Compare 17+ CI/CD tools: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, Buildkite, Harness CI, Google Cloud Build, Bitrise and more. Free tiers, build minutes, concurrent jobs, pricing models, and hidden costs. Compiled 2026-04-09.
Published 2026-04-09 · Reviewed 2026-09-12, corrections outstanding · 17 tools compared · Figures compiled 2026-04-09 · 4 of 4 figures in the “Recent Pricing Changes” table come from our records for 1,493 developer tools · 4 pricing changes tracked
The CI/CD landscape in April 2026: 17 tools across four categories — general-purpose platforms, cloud-native services, mobile CI/CD specialists, and self-hosted open-source solutions. Pricing models are fragmented: per-seat, per-minute, per-credit, and per-parallel-job all coexist. Free tiers range from Google Cloud Build's 2,500 min/month to Bitbucket Pipelines' tight 50 min/month.
Key trends: Self-hosted runners are becoming the cost optimization strategy — GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Buildkite, Harness CI, and Azure DevOps all offer free unlimited self-hosted execution. Cloud-native CI/CD (AWS CodeBuild, Google Cloud Build) charges per-minute with modest free tiers. Mobile CI/CD remains the most expensive category, with macOS build minutes costing 2–10x Linux minutes.
This guide covers: pricing tables, category breakdowns, build minute analysis, cost comparison for small teams and growing organizations, hidden costs, and best-for-use-case recommendations — compiled by hand from vendor pricing pages.
Compiled 2026-04-09. Hover rows to highlight. Click tool names for full vendor profiles with free tier details.
| Tool | Free Minutes/mo | Concurrency | Self-Hosted | Paid From | Model |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Actions | 2,000 min/mo (private) | 20 concurrent jobs | Free | $4/seat (Team) | Per-seat + usage |
| GitLab CI | 400 min/mo | Unlimited (limited by runners) | Free (unlimited) | $29/user/mo (Premium) | Per-user |
| CircleCI | 6,000 min/mo | 30 concurrent jobs | Free runner time; 5 concurrent self-hosted tasks | $15/seat (Performance) | Credit-based |
| Buildkite | 2,000 Linux vCPU min/mo | 10 concurrent jobs | Free (up to 10 concurrent jobs) | $30/active user/mo (Pro) | Per-user |
| Semaphore CI | $15 credit (≈2,000 Ubuntu x64 2-vCPU min) | 20 jobs | Community Edition free; agents $0.0025/min | $0.003/min (Ubuntu ARM, 2 vCPU) | Per-minute usage |
| Harness CI | 2,000 min/mo | Varies | Free (unlimited) | $25/dev/mo | Per-developer |
| Buddy | 300 pipeline GB-min/mo | 1 concurrent | Paid only | $29/mo (Pro, 2 seats) | Per-seat + concurrency |
| AWS CodeBuild | 100 min/mo | 20+ concurrent | N/A (managed) | $0.005/min (general1.small) | Per-minute |
| Google Cloud Build | 2,500 min/mo | 10+ concurrent | N/A (managed) | $0.003/min (e2-medium) | Per-minute |
| Azure DevOps | 1,800 min/mo | 1 parallel job | Free (1 agent, unlimited min) | $40/parallel job/mo | Per-parallel-job |
| Bitbucket Pipelines | 50 min/mo | 1 concurrent | Yes (no build minutes used) | $3.65/user/mo (Standard) | Per-user + minutes |
| Bitrise | 300 min/mo | 1 concurrent | Paid only | $89/mo (Velocity) | Per-seat + minutes |
| Codemagic | 500 min/mo | 1 concurrent | N/A (managed) | Per minute (Pay-as-you-go); $49/mo per extra concurrent build | Per-minute |
| Appcircle | 20 builds/mo, 30 min/build | 1 concurrent | Corporate only | Custom (Corporate) | Per-plan |
| Jenkins | Unlimited (self-hosted) | Unlimited | 100% self-hosted | $0 (OSS) | Free OSS |
| Drone CI | Unlimited (self-hosted) | Unlimited | 100% self-hosted | $0 (Community) | Free community |
| Woodpecker CI | Unlimited (self-hosted) | Unlimited | 100% self-hosted | $0 (OSS) | Free OSS |
CI/CD tools fall into four distinct categories, each optimized for different workflows and team sizes.
A date in a heading below cites a record we hold, not a property of the vendor it names. These figures were compiled on 2026-04-09; a dated badge marks a card whose vendor we have recorded a change for since, and the date moves to the newer record on the day that record takes effect. Every record we hold for any vendor named below is in the full change log.
Full-featured CI/CD platforms that work with any codebase. Most offer both cloud-hosted and self-hosted runner options.
Unlimited minutes for public repos. Private repos: 2,000 min/mo on GitHub-hosted runners, 500 MB artifact storage, 10 GB cache. Self-hosted runners are free. By far the most popular CI/CD platform for open-source.
400 compute minutes/month on shared runners, 10 GiB storage, 5 users, built-in container registry (5 GB), security scanning (SAST, dependency scanning). Self-hosted runners are completely free with no per-minute fees. New accounts limited to 3 top-level groups.
30,000 credits/month (up to 6,000 build minutes on small Docker), 5 users, 30x concurrency, no credit card required. Credits consumed at different rates by resource class: small Docker is 5 credits/min, medium is 10, large is 20. Free plan includes parallelism and test splitting.
Up to 5 users, 10 concurrent jobs, 2,000 Linux vCPU minutes/month on hosted agents, 250K test executions/month, 30-day build retention and 50 GB/month of artifact storage. Self-hosted agents are free up to the same 10 concurrent jobs. Special pricing for open-source projects on request.
Semaphore Cloud gives every account a $15 credit each month, about 2,000 Ubuntu x64 2-vCPU minutes, and 20 concurrent jobs by default. Self-hosted Community Edition is free.
2,000 free build minutes/month on Harness Cloud, unlimited self-hosted runners. Includes built-in test intelligence (ML-based test selection), caching, and parallelism. Free plan supports up to 5 developers. Part of the broader Harness DevOps platform.
Free plan: 1 seat, 1 concurrent run, 300 pipeline GB-minutes a month, 1 GB cache, 300 sandbox CPU-minutes. Visual pipeline builder with drag-and-drop actions. Supports 100+ pre-configured actions. Free plan includes all integrations but limits execution time.
CI/CD services built into major cloud platforms. Best when you are already invested in that cloud ecosystem.
100 build minutes/month on general1.small or arm1.small (Always Free). Pay-per-minute after that. Integrates with CodePipeline, CodeCommit, and all AWS services. Supports custom Docker images, caching to S3, and batch builds. No server management.
2,500 build-minutes a month per billing account, on e2-standard-2 machines in the default pool. Google calls this free tier promotional and subject to change. Supports Docker, custom builders, and Cloud Deploy. Triggers from GitHub, Bitbucket, and Cloud Source Repos.
1,800 minutes/month on Microsoft-hosted agents (1 parallel job), unlimited self-hosted agent minutes (1 free parallel job). Includes Azure Repos (unlimited private repos), Azure Boards, Azure Test Plans (basic). Up to 5 free users with Basic access.
50 build minutes/month, 1 GB Git LFS, 5 users on free plan. Built into Bitbucket — no separate CI service to configure. Supports Docker, caching, and deployment environments. Integrates with Jira for deployment tracking.
Specialized for iOS and Android builds. Provide macOS runners, code signing, and app store publishing out of the box.
300 build minutes/month on standard macOS VMs, 1 concurrent build, unlimited team members. Mobile-first CI/CD with 300+ pre-built integrations (Xcode, Gradle, Fastlane, CocoaPods). Visual workflow editor. iOS and Android builds on Apple Silicon (M1/M2) available on paid plans.
Single-user plan with unlimited number of applications and 500 free build minutes a month on macOS M2 machines, for personal accounts only; Linux and Windows builds get no free minutes, and teams get none. 1 concurrent build. Optimized for Flutter, React Native, native iOS/Android, and Unity. Free plan includes Apple Silicon M2 builds. Automatic code signing and App Store/Play Store publishing.
Starter plan: 1 concurrent build, 30 minutes maximum per build, 20 builds a month. Mobile CI/CD with built-in distribution portal, Enterprise App Store, and in-app update support. Supports iOS (Xcode), Android (Gradle), React Native, and Flutter.
Run on your own infrastructure at zero software cost. You manage servers, updates, and scaling.
100% free and open-source (MIT license). The original CI/CD server — 1,800+ plugins, massive ecosystem. Runs on any infrastructure you provide. Pipeline as Code via Jenkinsfile. Requires server administration, plugin management, and security updates. No hosted option.
Free Community edition (self-hosted). Container-native — every pipeline step runs in an isolated Docker container. Simple YAML configuration. Minimal resource footprint. Supports Linux, Windows, macOS, and Arm runners. Lightweight alternative to Jenkins.
100% free and open-source (Apache 2.0). Community fork of Drone CI with active development. Container-native with simple YAML pipelines. Supports Gitea, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Forgejo. Minimal resource requirements. Growing community.
Free tiers vary dramatically. Here's the honest breakdown of what you get at zero cost and when you'll need to upgrade.
| Tool | Free Tier Type | Free Minutes | When You Hit the Wall |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Actions | Generous free tier | 2,000 min/mo (private) | Months of daily use |
| GitLab CI | Limited free tier | 400 min/mo | 1–4 weeks for active team |
| CircleCI | Generous free tier | 6,000 min/mo | Months of daily use |
| Buildkite | Limited free tier | 2,000 Linux vCPU min/mo | 1–4 weeks for active team |
| Semaphore CI | Monthly credit | ≈2,000 (Ubuntu x64, 2 vCPU) | When the $15 monthly credit is used |
| Harness CI | Generous free tier | 2,000 min/mo | Months of daily use |
| Buddy | Limited free tier | 300 pipeline GB-min/mo | 1–4 weeks for active team |
| AWS CodeBuild | Limited free tier | 100 min/mo | 1–4 weeks for active team |
| Google Cloud Build | Generous free tier | 2,500 min/mo | Months of daily use |
| Azure DevOps | Generous free tier | 1,800 min/mo | Months of daily use |
| Bitbucket Pipelines | Limited free tier | 50 min/mo | 1–4 weeks for active team |
| Bitrise | Limited free tier | 300 min/mo | 1–4 weeks for active team |
| Codemagic | Limited free tier | 500 min/mo | 1–4 weeks for active team |
| Appcircle | Limited free tier | 20 builds/mo, 30 min/build | 1–4 weeks for active team |
| Jenkins | Generous free tier | Unlimited (self-hosted) | Months of daily use |
| Drone CI | Self-hosted / OSS only | Unlimited (self-hosted) | Never (self-hosted) |
| Woodpecker CI | Generous free tier | Unlimited (self-hosted) | Months of daily use |
What does each tool cost for a solo developer or small project versus a team of 5–10 running regular CI pipelines?
| Tool | Solo / Small /mo | Team /mo | Key Cost Factor |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Actions | $0 | $4/seat + overages | Per minute: $0.006 Linux 2-core, $0.010 Windows 2-core, $0.062 macOS |
| GitLab CI | $0 | $29/user | 400 minutes runs out fast on multi-stage pipelines. Premium ($29/user) adds merg... |
| CircleCI | $0 | $15/seat + credits | Credit consumption varies dramatically by resource class. macOS builds cost 100 ... |
| Buildkite | $0 | $30/active user | Pro includes 10 self-hosted agents and charges $3.50 per agent/month beyond that... |
| Semaphore CI | $0 within the $15 credit | Usage-based | Semaphore Cloud provides a $15 monthly credit. Compute is billed per minute after the credit is used. |
| Harness CI | $0 | $25/dev | The CI module is part of Harness platform — upsell to CD, feature flags, chaos e... |
| Buddy | $29 | $29+ (Pro) | Buddy's Pro plan: $29 a month, includes 2 seats; each additional seat $9 a month... |
| AWS CodeBuild | $0–10 | $20–100+ | 100 free minutes is on the smallest instance (3 GB RAM, 2 vCPU). Larger instance... |
| Google Cloud Build | $0 | $0–50 | The free minutes cover e2-standard-2 only. Also: Artifact Registry storage, Clou... |
| Azure DevOps | $0 | $40/parallel job | 1 parallel job means builds queue. Each additional parallel job is $40/month for... |
| Bitbucket Pipelines | $3.65/user | $3.65/user + overages | 50 minutes is extremely stingy — barely enough for a few builds. Standard plan (... |
| Bitrise | $0–89 | $89+ | 300 minutes on standard VMs. iOS builds are slow on non-Apple-Silicon runners (f... |
| Codemagic | $0–49 | Per minute + $49/concurrency | 500 minutes is reasonable for mobile. Pay-as-you-go charges per minute. macOS M2... |
| Appcircle | $0 | Custom (Corporate) | 20 builds a month is tight for iOS. Above Starter, the only plan is Corporate, t... |
| Jenkins | $0 + infra | $0 + infra | The software is free but infrastructure and maintenance are not. A basic Jenkins... |
| Drone CI | $0 + infra | $0 + infra | Community edition is single-machine. Enterprise features (autoscaling, high avai... |
| Woodpecker CI | $0 + infra | $0 + infra | Smaller ecosystem than Jenkins or Drone. Self-hosted only — no managed option. P... |
The sticker price rarely tells the full story. Here are CI/CD costs that catch teams off guard.
GitHub charges a per-minute rate for each runner type past the free quota: $0.006 for Linux 2-core, $0.010 for Windows 2-core and $0.062 for macOS. CircleCI's macOS builds cost 100 credits/min vs 5 for Linux. If you build iOS apps, budget 5–10x what you'd expect from Linux-only CI.
Most CI/CD free tiers limit artifact and cache storage. GitHub Actions: 500 MB artifacts (10 GB cache). GitLab: 10 GiB total. CircleCI: artifacts and workspaces count against your credit budget. Cloud-native providers charge separately for artifact registry storage (AWS ECR, Google Artifact Registry).
Free tiers typically allow 1–3 concurrent jobs. When you have 20 PRs open, builds queue. Azure DevOps charges $40/month per additional parallel job. This cost scales linearly — 5 parallel jobs = $200/month. Self-hosted runners bypass this but require infrastructure.
Cloud-native CI services (AWS CodeBuild, Google Cloud Build) charge standard cloud egress rates on build outputs. Pulling large Docker images, pushing to external registries, or deploying large artifacts can add $10–50/month in data transfer fees that don't show up in CI pricing.
Self-hosted runners are "free" but your servers are not. A capable CI runner needs 4+ CPU cores, 8+ GB RAM, and fast SSD storage. Cloud cost: $40–150/month per runner. At scale, this is still cheaper than per-minute pricing, but the break-even point is around 5,000–10,000 build minutes/month.
CI/CD pricing is generally stable, but runner costs and free tier limits are shifting. See full change timeline for all tracked changes.
| Date | Vendor | Change | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| discovered Sep 5, 2026 · effective date unknown | Buildkite | Between the Internet Archive's captures of 2026-06-14 and 2026-09-01, Buildkite replaced its $0 Personal plan (1 user, 3 concurrent jobs, 500 Linux vCPU minutes and 50k test executions a month, 90-day build retention) with a $0 Free plan: up to 5 users, 10 concurrent jobs, 2,000 Linux vCPU minutes and 250k test executions a month, and 30-day build retention. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| discovered Sep 3, 2026 · effective date unknown | CircleCI | CircleCI's plan table began listing the (x86) Docker (Gen 2) Small, Medium, Medium+ and Large resource classes as available on the Free plan, between the Internet Archive's captures of 2026-08-29 and 2026-09-01. The Free plan's 30,000 credits a month, up to 5 active users and 30x concurrency did not change. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| effective May 4, 2026 | Nx Cloud | Between the Internet Archive's captures of nx.dev/nx-cloud of 2026-04-23 and 2026-05-04, Nx Cloud's free Hobby plan began listing "5 complimentary contributors"; on 2026-04-23 the contributor allowance was listed on the Team plan only. Its 50,000 monthly credits did not change. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| effective Jan 1, 2026 | GitHub Actions | Self-hosted runner per-minute fee ($0.002/min) announced for March 2026 was postponed indefinitely after community backlash. Self-hosted runners remain free. Separately, hosted runner prices were reduced up to 39% (Jan 2026) Source ↗ | LOW |
GitHub Actions — unlimited free minutes for public repos, massive marketplace of pre-built actions, and tight GitHub integration. No contest.
Google Cloud Build (2,500 min/month free) or GitHub Actions (2,000 min/month). Cloud Build wins on raw minutes; GitHub Actions wins on ecosystem and ease of setup.
GitLab CI Premium ($29/user) includes CI/CD + security scanning + container registry + package registry. Buildkite for teams already running self-hosted infrastructure — self-hosted agents are free up to 10 concurrent jobs.
Codemagic (500 free min/month with Apple Silicon) for Flutter and cross-platform. Bitrise (300 free min) for native iOS/Android with the largest mobile integration library.
Jenkins for maximum plugin ecosystem and flexibility. Woodpecker CI for a lightweight, modern, container-native alternative. Both are 100% free and open-source.
Drone CI for lightweight container-native pipelines on your own K8s cluster.
Use your cloud's native CI: AWS CodeBuild, Google Cloud Build, or Azure DevOps. Deepest integration with cloud services, IAM, and artifact storage. Azure DevOps has the best free tier at 1,800 min/month.