | $0.006 | $0.080 | 10-45s to job start | Built-in | 10 min | $20/mo plan |
| Namespace | $0.003 | $0.003 | $0.06 | Not published | Built-in | 10 min | $0 pay-as-you-go |
| Blacksmith | $0.004 | $0.0025 | $0.080 | <3s VM boot | Built-in | 10 min | Free tier |
| Ubicloud | $0.00125 | $0.00125 | N/A | Not published | Built-in | 15 min | None |
| RunsOn | Your EC2 | Your EC2 | Self-host | Not published | Your setup | 1-2 hrs | Licence from €300/yr |
Mint = best in column. Orange = most expensive. Rates are for a 2-vCPU runner, re-read from each vendor's pricing page on 1 October 2026. Depot raised its 2-CPU Linux and Arm runners from $0.004 to $0.006/min. Namespace rates are overage rates (prepaid inside a plan: $0.002/min Linux; its Linux table covers both AMD64 and ARM64); its macOS figure is the smallest 4-vCPU shape ($0.04/min prepaid). Ubicloud's docs list $0.00125/min standard and $0.002/min premium (premium is the default for new accounts). RunsOn compute is billed by AWS; RunsOn charges a flat annual licence. Full breakdowns: Depot, Namespace, Blacksmith, Ubicloud, RunsOn. Start-up figures are each vendor's own statement and measure different things, so they are not ranked: Depot's docs give 10 to 45 seconds from job request to job start (about 15 seconds of that is AWS provisioning), while Blacksmith's docs say its Firecracker microVMs boot in under 3 seconds, which excludes GitHub's own runner registration. Setup times are our estimates. Cache claims are from vendor documentation. BuildJet shut down on 31 March 2026 (announced 6 February 2026) and has been removed from this comparison.
Per-provider analysis
Depot
The most established external runner. Linux x86, ARM, and macOS support. Strong case-study portfolio with published numbers. SOC 2 Type 2.
STRENGTHS
- +Broad OS support: Linux x86, ARM, and macOS runners (macOS about $0.08/min)
- +SOC 2 Type 2 (per Depot's security page), with a bring-your-own-cloud option that runs compute in your own AWS account
- +Built-in Docker layer cache and OCI registry
- +Best public case-study evidence base
- +OIDC federation support
WEAKNESSES
- -Paid plans start at $20/month (Developer, single user); teams need the $200/month Startup plan with 20,000 GitHub Actions minutes included, and macOS runners need Startup or Business
- -macOS at $0.08/min is no cheaper than GitHub-hosted ($0.062/min); the macOS draw is availability and speed, not price
- -Linux x86 and Arm both bill at $0.006/min: the same as GitHub-hosted x86 and above GitHub's $0.005 Arm rate
VERDICT
Choose Depot if you need macOS plus Docker build acceleration, or want managed runners that can also be deployed into your own AWS account.
Full Depot pricing breakdown →Namespace Labs
Plan-based managed runners with built-in caching and the cheapest macOS entry rate in this comparison. Namespace publishes no start-up time figure.
STRENGTHS
- +Built-in warm cache technology
- +Low Linux rate ($0.002/min prepaid inside a plan, $0.003/min overage; $0 pay-as-you-go Developer plan)
- +macOS runners from $0.04/min prepaid (4 vCPU; $0.06/min overage)
- +Strong technical content on their blog
WEAKNESSES
- -Prepaid rates need a Team ($100/month) or Business ($250/month) plan; there is a 30-day trial but no permanent free minute allowance
- -macOS draws unit minutes at 10x
- -Smaller case-study library than Depot
VERDICT
Choose Namespace if you build on macOS (from $0.04/min prepaid, half the Depot and Blacksmith rate) or already prepay a plan that brings Linux down to $0.002/min.
Full Namespace pricing breakdown →Blacksmith
Runs GitHub Actions jobs in Firecracker microVMs on its own fleet of bare-metal gaming CPUs, bought from data-centre providers in the US and EU; only its control plane runs on AWS. Built-in co-located cache. Competitive rates.
STRENGTHS
- +SOC 2 Type 2, with hardware in ISO 27001 data centres (per Blacksmith's security page)
- +Capacity in four regions: US east (Ashburn), US west (Phoenix), EU west (Amsterdam), EU central (Frankfurt)
- +Built-in warm cache, co-located with the runners
- +Low ARM rate at $0.0025/min, second only to Ubicloud ($0.004/min x86)
- +macOS M4 runners at $0.08/min
- +Free tier (3,000 min/month) available
WEAKNESSES
- -macOS M4 at $0.08/min is no cheaper than GitHub-hosted ($0.062/min)
- -Newer, smaller community and case-study base than Depot
- -Jobs run on Blacksmith's own hardware; it documents no option to run them in your cloud account
VERDICT
Choose Blacksmith for low Linux and ARM rates with a free tier to start on, provided running builds on a vendor's own bare-metal fleet passes your security review.
Full Blacksmith pricing breakdown →Ubicloud
Open-source cloud infrastructure with a managed CI runner offering, and the lowest published per-minute rate here. Open-source underpinning means you can audit the full stack.
STRENGTHS
- +Lowest per-minute rate of the managed providers here: $0.00125/min for a 2-vCPU standard runner ($0.002/min premium, the default for new accounts), x86 and ARM alike
- +Open-source: full stack auditable
- +No minimum; a $2.50 monthly credit (1,250 minutes) is included
- +Strong content on CI cost from the Ubicloud engineering blog
WEAKNESSES
- -Smaller adoption than Depot or Namespace
- -Managed offering newer than competitors
VERDICT
Choose Ubicloud for the lowest per-minute rate, or if open-source infrastructure auditability is a requirement.
Full Ubicloud pricing breakdown →RunsOn
Managed control plane for GitHub Actions on your own AWS. You supply the AWS account; RunsOn handles runner lifecycle, spot management, and GitHub integration.
STRENGTHS
- +Your EC2 costs (potentially cheapest total cost at scale)
- +Self-hosted economics with managed operations
- +AWS-native: use existing IAM, VPC, security groups
- +Spot instance support built in
WEAKNESSES
- -Requires your own AWS account, plus a flat annual licence from €300 ($350)
- -More setup than pure managed options
VERDICT
Choose RunsOn if you want self-hosted EC2 economics with managed runner lifecycle, especially if you are already running significant AWS infrastructure.
Full RunsOn pricing breakdown →Decision rubric
When not to switch
Your free-tier GH Actions minutes cover your entire bill. Switching adds operational complexity with no financial benefit.
You are on GitHub Enterprise with included minutes in your contract. Check the contract before changing your runner configuration.
You need SOC 2 compliance and your procurement has already blessed GitHub but not the external runner provider. The friction of vendor evaluation may outweigh the savings.
You are under 1,000 minutes per month. The savings are too small to justify any migration effort.
Your engineering team has no spare capacity to test and validate the migration. A failed migration costs more than the CI bill in lost developer time.
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