# Blacksmith alternatives in 2026: FlameWill, Ubicloud, Namespace, Depot and RunsOn compared

Source: https://flamewill.com/compare/blacksmith-alternatives/ · updated 2026-10-24T17:47:14Z · prices and specs read on 24 Oct 2026

**The main Blacksmith alternatives are FlameWill (ARM64 runners sized by memory, from $0.0012 a minute for 8 GB, EU), Ubicloud (from $0.00125 a minute for 2 vCPU and 8 GB), Namespace, Depot and RunsOn (runners in your own AWS account); which one is cheaper depends on the memory your jobs need, and Blacksmith keeps the edge on x64, Windows, macOS and start time.**

We make FlameWill, so read this with that in mind. Every fact about another vendor below is from that vendor's own page on the date above, and the sources are listed at the end.

## Blacksmith and FlameWill, side by side

| | Blacksmith | FlameWill |
|---|---|---|
| 8 GB of memory | $0.004 a minute (2 vCPU x64) | $0.0012 a minute (2 vCPU arm64) |
| 16 GB | $0.008 (4 vCPU x64) | $0.0015 (2 vCPU arm64) |
| 32 GB | $0.016 (8 vCPU x64) | $0.0030 (4 vCPU arm64) |
| Memory per vCPU | 4 GB x64, 3 GB ARM | up to 8 GB |
| Free minutes | 3,000 x64 2-vCPU minutes a month | none; prepaid credit from $10 |
| Linux x64 | yes | no |
| Linux ARM64 | yes, from $0.0025 a minute (2 vCPU, 6 GB) | yes, all runners |
| Windows, macOS | yes | no |
| Start time | under 3 seconds, by its own docs | about 45 to 60 seconds, not billed |
| Regions | US and EU | EU |
| Dependency cache | colocated `actions/cache` backend, no code change | npm cache restored and saved with no workflow change; `fw-cache` for any path |
| Persistent disks | sticky disks, $0.50 per GB a month | not yet |
| Docker layer cache | yes, $0.50 per GB a month | not yet |
| Per-job metrics | dashboard | in each job's log (peak memory, CPU, billed amount) and a dashboard |
| Billing | per minute | whole minutes rounded up, like GitHub |

**Choose Blacksmith** when you need x64, Windows or macOS, near-instant starts, Docker layer caching or US regions.

**Choose FlameWill** when your jobs run on Linux, can run on ARM64, and need memory more than cores: a test suite that peaks at 13 GB costs $0.0015 a minute on a 16 GB FlameWill runner instead of $0.008 for 4 vCPU on Blacksmith.

## The other alternatives

**Ubicloud.** Hosted runners priced per minute: x64 from $0.00125 (2 vCPU, 8 GB) on standard machines and $0.002 on premium ones, which new accounts get by default; arm64 at the same prices with 3 GB per vCPU. $2.50 of free credit a month.

**Namespace.** Hosted runners priced in units of 1 vCPU and 2 GB per minute: 2 vCPU and 8 GB is $0.004 prepaid ($0.006 overage). A free pay-as-you-go plan and monthly plans with included minutes. Windows and macOS too; its Linux arm64 runs on Apple Silicon in early access, at a much higher rate.

**Depot.** Also sells remote Docker builds; its GitHub Actions runners start at $0.006 a minute for 2 vCPU, with plans that include minutes ($20 a month for 2,000).

**RunsOn.** Not a hosted service: it runs runners in your own AWS account, on spot instances you pay AWS for (it publishes about $0.0009 a minute for 2 arm64 CPUs in us-east-1), plus a yearly license from €300. Cheapest per minute if you already run AWS and want the machines in your account.

## How to compare on your own jobs

Prices per minute are half the story: a faster machine finishes sooner, and a job sized by its real peak can use a smaller runner. Run your most expensive job on two vendors with the same commit and compare the minutes billed. On FlameWill every job's log ends with its peak memory and what it was billed, so the comparison is in the log.

Moving from Blacksmith is a label change per job; [Move your CI](/docs/migrate/) maps each Blacksmith label to the FlameWill label with the memory it needs.

## Questions

### Is FlameWill cheaper than Blacksmith?

At equal memory, yes, by 3 to 5 times on the sizes FlameWill offers. 16 GB costs $0.0015 a minute on FlameWill (2 vCPU) against $0.008 on Blacksmith (4 vCPU x64). Blacksmith gives 3,000 free x64 2-vCPU minutes a month; FlameWill has no free tier.

### Does FlameWill have x64, Windows or macOS runners?

No. FlameWill runs Linux on ARM64 only. A job that needs an x64-only binary or image, Windows or macOS needs Blacksmith, GitHub or another vendor.

### How fast do jobs start?

Blacksmith says its runners boot in under 3 seconds. FlameWill starts a fresh machine for each job, about 45 to 60 seconds from queued to running today, and does not bill that time.

### How hard is it to switch from Blacksmith?

Change the runs-on label of each job, for example blacksmith-4vcpu-ubuntu-2404 to a FlameWill label with the memory the job needs. Workflows, secrets and environments stay the same. Blacksmith's own actions (cache, sticky disks, checkout) need their GitHub equivalents or FlameWill's fw-cache.

## Sources

- [Blacksmith, pricing](https://www.blacksmith.sh/pricing)
- [Blacksmith, runner instance types](https://docs.blacksmith.sh/blacksmith-runners/overview)
- [Blacksmith, actions cache](https://docs.blacksmith.sh/blacksmith-caching/dependencies-actions)
- [Blacksmith, sticky disks](https://docs.blacksmith.sh/blacksmith-caching/dependencies-sticky-disks)
- [Blacksmith, Docker builds](https://docs.blacksmith.sh/blacksmith-caching/docker-builds)
- [Ubicloud, pricing](https://www.ubicloud.com/docs/about/pricing)
- [Namespace, pricing](https://namespace.so/pricing)
- [Depot, pricing](https://depot.dev/pricing)
- [RunsOn, pricing](https://runs-on.com/pricing/)
- [FlameWill, pricing](https://flamewill.com/pricing/)