RunsOn Alternatives for GitHub Actions in 2026
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People leave RunsOn when they do not want to operate an AWS account for CI. The managed alternatives are WarpBuild, Blacksmith, Namespace, Ubicloud and compiler.dev, all billed per minute or from prepaid credit with nothing to deploy. Cirrus Runners and Actuated suit teams that want a flat cost. Prices were checked in October 2026.
Why teams look for alternatives to RunsOn
RunsOn is cost-efficient by design, so this is a question of effort and shape, not price.
- You own the AWS side. It runs in your AWS account. EC2 spot or on-demand cost is billed by AWS per second with no RunsOn markup, but quotas, regions, spot interruptions and the AWS bill are yours. Its control plane (Fargate, S3, transfer) starts at about $7 a month.
- An annual license. Per its pricing page: EUR 300 Starter (under 50k jobs a month), EUR 900 Growth (under 200k), EUR 1,800 Scale (under 500k), EUR 3,600 Sponsorship (unlimited). Small teams may see this as a lot before the first job.
- Costs are two bills. A license and an AWS invoice are harder to forecast than one per-minute number.
- Security review. A new IAM role, VPC and stack in your account needs approval in some companies.
Strengths to weigh before leaving: no per-minute markup, full control of instance types, free for non-commercial use, and a 15-day trial on paid plans.
Quick picks
| Alternative | Best for | Pricing model | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| compiler.dev | Nothing to deploy, one line, fallback | Prepaid credit, no expiry | compiler.dev/pricing |
| WarpBuild | Per-size prices, Arm, macOS | Per minute, monthly | warpbuild.com |
| Blacksmith | Free minutes, caching | Per minute plus add-ons | blacksmith.sh |
| Ubicloud | Cheapest managed rate | Per minute, $2.50 credit | ubicloud.com |
| Namespace | Many shapes, macOS | Pay as you go or plans | namespace.so |
| Cirrus Runners | Flat cost, big machines | $150 per runner per month | cirrus-runners.app |
| Actuated | Your own servers, microVMs | $150/month per server | actuated.com |
The alternatives
compiler.dev
Nothing to deploy. Install the GitHub App, then change one line to runs-on: [self-hosted, Linux, compiler-ci]. Jobs run on fresh 8 vCPU / 16 GB VMs at $0.012/min, with 2, 4, 16 and 32 vCPU sizes also available. Prepaid credit never expires, and if it runs out jobs go back to your original runners. You give up RunsOn's instance-type control and spot discounts, and compiler.dev has no Arm or Windows. See the benchmarks for measured full-pipeline times.
WarpBuild
A managed service with public prices: x64 from $0.004/min (2 vCPU) to $0.064/min (32 vCPU), Arm from $0.003, macOS M4 Pro from $0.08. It also offers bring-your-own-cloud on AWS, GCP or Azure at $0.002/min, which is the nearest managed version of RunsOn's model. Cache storage is $0.20 per GB per month.
Blacksmith
3,000 free minutes a month and a co-located cache. Rates start at $0.004/min for 2 vCPU x64. Tradeoff: bigger sizes are not on the pricing page, and it works with GitHub organizations only.
Ubicloud
Standard x64 from $0.00125/min (2 vCPU) to $0.01/min (16 vCPU), close to what you would pay for spot EC2 plus license at low volume. Default accounts use a premium tier that costs more. No macOS.
Namespace
Pay as you go from $0.003/min (2 vCPU) to $0.048/min (32 vCPU), with prepaid Team and Business plans at lower rates. Many shapes with more RAM per vCPU. macOS at $0.09/min for 6 vCPU.
Cirrus Runners
$150 per runner per month, unlimited minutes, one job at a time per runner. Linux x86 is 16 vCPU / 48 GB. A flat bill is easy to forecast if runners stay busy.
Actuated
$150 a month for the first server and $125 for each extra, with unlimited minutes on servers you provide, running jobs in microVMs. You supply and pay for the hardware. Support on the self-service plan is by community email.
How to choose
- Compare totals, not rates. For RunsOn, add the license and your AWS bill; for a managed service, multiply minutes by the rate. The cost calculator helps.
- If your volume is high and steady, staying on RunsOn or a flat plan usually wins.
- If your team is small, a managed per-minute service removes both the license and the ops work.
- Trial the top two. See also the self-hosted vs GitHub-hosted runners guide.
Migration notes
RunsOn labels name the instance and image, for example runs-on=${{ github.run_id }}/runner=2cpu-linux-x64. Replace them per job:
jobs:
test:
# was: runs-on: runs-on=${{ github.run_id }}/runner=4cpu-linux-x64
runs-on: [self-hosted, Linux, compiler-ci]Remember to remove the RunsOn stack from AWS after the move to stop the small fixed costs. Caches stored in S3 do not carry over, so the first run is cold. For the full comparison with compiler.dev, see RunsOn vs compiler.dev. The provider ranking lists the full field.
FAQ
Is RunsOn free?
Free for non-commercial use, with a 15-day trial on paid plans. Commercial use needs an annual license from EUR 300.
Is there a managed alternative to RunsOn?
Yes. WarpBuild even offers a bring-your-own-cloud mode at $0.002/min. The others run the machines for you.
Will I pay more after leaving RunsOn?
Probably, at high volume, because you lose AWS spot pricing with no markup. At low volume it can be cheaper.
Do I need to change workflows?
Only the runs-on value per job.
Related
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