BuildJet Alternatives After the Shutdown (2026)

BuildJet is gone, so this is a migration list, not a shopping list. It announced on 6 February 2026 that it was shutting down and stopped running GitHub Actions jobs on 31 March 2026. WarpBuild is the most direct replacement because it published a label mapping, Ubicloud is the cheapest, and compiler.dev is the simplest Linux x64 option with a fallback. Prices were checked in October 2026.

Why teams are looking for a BuildJet alternative

There is only one reason: the service is shut down. Its site now says BuildJet for GitHub Actions has been shut down, and any workflow still using a buildjet-* label fails or waits for a runner that will not come. Your buildjet/cache action is also gone, along with the cache it held.

That gives you two jobs. Fix the broken workflows first. Then pick a provider you will not have to replace again.

Quick picks

The alternatives

WarpBuild

Published a migration post that maps BuildJet labels, for example buildjet-4vcpu-ubuntu-2204 to warp-ubuntu-2204-x64-4x, and says most teams finish in under ten minutes. It lists Linux x64 at $0.004/min (2 vCPU) up to $0.064/min (32 vCPU), Arm from $0.003/min, and macOS M4 Pro from $0.08/min. The tradeoff: cache storage costs $0.20 per GB per month plus $0.0001 per operation.

Ubicloud

Standard x64 is $0.00125/min at 2 vCPU, $0.0025 at 4, $0.005 at 8, with Arm at the same rates. This is the lowest managed price, and it has Arm like BuildJet did. Tradeoffs: new accounts default to a premium tier that costs more, and there is no macOS.

Blacksmith

3,000 free minutes a month, Linux x64 from $0.004/min, Arm from $0.0025/min, Windows and macOS too. It serves actions/cache from a co-located cache with no workflow edits. The tradeoff is that larger sizes are not priced on the page and add-ons such as sticky disks are extra.

compiler.dev

A single line change, no label table to learn: runs-on: [self-hosted, Linux, compiler-ci]. Fresh 8 vCPU / 16 GB VM per job at $0.012/min; other sizes from $0.003 to $0.048. If credit runs out or something fails, jobs run on your original runners. It has no Arm, so skip it if your BuildJet jobs used Arm. Our benchmarks show GitHub-hosted vs compiler.dev the headline result is a median 1.5× faster across 18 measured stacks (15 faster, 2 the same, 1 slower).

Namespace

Linux x64 from $0.003/min (2 vCPU) to $0.048/min (32 vCPU) on pay as you go, with more RAM per vCPU available. A 30-day trial does not ask for a payment method. You have to read the plan tiers to know your real rate.

RunsOn

You run the machines in your own AWS account, so there is no per-minute fee; you pay a license from EUR 300 a year plus AWS. Good for steady, high volume. You own the AWS side.

Back to GitHub-hosted larger runners

Not a vendor change. GitHub's 4-core Linux larger runner is $0.012/min and 8-core is $0.022/min after its January 2026 price cut. It is the safest option and the most expensive.

How to choose without repeating the mistake

1. Prefer a design with an exit that costs minutes. compiler.dev falls back to your own runners; with others, keep your old label handy.
2. Put the label in one place, for example a reusable workflow, so the next switch is one edit.
3. Do not prepay a year of usage. Prefer credit that does not expire or a monthly bill.
4. Run the real workflow for a few days before moving everything.

Also compare prices at your size in the runner price table.

Migration notes

Find every reference:

grep -rn "buildjet" .github/

Replace runner labels and the cache action. For compiler.dev:

jobs:
  test:
    # was: runs-on: buildjet-4vcpu-ubuntu-2204
    runs-on: [self-hosted, Linux, compiler-ci]
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      # was: uses: buildjet/cache@v4
      - uses: actions/cache@v4
        with:
          path: ~/.npm
          key: npm-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
      - run: npm ci && npm test

For WarpBuild, the label for a 2 vCPU Arm job is warp-ubuntu-latest-arm64-2x, per its post. The old cache is gone, so the first run is cold on any provider. Cancel any jobs queued on dead labels and re-run them. See the cache key builder for tidy keys. For the full comparison with compiler.dev, see BuildJet vs compiler.dev. The provider ranking has more.

FAQ

Is BuildJet still available?

No. Jobs stopped running on 31 March 2026.

What is the closest BuildJet replacement?

WarpBuild, which published a label mapping from BuildJet runner names.

What replaces buildjet/cache?

Use actions/cache, which works on any runner. Old BuildJet caches are gone.

What do I do about jobs stuck waiting?

They queue until timeout. Cancel them, change the label, and re-run.