Compare 35+ free CI/CD tools — GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, Buildkite, Harness CI, Drone CI, and more. Exact free tier limits by CI/CD type. Verified April to September 2026.
Every software team needs CI/CD, but build minutes add up fast. GitHub Actions is the default choice with 2,000 free minutes/month for private repos and unlimited for public, but it introduced self-hosted runner charges ($0.002/min) in March 2026. GitLab CI cut its free tier to 400 minutes/month. CircleCI offers 30K credits/month (~6K minutes) but requires a credit card for some features.
This page compares every free CI/CD option in our index — 37 tools across general-purpose platforms, container-native pipelines, mobile CI/CD, and infrastructure automation. Whether you need cloud-hosted runners or self-hosted pipelines, we have the comparison with exact free tier limits.
Recent CI/CD Pricing Changes
GitHub Actions: Self-hosted runner per-minute fee ($0.002/min) announced for March 2026 was postponed indefinitely after community ba... Source ↗
Harness CI: The free plan now has significantly reduced limits. Previously 2,000 build credits/month. The current page details li... Source ↗
Bitrise: The Hobby plan now has a build timeout of 210 minutes, up from 90. The Hobby plan also includes 2GB of dependency cac... Source ↗
Harness Feature Flags: Retracted — this record was our error (2026-09-10). The free plan now requires a minimum of 20 developer licenses for... Source ↗
GitHub Actions: The free tier for private repositories includes 2,000 minutes, 500MB artifact storage, and 10GB cache storage. The pr... Source ↗
CircleCI: The free tier still exists. The details have been expanded. The free tier now includes options for different resource... Source ↗
Buildkite: The free plan now offers 2,000 Linux vCPU minutes/month and 250k test executions, up from 500 minutes and 50k executi... Source ↗
Harness Feature Flags: Retracted — this record was our error (2026-09-10). The free plan now includes Harness Open Source and Litmus Chaos, ... Source ↗
Full-featured CI/CD platforms with cloud-hosted runners, pipeline configuration, and integrations. These cover most use cases — from simple test-and-deploy to complex multi-stage pipelines.
Superseded: As of 2026-08-28, harness.io/pricing reads: Free Plan is available for individual developers and small teams. It includes up to 60 concurrent pipeline executions, 250GB storage, up to 1 organization, up to 500 maximum users, up to 5 custom dashboards, unlimited templates, up to 5 custom roles, and policy as code. We are not publishing our stored Harness CI terms beside it — our own pricing change record, discovered 2026-08-28, names them as the previous ones. Read what we recorded ↓
Docker-first and Kubernetes-native CI/CD tools. Built for containerized workflows, GitOps, and cloud-native deployments. Many are open source with self-hosted options.
Container-native CI/CD (now part of Harness) — free open-source edition (self-hosted): unlimited users and concurrency, YAML pipelines, Docker-based builds. Cloud available free for open-source projects
Specialized CI/CD for iOS, Android, Flutter, and React Native apps. Handle code signing, device testing, and app store distribution that general-purpose tools struggle with.
Superseded: As of 2026-09-03, codemagic.io/pricing reads: Single-user plan with unlimited number of applications and 500 free build minutes refilled every month. 30 days build history & artifact storage, 10GB per build cache storage. We are not publishing our stored Codemagic terms beside it — our own pricing change record, discovered 2026-09-03, names them as the previous ones. Read what we recorded ↓
Mobile CI/CD and distribution — free Starter plan: 20 builds/month, 1 concurrent build, 30-minute max build time, unlimited apps, 1,000 CodePush updates/month, 100 testing distribution downloads/month
Deploy your app on AWS/GCP/Azure in under 30 minutes. Setup standardised app environments on any cloud, which come with in-built continuous deployment automation and advanced observability. The free plan allows 3 users, 2 environments, 2 cloud connections, 5 services per environment, and 200 build-deploy minutes per month.
Nx Cloud speeds up your monorepos on CI with features such as remote caching, distribution of tasks across machines and even automated splitting of your e2e test runs. It comes with a free Hobby plan with unlimited contributors and 50,000 credits included.
Terramate is an orchestration and management platform for Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools such as Terraform, OpenTofu, and Terragrunt. Free up to 2 users including all features.
GitOps-first Terraform automation with pull request-driven workflows, project isolation via self-hosted runners, and layered runs for ordered operations. Free for unlimited users with unlimited runs and runners.
Version control + build automation — 25 GB storage (5x increase Mar 2026), 100 GB egress (new Mar 2026), no seat charges (removed Mar 2026). Build: 200 Windows + 100 Mac minutes/month. Includes Plastic SCM for version control. No egress charges through April 2026
Now RunJob — runmyjob.io redirects to runjob.eu, which serves the same product. Cloud runners for GitHub Actions and GitLab CI. Free plan is EUR 0/month: 1 integration with a GitLab or GitHub organisation, 10 concurrent jobs, 12 vCPU and 32 GB of memory per job, 400 vCPU-minutes and 800 GB-minutes included monthly, usage-priced above that. GitHub runners work with organisation accounts only.
Superseded: As of 2026-08-28, squash.io reads: Start with a free credit of $40. See our pricing details for additional information. We are not publishing our stored Squash Labs terms beside it — our own pricing change record, discovered 2026-08-28, names them as the previous ones. Read what we recorded ↓
GitHub Actions dominates with unlimited public repo minutes and the largest marketplace of reusable actions. CircleCI offers the most free credits among hosted platforms. Google Cloud Build has the most generous hosted minutes (2,500/mo). Drone CI and Woodpecker CI are unlimited when self-hosted. Verified April to September 2026.
Which Free CI/CD Tool Should I Use?
Building on GitHub with public repos?
GitHub Actions — unlimited free minutes for public repos, 4,000+ marketplace actions, native GitHub integration. The obvious default choice.
Need more minutes for private repos?
CircleCI (30K credits/mo, ~6K minutes) or Google Cloud Build (2,500 min/mo) both exceed GitHub Actions' 2,000 min/mo private repo limit.
Want an all-in-one DevOps platform?
GitLab CI — SCM, CI/CD, container registry, deployments, and security scanning in one platform. Only 400 min/mo free, but everything is integrated.
Running container/Kubernetes workloads?
Codefresh for managed GitOps with Argo CD. Drone CI or Woodpecker CI for self-hosted, Docker-native pipelines with unlimited builds.
Building mobile apps (iOS/Android/Flutter)?
Codemagic (500 macOS M2 min/mo) is the Flutter favorite. Bitrise covers iOS + Android with built-in code signing. Appcircle adds OTA distribution.
Need unlimited builds, self-hosted?
Drone CI (Apache 2.0) or Woodpecker CI (community fork) — both are container-native, lightweight, and free with no build limits. Semaphore CI also has a free self-hosted edition.
Managing Infrastructure as Code?
Terramate and Terrateam specialize in Terraform/OpenTofu CI/CD with PR-driven workflows. Nx Cloud accelerates monorepo builds with remote caching.
Windows-only builds?
AppVeyor specializes in Windows CI/CD, free for open-source projects. GitHub Actions also supports Windows runners.
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