12 Best Actuated Alternatives for GitHub Actions Runners

Actuated takes a self-hosted approach to GitHub Actions, running jobs inside Firecracker microVMs on your own bare metal servers. This model gives you strong isolation, fixed concurrency pricing, and unlimited minutes, but it also means you are responsible for provisioning and maintaining the hardware. Support is limited to Linux, which excludes native macOS and Windows workloads, and the surrounding ecosystem is smaller than what you’ll find with larger CI providers.

If you prefer a fully managed platform, need multi-platform support, or want runners operating inside your existing cloud accounts instead of dedicated physical servers, Actuated may not be the right fit.

This guide explores 12 Actuated alternatives to help you find a CI solution that matches your platform requirements, infrastructure preferences, and operational tolerance.

What makes a good Actuated alternative?

Actuated excels at providing strong isolation through Firecracker microVMs while maintaining infrastructure control on your own hardware. An alternative should deliver comparable security, predictable pricing, or address Actuated's bare metal requirement and Linux limitation while maintaining the control and transparency that self-hosting provides.

12 Best Actuated Alternatives

Actuated provides fast microVM startup and comprehensive dashboards for fleet management. Look for alternatives with similar operational visibility or easier infrastructure models that reduce management overhead.

1. RunsOn

RunsOn puts runners in your AWS account while handling EC2 lifecycle management automatically. The platform eliminates bare metal requirements by leveraging cloud infrastructure you already pay for.

🌟 Key features

• Self-hosted in AWS eliminating bare metal needs
• Multi-platform including Linux, Windows, macOS, GPU
• Unlimited S3 caching vs standard limits
• Spot instance optimization reducing costs
• CloudFormation deployment in roughly 10 minutes
• Cost reporting and usage metrics
• Partly open source with sponsorship option

➕ Pros

• Infrastructure control similar to Actuated without bare metal
• Fresh ephemeral VMs per job
• S3 Magic Cache with unlimited capacity
• Static egress IPs through NAT gateways
• Can reduce costs up to 90% vs GitHub runners
• Strong Windows and macOS support
• Fixed concurrency pricing with AWS costs

➖ Cons

• AWS-exclusive vs Actuated's hardware flexibility
• Requires AWS platform knowledge

💲 Pricing

Commercial license runs €300 annually with unlimited job execution and email support. Sponsorship license costs €1,500 yearly, adding priority support, private Slack access, and full source code. AWS charges bill per second at spot pricing rates, typically delivering 7-17x cost reduction versus GitHub runners. Non-profit organizations can request free licensing.

2. Cirun

Cirun coordinates self-hosted runners across AWS, GCP, Azure, and on-premise systems. The service maintains infrastructure control while removing bare metal hardware requirements.

🌟 Key features

• Self-hosted across multiple cloud providers
• Multi-cloud spanning AWS, GCP, Azure, Oracle Cloud
• Repository configuration via .cirun.yml files
• One-line workflow modifications
• On-demand runner provisioning per job
• ARM and GPU instance support
• Free tier for open source projects

➕ Pros

• Infrastructure control without bare metal maintenance
• Multi-cloud flexibility vs Actuated's single-location approach
• Preemptible and spot instance optimization
• Free for public open source repositories
• Direct cloud provider billing without markup
• Lightweight setup requirements
• Comprehensive ARM and GPU support

➖ Cons

• Private repository pricing scales with repo count
• Requires managing cloud accounts and networking

💲 Pricing

Open Source plan is free with unlimited public repositories, unlimited runners, and full ARM/GPU support across all clouds. Startup plan costs $29 monthly for up to 3 private repositories with Slack and email support. Business plan runs $79 monthly supporting up to 10 private repositories. Enterprise provides custom pricing for unlimited private repositories with premium support.

3. Depot

Depot offers managed runners across Linux, Windows, and macOS. The service eliminates hardware management entirely while providing performance comparable to bare metal solutions.

🌟 Key features

• Fully managed eliminating hardware requirements
• Multi-platform spanning all major operating systems
• Ultra Runners with memory-backed I/O acceleration
• Integrated caching for workflows and containers
• Per-second billing with transparent costs
• Self-hosting available for AWS
• Native Docker integration

➕ Pros

• No bare metal provisioning or maintenance
• Platform breadth beyond Actuated's Linux focus
• Ultra Runners with provisioned I/O throughput
• Repository-scoped cache volumes
• Ephemeral VMs ensuring clean state
• Optional egress filtering
• Docker registry and build cache integration

➖ Cons

• Managed service costs vs bare metal economics
• macOS capacity can experience constraints

💲 Pricing

Developer tier costs $20 monthly, including 500 Docker build minutes, 2,000 Actions minutes, and 25 GB cache storage for one user. Startup tier runs $200 monthly with unlimited users, 5,000 Docker minutes, 20,000 Actions minutes, and 250 GB cache, plus $0.004/min overage charges for Actions. Business tier provides dedicated infrastructure and custom runner pools.

4. Ubicloud

Ubicloud delivers managed runners on bare metal from Hetzner and Leaseweb. The platform provides bare metal economics without requiring you to manage hardware.

🌟 Key features

• Managed bare metal eliminating hardware maintenance
• Linux x64 and arm64 architectures
• Aggressive 3-10x cost advantages
• Open-source control plane under AGPL v3
• German data centers for GDPR
• $1 monthly credit for approximately 1,250 minutes
• Broader platform including VMs and databases

➕ Pros

• Bare metal economics without hardware management
• Extremely low pricing starting at $0.0008/min
• Dedicated CPU, memory, and storage
• GitHub Managed Runner Application integration
• Multiple German data centers
• Open-source preventing lock-in
• Self-hosting option available

➖ Cons

• Linux-exclusive like Actuated
• German infrastructure may increase latency

💲 Pricing

Per-minute billing at month's end. Linux x64 standard runners start at $0.0008/min for 2 vCPUs with 8 GB RAM, scaling to $0.0120/min for 30 vCPU configurations. Premium runners cost exactly double standard rates. Arm64 pricing matches standard x64 rates. Every account receives $1 monthly credit covering approximately 1,250 minutes on 2 vCPU runners.

5. BuildJet

BuildJet concentrates on Linux runners with gaming-grade processors. The fully managed service removes all infrastructure complexity including bare metal management.

🌟 Key features

• Fully managed eliminating all infrastructure work
• Gaming-grade CPUs for strong performance
• Linux AMD and ARM support
• 20 GB cache per repository
• Transparent per-minute pricing
• Free tier with 3,000 minutes monthly
• Instant scaling without capacity planning

➕ Pros

• No hardware provisioning or maintenance
• Approximately 2x performance vs GitHub runners
• Simple migration through label changes
• Instant scaling handling bursts
• Clear pricing without hidden costs
• Suitable free tier
• Strong single-core performance

➖ Cons

• Linux-only like Actuated
• Per-minute costs with heavy usage

💲 Pricing

Free tier includes 3,000 minutes monthly across all repositories. Paid usage bills per minute with rates starting around $0.004/min for standard configurations. Pricing scales with machine size and architecture. No base fees or subscription charges beyond actual minute consumption.

6. Namespace

Namespace provides managed runners with developer-focused tooling. The platform handles infrastructure while offering debugging capabilities beyond standard runners.

🌟 Key features

• Managed service without hardware requirements
• Multi-platform covering Linux, macOS, Windows
• Interactive debugging with breakpoints and remote access
• Cache Volumes for persistent storage
• Native build tool integrations (Bazel, Turborepo, Pants)
• Per-step observability with detailed metrics
• AMD EPYC, Ampere, and Apple M-series hardware

➕ Pros

• No hardware management needed
• Platform breadth exceeding Actuated's Linux focus
• SSH/VNC/RDP access for debugging
• Container image acceleration
• Git checkout caching for large repos
• Crash and OOM detection
• Granular per-step metrics

➖ Cons

• VM credit pricing more complex than fixed concurrency
• Couples compute and caching

💲 Pricing

VM credits price at $0.015 each. Developer plan operates pay-as-you-go at roughly $0.0015/min in unit minutes with no base fee. Team plan costs $100 monthly, including 100,000 minutes and 1,000 Docker builds. Business plan runs $250 monthly with 250,000 minutes and 2,500 builds. Enterprise tier offers custom runner pools and very high concurrency limits.

7. Cirrus Runners

Cirrus Runners charges per concurrent runner with unlimited minutes. The managed service eliminates hardware requirements while offering predictable costs.

🌟 Key features

• Managed eliminating hardware provisioning
• Flat $150 monthly rate per concurrent runner
• Unlimited minutes similar to Actuated's model
• macOS M4 Pro runners with GPU
• Linux x86, arm64, and GPU options
• Performance 2-3x faster than GitHub
• 10 GB cache per runner

➕ Pros

• Predictable costs like Actuated's fixed concurrency
• macOS M4 Pro with 4 vCPUs, 16 GB RAM, GPU
• Linux x86 providing 16 vCPUs and 48 GB RAM
• Linux arm64 with 8 vCPUs and 24 GB RAM
• Linux GPU featuring Nvidia access
• Flexible resource classes
• No hardware maintenance

➖ Cons

• Flat pricing expensive for sporadic usage
• Cache limited to 10 GB per runner

💲 Pricing

Each concurrent runner costs $150 monthly with truly unlimited minute usage. All runner types carry the same flat rate. Annual commitment provides 15% discount. Nonprofit discount cuts pricing by 50% for qualifying non-revenue projects. Effective per-minute cost drops significantly with heavy usage, reaching approximately $0.003/min for high-volume teams.

8. Blacksmith

Blacksmith combines bare metal performance with CI observability. The managed service handles hardware while adding analytics absent from basic runners.

🌟 Key features

• Managed bare metal without hardware provisioning
• Gaming CPUs for performance
• Colocated cache providing 4x faster access
• Centralized log search across executions
• Test-level analytics identifying bottlenecks
• Live SSH access for debugging
• Docker layer reuse

➕ Pros

• Bare metal performance without hardware management
• Approximately 2x performance vs GitHub runners
• Docker layer reuse for containers
• Public image pull cache
• Run history with filtering
• Test-level timing analysis
• CI analytics dashboards

➖ Cons

• Linux-only like Actuated
• Docker features require specific actions

💲 Pricing

Usage-based pricing with 3,000 free minutes monthly. Base runner rate starts around $0.004/min for 2 vCPU x64 configurations, scaling up for larger machine shapes. Docker layer caching costs approximately $0.50/GB/month as an optional add-on. Enterprise tier adds white-glove onboarding, uptime SLA guarantees, and 24/7 support access.

9. GetMac

GetMac focuses exclusively on macOS runners with M4 Apple Silicon. The managed service addresses Actuated's Linux limitation while eliminating hardware requirements.

🌟 Key features

• Managed macOS eliminating hardware needs
• M4 Apple Silicon for modern performance
• macOS VM debugging environments
• Pre-loaded development tools (Xcode, Fastlane, CocoaPods)
• VNC and SSH debugging access
• Plan-based pricing bundling minutes
• ISO-certified TIER III data centers

➕ Pros

• macOS support addressing Actuated's limitation
• GitHub Actions and GitLab CI integration
• Contemporary management dashboard
• Ephemeral VMs ensuring clean state
• Standard GitHub Actions caching
• Fast VM launch in approximately 60 seconds
• Free tier with 100 minutes monthly

➖ Cons

• macOS-exclusive requiring separate Linux runners
• Manual VM sessions limited to 60 minutes

💲 Pricing

Plan-based pricing bundles compute minutes. Free tier provides 100 minutes at $0 monthly. Developer plan offers 1,000 minutes for $11.99. Team plan includes 3,000 minutes at $33.99. Business plan delivers 10,000 minutes for $110.99. Enterprise plan provides unlimited minutes with custom pricing.

10. runmyjob.io

runmyjob.io (also called Puzl Cloud) uses load-based billing charging for actual resource consumption. The managed service eliminates hardware requirements while optimizing costs.

🌟 Key features

• Managed eliminating hardware provisioning
• Load-based billing for CPU-seconds and memory-seconds
• Pay only during active processing
• KVM-based microVMs for isolation
• Resource limits reaching 48 vCPUs and 96 GB RAM
• EU-based infrastructure
• Declarative API

➕ Pros

• Load-based model eliminating idle costs
• Strong isolation through KVM
• Ephemeral filesystem defaulting to 150 GB
• Interactive Web Terminal for GitLab
• Up to 48 vCPUs and 96 GB RAM per job
• Job cache on Business tier
• Complete GitHub Actions compatibility

➖ Cons

• Load-based billing requires understanding different model
• Currently Linux-only like Actuated

💲 Pricing

Free plan at €0 monthly includes 1 integration, 10 concurrent jobs, up to 12 vCPUs and 32 GB RAM per job, 400 vCPU-minutes and 800 GB-minutes included monthly, then €0.00002 per vCPU-second and €0.000001 per GB-second beyond limits. Business plan costs €50 monthly with 3 integrations, unlimited concurrent jobs, 48 vCPUs and 96 GB RAM per job, 2,000 vCPU-minutes and 4,000 GB-minutes included.

11. Buildkite

Buildkite operates as a complete CI/CD platform. Teams can run self-hosted agents or use managed hosted agents without bare metal requirements.

🌟 Key features

• Platform model vs Actuated's runner focus
• Self-hosted agents or managed hosted options
• Test Engine for large test suites
• Advanced pipeline capabilities
• Multi-platform agent support
• Integration with multiple Git providers
• Enterprise security features (SSO, SCIM, audit logs)

➕ Pros

• Self-hosted agents without bare metal hardware
• Full platform providing more CI/CD control
• Test Engine for suite optimization
• Package Registries for artifacts
• Insights including retry analysis
• Support for multiple Git providers
• User-based pricing model

➖ Cons

• Requires rewriting workflows to Buildkite syntax
• Platform pricing differs from simple runners

💲 Pricing

Personal plan is free, including 3 concurrent jobs, 1 user, 50,000 test executions, 1 GB Package Registries storage, and 500 minutes Linux small. Pro plan costs $30 per user monthly with 10 self-hosted agents, unlimited test executions (then $0.10/managed test), 20 GB registries storage, 2,000 minutes Linux small, and SSO support. Enterprise provides custom pricing.

12. DevZero

DevZero optimizes Kubernetes costs while supporting GitHub Actions. The platform runs on existing clusters without requiring bare metal hardware.

🌟 Key features

• Kubernetes-based eliminating bare metal needs
• GitHub Actions via Actions Runner Controller
• Cluster-wide cost optimization
• Automated rightsizing for workloads
• Pod live migration capabilities
• Spot instance management
• Support for EKS, GKE, AKS, on-premise clusters

➕ Pros

• Unified cost control across workloads
• Automated optimization through balance operator
• Pod migration for workload shifting
• Spot instance management
• Audit logging and exports
• Works with existing infrastructure
• Savings insights with projections

➖ Cons

• Overkill for teams only focused on CI/CD
• Requires running operators adding complexity

💲 Pricing

Free tier includes up to 2 clusters for 45 days with monitoring and attribution. Scaling and Optimization plan costs $7 per CPU monthly, supporting up to 2,000 CPUs with workload optimization, spot management, and Slack support. Enterprise tier offers custom pricing with SSO, GPU optimization, and dedicated support channels.

Final thoughts

Actuated fits best when you already have bare metal capacity and want Firecracker-based microVM isolation with unlimited minutes. That said, managing hardware yourself and operating in a Linux-only environment is not always practical.

Cloud-based self-hosted options like RunsOn and Cirun preserve infrastructure control without requiring physical servers. Fully managed platforms such as Depot, BuildJet, and Ubicloud remove infrastructure work entirely.

If multi-platform support matters, Depot, Namespace, and RunsOn extend beyond Linux. For flat, predictable billing, Cirrus Runners offers unlimited minutes per runner, while Ubicloud’s low per-minute pricing stands out for cost efficiency.

Ultimately, the right choice depends on your balance between control and simplicity, platform flexibility, and operational overhead.