12 Best BuildJet Alternatives

BuildJet delivers fast Linux builds with gaming-grade CPUs, but it doesn't cover macOS workloads, and some teams need more flexibility around architecture choices or want runners that live in their own infrastructure. Finding the right alternative depends on whether you prioritize cost savings, macOS support, or full control over your runner environment.

This guide examines BuildJet alternatives so you can find a runner solution that matches your team's requirements and budget.

What makes a good BuildJet alternative?

BuildJet works well as a GitHub Actions runner replacement because it offers strong single-core performance, straightforward pricing, and minimal setup friction. An alternative should match or exceed these benefits while potentially addressing BuildJet's limitations.

Top BuildJet alternatives in 2026

Here's how each tool compares:

1. Ubicloud

Ubicloud is an open cloud platform offering GitHub Actions runners built on bare metal providers like Hetzner and Leaseweb. It provides dedicated CPU, memory, and local storage with a focus on price-performance optimization.

🌟 Key features

• Managed runners with dedicated CPU and memory
• Linux x64 and arm64 support
• Price-performance focus (3-10x cheaper)
• GitHub Managed Runner Application
• Multiple German data centers for high availability
• $1 monthly credit per account (~1,250 minutes)
• Broader platform with VMs, PostgreSQL, Kubernetes
• Open source control plane (AGPL v3)

➕ Pros

• Competitive per-minute pricing for runners
• Dedicated resources for predictable build times
• Both x64 and arm64 architecture support
• Simple per-minute billing with monthly credit included
• Can extend to other services like databases
• Open and portable design with self-hosting option

➖ Cons

• Runner locations concentrated in Germany
• Requires separate Ubicloud account and billing
• Adds another vendor to your CI workflow

💲 Pricing

Ubicloud charges per minute with end-of-month billing. Linux x64 standard runners start at $0.0008/min for 2 vCPUs with 8 GB RAM, scaling to $0.0120/min for 30 vCPUs. Premium runners are exactly double standard prices. Arm64 runners match standard x64 pricing. Every account gets $1 monthly credit covering ~1,250 minutes on a 2 vCPU runner.

2. RunsOn

RunsOn is a self-hosted GitHub Actions runner stack that runs entirely in your AWS account. It launches EC2 instances on demand to execute workflows, then tears them down when finished, providing one-to-one compatibility with official GitHub runners.

🌟 Key features

• Self-hosted runners on EC2 in your AWS account
• Linux, Windows, GPU, and macOS support
• One-to-one workflow compatibility with GitHub runners
• Aggressive spot instance use with on-demand fallback
• Ephemeral VMs per job
• Integrated S3-based cache with unlimited capacity
• Static egress IPs via NAT gateways
• CloudFormation-based installation (~10 minutes)
• Built-in metrics and cost reporting

➕ Pros

• Can significantly reduce CI costs vs GitHub runners
• Uses powerful modern EC2 instances for faster builds
• Ephemeral VMs provide strong isolation per job
• Unlimited fast caching through S3 Magic Cache
• Runs in your AWS account for security compliance
• Scales with EC2 limits rather than fixed quotas
• Partly open source with sponsorship license option

➖ Cons

• Requires AWS account and familiarity with AWS services
• Total cost includes AWS infrastructure charges plus license fee
• More complex than fully managed hosted runners
• Some startup time when instances boot for new jobs

💲 Pricing

RunsOn charges a flat license fee plus your AWS bill. The Commercial license is €300/year with unlimited jobs and email support. The Sponsorship license is €1,500/year with priority support, private Slack, and full source code access. AWS costs are per-second spot pricing, typically 7-17x cheaper than GitHub runners. Non-profits can request a free license.

3. Depot

Depot focuses on making builds and workflows faster through fast runners, smarter caching, and accelerated Docker builds. It plugs into GitHub Actions as a drop-in replacement for standard hosted runners.

🌟 Key features

• Managed runners as direct GitHub replacement
• Ultra Runners with memory-backed disk accelerator
• Integrated high-throughput GitHub Actions cache
• Intel and Arm Linux, Windows, and macOS M2 runners
• Ephemeral VMs per job
• Per-second billing without minimums
• Repository-scoped cache
• Egress filtering options
• Self-hosting option in your AWS account
• Tight Docker build and registry integration

➕ Pros

• Very strong performance with modern CPUs and provisioned I/O
• Simple migration by changing runner labels
• Broad runner selection including Arm and macOS
• Integrated caching speeds up Docker and general cache usage
• No enforced concurrency limits
• Self-hostable in your AWS account
• Good observability for job timing

➖ Cons

• Managed service with corresponding service pricing
• Limited macOS capacity can cause queues
• Egress filtering not available for all feature combinations
• Adds another vendor to your CI stack

💲 Pricing

Depot uses plan-based pricing. Developer plan at $20/month includes 1 user, 500 Docker build minutes, 2,000 GitHub Actions minutes, and 25 GB cache. Startup plan at $200/month includes unlimited users, 5,000 Docker minutes, 20,000 Actions minutes, 250 GB cache, then overage at $0.004/min for Actions. Business plan offers custom pools and dedicated infrastructure. Runners are billed per second.

4. Blacksmith

Blacksmith positions itself as a very fast and observable drop-in replacement for GitHub-hosted runners. It focuses on raw performance with bare metal gaming CPUs, colocated caching, Docker layer reuse, and dedicated CI observability.

🌟 Key features

• Marketed as ~2x faster than GitHub runners
• Colocated cache (~4x faster downloads)
• Docker build acceleration with layer reuse
• Docker pull cache for public images
• Run history view with search and filtering
• Centralized log search across jobs
• SSH access into running jobs
• Test-level analytics for slow/flaky tests
• CI analytics dashboards
• Quickstart migration wizard

➕ Pros

• Simple migration by swapping runs-on labels
• Strong CI observability with dedicated tools
• Targets main pipeline bottlenecks (CPU, cache, Docker)
• Cache behavior mostly transparent
• Keeps plain GitHub Actions primitives

➖ Cons

• GitHub Actions only, not general-purpose
• Docker acceleration requires provider-specific actions
• Must understand both runner minutes and cache storage costs

💲 Pricing

Blacksmith uses pay-as-you-go with 3,000 free minutes/month. Base price is ~$0.004/min for 2 vCPU x64, with larger shapes at higher rates. Optional add-ons include Docker layer caching (~$0.50/GB/month), static IPs, and priority Slack support. Enterprise adds white-glove onboarding, uptime SLA, 24/7 support, and CI optimization help.

5. Cirrus Runners

Cirrus Runners focuses on very fast and predictable GitHub Actions runners with a different pricing model. Instead of per-minute billing, you pay per concurrent runner and can use it as much as you want with modern CPUs and GPUs.

🌟 Key features

• Concurrent runner-based pricing model with unlimited minutes
• macOS M4 Pro runners (4 vCPUs, 16 GB RAM, GPU)
• Linux x86 runners (16 vCPUs, 48 GB RAM, KVM)
• Linux arm64 runners (8 vCPUs, 24 GB RAM)
• Linux GPU runners (8 vCPUs, 24 GB RAM, Nvidia GPU)
• ~2-3x performance vs GitHub runners
• Resource classes via image suffixes
• Optional extra small/small/medium Linux shapes
• Cirrus cache action for faster restore/save
• 10 GB cache per runner

➕ Pros

• Predictable costs with flat fee per concurrent runner
• Strong value for macOS and GPU workloads
• Integration mostly through runs-on labels
• Flexible resource classes without subscription changes
• Low priority label for workflow prioritization

➖ Cons

• Pricing model can be expensive for low usage
• Linux images not 100% identical to GitHub runners
• Modest 10 GB cache storage per runner

💲 Pricing

Each concurrent Cirrus Runner is $150/month with unlimited minutes. Choose runner types (macOS, Linux x86, Linux arm, Linux GPU) at the same price. 15% annual discount with 12-month commitment. 50% nonprofit discount for non-revenue projects. Effective per-minute cost decreases with heavy usage (~$0.003/min for high volume).

6. GetMac

GetMac delivers high-performance macOS runners powered by Apple Silicon M4 Mac Mini hardware in a TIER III, ISO-certified data center. It's built as a drop-in replacement for GitHub-hosted macOS runners and also supports GitLab CI, focusing on iOS and macOS CI/CD workloads.

🌟 Key features

• M4 Apple Silicon Mac Mini hardware
• GitHub Actions and GitLab CI support
• Full macOS VM debugging environment (~60s launch)
• Pre-installed tooling: Xcode, Fastlane, CocoaPods, Homebrew
• Modern dashboard for runner and VM management
• VNC and SSH access for debugging
• Ephemeral isolated VMs per job
• Standard GitHub Actions caching support
• 100% renewable energy powered data center
• Owned hardware with physical security controls

➕ Pros

• Faster than GitHub Intel macos-12 runners for Xcode builds
• Cost savings possible from shorter runtimes
• Simple migration by changing runs-on labels
• Full VM debugging replicates actual build conditions
• Works seamlessly with GitHub Actions artifacts
• No strict concurrency limits on higher plans
• Pre-loaded with standard GitHub Actions toolset

➖ Cons

• macOS only, no Linux or Windows support
• Manually started VMs for debugging or testing are capped at 60 minutes

💲 Pricing

GetMac uses plan-based pricing with included compute minutes. Plans range from Free ($0, 100 minutes) to Developer ($11.99, 1,000 minutes), Team ($33.99, 3,000 minutes), Business ($110.99, 10,000 minutes), and Enterprise (unlimited). Concurrent VMs scale with plans from 1 to unlimited.

7. Namespace

Namespace focuses on very fast and very debuggable GitHub Actions runners with extensive caching and observability. It adds developer tooling around CI including cache volumes, remote Docker builders, interactive SSH/VNC sessions, and detailed metrics.

🌟 Key features

• Managed runners for Linux, macOS, and Windows
• AMD EPYC, Ampere, and Apple M-series hardware
• Runner profiles for OS, architecture, and machine shape
• Cache Volumes for local data persistence
• Native build tool integrations (Bazel, Turborepo, Pants, Moon)
• Container image acceleration with layer caching
• Git checkout caching for large monorepos
• Interactive debugging with breakpoints and SSH/VNC/RDP
• Detailed job observability per step
• Crash and OOM detection with dump capture

➕ Pros

• Strong developer experience with built-in debugging tools
• Complete caching for dependencies, toolchains, containers, and repos
• Flexible runner selection across all major platforms
• Good visibility into performance and queue time
• Incremental migration path
• Real-time collaboration features
• Can run backend services alongside frontend

➖ Cons

• Unit minute and VM credit system is complex
• Many advanced features most mature on Linux
• Tying both compute and caching to one vendor

💲 Pricing

Namespace uses VM credits where 1 credit = $0.015. Developer plan is pay-as-you-go (~$0.0015/min in unit minutes) with no fixed fee. Team plan at $100/month includes 100,000 minutes and 1,000 Docker builds. Business plan at $250/month includes 250,000 minutes and 2,500 builds. Enterprise offers custom pools and very high concurrency.

8. runmyjob.io

runmyjob.io (also known as Puzl Cloud) introduces a load-based billing model where you pay only for the actual CPU and memory resources your jobs consume. Each job runs in an isolated KVM-based microVM with near bare-metal performance.

🌟 Key features

• Load-based billing: charged for CPU-seconds and memory-seconds actually utilized
• KVM-based Spike Instances for strong isolation
• GitHub Actions and GitLab CI support
• Ephemeral filesystem per job (150 GB default)
• Interactive Web Terminal for GitLab pipeline debugging
• Up to 48 vCPUs and 96 GB RAM per job
• Declarative API for runner management
• Job cache on Business plan and above
• Full GitHub Actions environment compatibility
• EU-based infrastructure

➕ Pros

• Billing model only charges for actual resource load
• Idle CPU time doesn't incur charges, reducing waste
• Strong isolation with dedicated VM per job
• Generous resource limits (48 vCPUs, 96 GB RAM)
• 100% compatible with existing GitHub Actions and GitLab CI configurations
• No vendor lock-in with standard integrations
• Free tier available for getting started

➖ Cons

• Load-based billing model requires understanding new pricing structure
• Currently Linux only (Windows and ARM coming soon)

💲 Pricing

Free plan at €0/month includes 1 integration, 10 concurrent jobs, 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 over limits. Business plan at €50/month includes 3 integrations, unlimited concurrent jobs, 48 vCPUs and 96 GB RAM per job, 2,000 vCPU-minutes and 4,000 GB-minutes included, plus 10 GB persistent storage and job caching. Enterprise offers custom resources, GPU support, dedicated nodes, and priority support.

9. Actuated

Actuated is a hosted control plane for very fast, very isolated self-hosted runners. You bring your own bare metal or nested virtualization servers, install the agent, and it creates Firecracker microVMs—one per job—for strong isolation.

🌟 Key features

• Firecracker microVMs starting in ~1-2 seconds
• Fully managed control plane
• Maintained Ubuntu guest image
• x86-64 and arm64 host support
• GPU support for ML workloads
• Fixed concurrency model with unmetered minutes
• Multi-organization dashboard
• Build queue view
• Insights for up to 120 days
• Job duration increase reports
• SSH debugging support
• CLI for management

➕ Pros

• Strong security with microVM isolation per job
• Predictable costs with per-concurrency pricing model
• You control hardware location
• Guest image centrally maintained
• Dashboard focuses on practical usage questions
• Works with GitHub and GitLab CI

➖ Cons

• Must provision your own bare metal hosts
• Linux only, no Windows or macOS
• Smaller vendor and ecosystem

💲 Pricing

Actuated Basic at $250/month includes 5 concurrent jobs, unmetered minutes, up to 1 VM host, single GitHub org, reports, SSH debugging, and Slack support during UK hours. Works out to ~$0.008/min if running 30K mins/month. Higher tiers available for 10, 15, 20, 35, 50+ concurrent jobs. Custom plans for larger fleets.

10. Buildkite

Buildkite is a full CI/CD platform that plugs into GitHub, GitLab, or other Git servers. GitHub stays as your source of truth while Buildkite handles pipelines, builds, test analytics, and deployments, reporting commit statuses back to pull requests.

🌟 Key features

• Full CI/CD platform with pipelines and dashboards
• Native GitHub integration via webhooks
• Pipelines defined in pipeline.yml
• Agents as cross-platform build runners
• Cluster and queue model for workload control
• Support for many Git providers
• Buildkite Test Engine for large test suites
• Buildkite Package Registries
• Insights features (retries, queue control, exports)
• Enterprise security (SSO, SCIM, audit logs)

➕ Pros

• Move off GitHub Actions while keeping GitHub for source control
• Keep compute close with self-hosted agents
• Very flexible pipeline model for complex workflows
• Test Engine designed for large suites and flakiness
• Flexible pricing based on users and self-hosted concurrency

➖ Cons

• This is a platform switch, not a one-line change
• Requires running agents if not using hosted agents
• Hosted agent usage can add up with per-minute billing

💲 Pricing

Platform plans: Personal (free) includes 3 concurrent jobs, 1 user, 50K test executions, 1 GB Package Registries, 500 mins Linux small. Pro ($30/user/month) includes 10 self-hosted agents, unlimited tests (then $0.10/managed test), 20 GB registries, 2,000 mins Linux small, SSO. Enterprise offers custom pricing with unlimited pipelines, volume discounts, and advanced governance. Hosted agents: Linux small $0.013/min, medium $0.026/min, large $0.052/min. Mac M4 medium $0.18/min, large $0.36/min.

11. Cirun

Cirun is a managed self-hosted GitHub Actions runner platform that runs entirely on your own cloud accounts. It connects to your AWS, GCP, Azure, Oracle Cloud, or other provider and spins up ephemeral VMs per job using labels defined in .cirun.yml.

🌟 Key features

• Self-hosted runners in your cloud accounts
• GitHub App integration
• Configuration via .cirun.yml per repository
• One-line workflow change to Cirun labels
• On-demand runners per job
• Multiple cloud support including on-prem
• Arm and GPU instance support
• Preemptible/spot instance support
• Free for public open source repositories

➕ Pros

• Compute stays in your cloud accounts
• Lightweight onboarding process
• Good support for Arm and GPUs
• Preemptible instances available for optimization
• Open source projects can use at no platform cost

➖ Cons

• Repository-based pricing structure for private repos
• You manage cloud accounts, images, and networking
• GitHub Actions only

💲 Pricing

Open Source (free) includes unlimited public repos, unlimited runners, Arm/GPU/all clouds. Startup ($29/month) adds up to 3 private repos with Slack/email support. Business ($79/month) supports up to 10 private repos. Enterprise (custom) offers unlimited private repos with premium support. Runners billed directly by your cloud provider.

12. DevZero

DevZero focuses on Kubernetes cost and resource optimization, with GitHub Actions runners as one workload type. It connects to your clusters, monitors utilization and spend, then applies policy-based changes to right-size pods and nodes.

🌟 Key features

• Kubernetes cost and resource monitoring
• Savings insights with before/after projections
• Automated optimization via balance operator
• Pod live migration support
• Spot instance management
• EKS, GKE, AKS, and on-prem cluster support
• GitHub Actions via Actions Runner Controller
• Runner scale sets with DevZero labels
• Audit logging and cost export

➕ Pros

• Strong Kubernetes cost control for CI and apps
• Read-only operator reduces initial risk
• Automated rightsizing beyond recommendations
• Runners fully under your control using K8s primitives
• Fits organizations thinking in clusters and pods

➖ Cons

• Overkill if only concerned with GitHub Actions minutes
• Requires running operators in clusters
• Billing based on CPUs under management
• Relies on Actions Runner Controller complexity

💲 Pricing

DevZero prices by CPU under management. Free tier includes up to 2 clusters for 45 days with monitoring and attribution. Scaling and Optimization plan at $7/CPU/month supports up to 2,000 CPUs with workload optimization, spot management, and Slack support. Enterprise offers custom pricing, SSO, GPU optimization, and dedicated support.

Final thoughts

BuildJet works great for Linux-only teams wanting simple, fast runners. But no tool fits every situation perfectly.

If you need macOS runners for iOS development, GetMac delivers M4 hardware with excellent debugging tools, while Cirrus Runners offers a flat-rate model that rewards consistent usage. For Windows workloads, Depot, RunsOn, and Namespace all provide solid Windows runner support that BuildJet lacks.

If observability and debugging matter most, Blacksmith provides comprehensive CI analytics and centralized log search, while Namespace adds interactive debugging with SSH/VNC access and detailed per-step metrics.

Many teams don't stick with a single runner provider. You might use BuildJet or another fast Linux runner for most jobs while reserving macOS runners or GPU instances for specialized workloads. The right approach depends on your specific requirements, budget constraints, and how much operational complexity you're willing to manage.