Compare free CI/CD alternatives: GitLab CI, CircleCI, Buildkite, Harness, Drone CI, Google Cloud Build, and more. Catalogue dates July to September 2026.

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GitHub Actions Alternatives

GitHub announced a $0.002/min charge for self-hosted runners in private repos from March 1, 2026, then postponed it, so self-hosted runners are still free. The GitHub-hosted free tier (2,000 minutes a month for private repos; standard runners are free in public repos) is unchanged.

For public repositories, GitHub Actions remains the best free CI/CD option — unlimited minutes with no restrictions. But if you’re running private repo pipelines on self-hosted infrastructure, these alternatives offer generous free tiers.

Below are the best free CI/CD alternatives, compared by exact free tier limits — build minutes, concurrent jobs, storage, and platform support. For the full picture, see our definitive CI/CD pricing comparison covering 17+ tools across general, cloud-native, mobile, and self-hosted categories.

Pricing Postponed

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 ↗

Before: Self-hosted runners free. Previous per-minute pricing for hosted runners
After: Self-hosted runners remain free — no orchestration fees. Hosted runners 39% cheaper. GitHub re-evaluating self-hosted pricing approach

Top Alternatives

GitLab CI Free stable

400 compute minutes/month, 10 GiB storage, 5 users. New accounts limited to 3 top-level groups

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CircleCI Free stable

The Free plan includes 30,000 credits/month, 5 active users, and options for different resource classes (Docker, Windows, Linux, Arm, macOS) with varying concurrency levels (30x for Docker, Linux, Arm, Windows VM, and macOS VM).

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Buildkite Personal stable

The Free Plan offers up to 5 users, up to 10 concurrent jobs, up to 2,000 Linux vCPU minutes per month, up to 250k test executions per month, 30 days build retention, and 50GB/month artifact storage.

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Bitbucket Pipelines Free stable

CI/CD built into Bitbucket — 50 build minutes/month, 1 GB Git LFS, 5 users on free plan

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Woodpecker CI Free OSS

Free OSS (Apache 2.0). Community fork of Drone CI. Container-native CI/CD with YAML pipelines, multi-platform support, Gitea/Forgejo/GitHub/GitLab integrationThe page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-09-02, so we cannot confirm these terms today.

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Semaphore CI Community (Self-hosted) stable

CI/CD platform — free cloud plan: $15 credits/month (~2,000 Ubuntu build minutes), 20 concurrent jobs, YAML pipelines, secrets management. Self-hosted available at $0.0025/min. Cloud starts at $0.0075/min for Ubuntu

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Drone CI Community (Self-hosted)

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 projectsThe page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-09-02, so we cannot confirm these terms today.

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Codefresh Free

CI/CD and GitOps platform — free plan: 120 builds/month, 1 concurrent pipeline. Docker-native build engine with built-in Docker registryThe page we cite for this offer does not name it when we last looked, on 2026-09-05, so we cannot confirm these terms today.

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Harness CI Free stable

CI/CD platform — 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.

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Google Cloud Build Always Free stable

Always Free: 2,500 build-minutes/month (e2-standard-2). Serverless CI/CD platform with support for Docker, Maven, Gradle, and custom builders

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Jenkins Free OSS

Free OSS (MIT). Self-hosted automation server — a self-contained Java program that runs out of the box on your own machine, with no hosted or paid plan offered by the project. Over 1,900 plugins; the leading open source automation server. jenkins.io/license/ carries the MIT License, which grants use free of charge. Read 2026-09-19.The page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-09-19, so we cannot confirm these terms today.

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Free Tier Comparison

How each CI/CD platform’s free tier compares. GitHub Actions’ 2,000 min/mo for private repos remains strong for GitHub-hosted runners.

Platform Free Build Time Concurrency Users Self-Hosted GitOps License
GitHub Actions 2,000 min/mo (private)20 concurrentUnlimited Free✅ Proprietary
GitLab CI 400 min/moIncluded5 ✅ Free✅ MIT (core)
CircleCI 30K credits/mo (~6K min)30x5 ✅ Free✅ Proprietary
Buildkite 2,000 vCPU min/mo10 concurrent5 ✅ Free✅ Proprietary
Harness CI 2,000 credits/moIncludedIncluded ✅ Free✅ Proprietary
Google Cloud Build 2,500 min/moIncludedIncluded —✅ Proprietary
Drone CI Unlimited (self-hosted)UnlimitedUnlimited ✅ Self-hosted only✅ Apache-2.0
Woodpecker CI Unlimited (self-hosted)UnlimitedUnlimited ✅ Self-hosted only✅ Apache-2.0
Codefresh 120 builds/mo1 concurrentIncluded —✅ (Argo) Proprietary
Semaphore CI Unlimited (self-hosted)UnlimitedUnlimited ✅ Self-hosted only✅ Proprietary

Drone CI, Woodpecker CI, and Semaphore Community Edition are self-hosted only — limits depend on your infrastructure. GitLab CI’s 400 min/mo applies to shared runners on gitlab.com; self-hosted GitLab runners are free. Bitbucket Pipelines (50 min/mo) not shown due to limited free tier.

Quick Comparison

Tool Free Tier Details Stability
GitLab CI Free 400 compute minutes/month, 10 GiB storage, 5 users. New accounts limited to 3 top-level groups stable
CircleCI Free The Free plan includes 30,000 credits/month, 5 active users, and options for different resource classes (Docker, Windows... stable
Buildkite Personal The Free Plan offers up to 5 users, up to 10 concurrent jobs, up to 2,000 Linux vCPU minutes per month, up to 250k test ... stable
Bitbucket Pipelines Free CI/CD built into Bitbucket — 50 build minutes/month, 1 GB Git LFS, 5 users on free plan stable
Woodpecker CI Free OSS Free OSS (Apache 2.0). Community fork of Drone CI. Container-native CI/CD with YAML pipelines, multi-platform support, G... —
Semaphore CI Community (Self-hosted) CI/CD platform — free cloud plan: $15 credits/month (~2,000 Ubuntu build minutes), 20 concurrent jobs, YAML pipelines, s... stable
Drone CI Community (Self-hosted) Container-native CI/CD (now part of Harness) — free open-source edition (self-hosted): unlimited users and concurrency, ... —
Codefresh Free CI/CD and GitOps platform — free plan: 120 builds/month, 1 concurrent pipeline. Docker-native build engine with built-in... —
Harness CI Free CI/CD platform — Free Plan is available for individual developers and small teams. It includes up to 60 concurrent pipel... stable
Google Cloud Build Always Free Always Free: 2,500 build-minutes/month (e2-standard-2). Serverless CI/CD platform with support for Docker, Maven, Gradle... stable
Jenkins Free OSS Free OSS (MIT). Self-hosted automation server — a self-contained Java program that runs out of the box on your own machi... —

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