Avrea alternatives for GitHub Actions runners

We build CRACI, so weigh that in; we describe every option from its own documentation and say when another tool fits better. For CRACI and Avrea one to one, see CRACI vs Avrea.

What Avrea does well

Avrea is a hosted runner service for GitHub Actions, founded in Helsinki. As of November 2026, its site says its runners are about 2x faster on hardware alone and up to 10x faster with cache hits; those are Avrea's figures. It caches dependencies next to its runners, and serves the GitHub Actions cache from storage beside them.

• CI observability. Searchable logs, CPU and memory per step, flaky test tracking and SSH into a running job. This is ahead of what CRACI offers.
• Platforms. Linux on x86-64 up to 32 vCPU, Linux ARM64 and macOS on Apple M5 Max hardware, and Windows 2025.
• Included usage. $12 of credit a month per organization, which covers 3,000 minutes of its 2 vCPU x86-64 runner.
• Security. ISO 27001 and SOC 2, a VM per job destroyed when the job ends, an egress firewall on the Enterprise plan, and repository SBOMs in preview.

Why teams look beyond Avrea

• ARM64 price. Avrea's Linux ARM64 runs on Apple M5 Max hardware at $0.012 per 2 vCPU minute. CRACI charges $0.004, and Blacksmith, WarpBuild and Ubicloud list lower again. The worked example below shows what that means in a month.
• Build evidence. Avrea's SBOM reads the manifests and lockfiles in the repository. It does not record what the build fetched. See CRACI vs Avrea for how the two differ.
• Where runners live. Avrea hosts the runners. If they must live in your own cloud account, RunsOn and WarpBuild's bring-your-own-cloud option do that today. If they must run in Europe, see European GitHub Actions runners.
• CI beyond GitHub. Every option on this page is a runner for GitHub Actions. CRACI has GitLab CI and Jenkins on its roadmap.

What to look for

• Price per vCPU-minute on x64 and ARM64, memory per vCPU, and how usage is rounded.
• Operating systems and architectures you need.
• Dependency and Docker layer caching.
• Egress control, and which plan it is on.
• Build evidence: an SBOM of what each job fetched, and provenance.
• Where runners live: hosted, in your cloud account, or in a specific region.
• If you rely on Avrea's observability: what replaces it.

A worked example: the same month on each runner

An example, not a customer: 60,000 minutes a month on 2 vCPU Linux runners, once on x64 and once on ARM64, at list prices.

Runner	x64 per minute	x64, 60,000 minutes	ARM64 per minute	ARM64, 60,000 minutes
Avrea	$0.004	$240	$0.012	$720
CRACI	$0.004	$240	$0.004	$240
GitHub-hosted	$0.006	$360	$0.005	$300
Blacksmith	$0.004	$240	$0.0025	$150
WarpBuild	$0.004	$240	$0.003	$180
Depot	$0.006	$360	$0.006	$360
Ubicloud	$0.002	$120	$0.00125	$75

List prices as of November 2026, before free minutes, credits and plan fees. Avrea's $12 monthly credit brings its x64 month to $228; its pricing page does not say how the credit applies to ARM64, so the ARM64 figure is shown before it. On x64 the choice is not about price: Avrea, CRACI, Blacksmith and WarpBuild list the same rate. On ARM64 it is. See CI runner pricing for every size and vendor.

The options

1. CRACI (our product)

CRACI is a GitHub Actions-compatible runner built around supply chain security, and it runs builds about twice as fast as GitHub-hosted runners. Install the CRACI GitHub App and set runs-on: craci. Billing is $0.002 per vCPU-minute ($0.004 for a default 2 vCPU runner), metered per second, with no monthly fee and no per-SBOM charge. ARM64 is billed at the same rate. Sizes run from 1 to 32 compute units of 1 vCPU and 3 GB of RAM. Each job produces an SBOM of what it fetched, with a completeness state, runs under an egress policy that fails closed, and records provenance data that the API returns.

Best for: Linux builds of software you ship, where you need to show what went into each release.

Consider if: evidence and egress control matter as much as cost. CRACI is Linux only today (Windows and macOS are on the roadmap) and has no free tier.

CRACI vs GitHub-hosted runners

2. Blacksmith

Blacksmith runs GitHub Actions jobs in Firecracker microVMs, with Ubuntu on x64 and ARM from 2 to 32 vCPU, Windows in public beta, and macOS on Apple M4. It says its runners are twice as fast as GitHub-hosted runners. A colocated cache works with the standard cache actions, and sticky disks provide Docker layer caching at $0.50 per GB per month. As of September 2026, 2 vCPU x64 costs $0.004 per minute and ARM $0.0025, with 3,000 free minutes a month.

Best for: faster, cheaper Actions with Docker caching and SSH debugging.

CRACI vs Blacksmith

3. Depot

Depot offers Linux runners from 2 to 64 vCPUs, Windows and macOS on every plan, wired into a distributed cache. It describes its runners as "up to 3x faster than a GitHub-hosted runner." Its remote Docker build service keeps a persistent layer cache, Linux runners support egress filtering, and on the Business plan runners can live in your own AWS account. As of September 2026, 2 vCPU costs $0.006 per minute beyond plan minutes, tracked per second.

Best for: teams whose CI time is dominated by Docker image builds.

Consider if: you want remote build caching for Bazel, Gradle or Turborepo too.

CRACI vs Depot

4. Namespace

Namespace runs Linux, Windows and macOS runners on hardware it operates itself, selected through runner profiles. Cache volumes keep data on local storage across runs. Its egress policies run in block mode or in advisory mode, which records decisions without blocking so you can build an allowlist from real traffic. As of September 2026, a 2 vCPU, 4 GB Linux runner costs $0.002 per minute in plan and $0.003 in overage.

Best for: Linux, Windows and macOS runners from one vendor, with cache volumes.

Consider if: you want to trial an egress policy before enforcing it.

CRACI vs Namespace

5. WarpBuild

WarpBuild offers Linux runners on x86-64 and arm64 up to 32 vCPUs, Windows Server, and macOS on Apple M4/M5 Pro, with container-layer caching and snapshot runners. Its bring-your-own-cloud option runs the same runners in your AWS, GCP or Azure account at $0.002 per minute plus your cloud bill. Hosted 2 vCPU x86-64 costs $0.004 per minute (as of September 2026). WarpBuild advertises builds two to ten times faster.

Best for: managed runners inside your own cloud account.

Consider if: you need GitHub Enterprise Server support or a 99.9% uptime SLA.

CRACI vs WarpBuild

6. Ubicloud

Ubicloud is an open source cloud, and its managed GitHub Actions runners switch over with one label, such as ubicloud-standard-2. It offers Ubuntu runners on x64 and arm64 from 2 to 30 vCPUs. As of September 2026, 2 vCPU costs $0.00125 per minute on x64 and on arm64, billed by the minute, and every account gets a $2.50 monthly credit, about 1,250 minutes. Ubicloud also lets you manage your own runners.

Best for: a low per-minute price for Linux jobs on hosted runners.

Consider if: you only need Linux. Ubicloud's runner documentation lists Ubuntu images only.

CRACI vs Ubicloud

7. RunsOn

RunsOn launches one ephemeral EC2 instance per job in your own AWS account, from a single CloudFormation or Terraform stack. It runs Linux on x64 and arm64, Windows, and GPU instances; macOS jobs stay on GitHub-hosted runners. An S3 cache in your VPC and Docker layer caching are built in. As of September 2026, the license is a flat annual fee per legal entity, from about $348 (€300) a year on Starter to about $4,176 (€3,600) on Enterprise, and AWS bills the compute with no RunsOn markup. It is free for non-commercial use and has a 15-day trial.

Best for: runners inside your own AWS account for a flat license fee.

Consider if: you already run on AWS and want to pay for compute directly.

CRACI vs RunsOn

8. GitHub-hosted runners

GitHub-hosted runners give each job a fresh virtual machine with nothing to operate, on Linux, Windows and macOS. Plans include 2,000 to 50,000 minutes a month, and standard runners are free in public repositories. As of September 2026, GitHub lists a standard 2-core Linux x64 runner at $0.006 per minute and rounds each job up to the whole minute.

Best for: zero setup, every operating system, and usage that fits your plan's minutes.

GitHub-hosted runner alternatives

Side by side

"Not stated" means we could not confirm it in the vendor's public pages. For the wider field, see GitHub Actions runner providers compared and GitHub-hosted runner alternatives.

When to stay with Avrea

• CI observability and debugging are your main goal.
• You need macOS on Apple silicon or Windows runners today.
• Its monthly credit covers your usage.
• You want SOC 2 from your runner vendor.
• You run on x64, where there is no list-price saving to chase.

The choice is per job, so you can try another runner on one workflow without leaving.

When CRACI is not the answer

You need macOS or Windows jobs, your CI is GitLab or Jenkins, you run GitHub Enterprise Server, runners must live in your own cloud account, or observability is the deciding feature.

Moving from Avrea

Avrea and CRACI both replace the runner, not GitHub Actions, so changing runs-on back or forward is the whole switch. For caches, OIDC trust policies and IP allowlists, read how to switch GitHub Actions runner providers, and see CRACI pricing and the full CRACI vs Avrea comparison.

Avrea alternatives FAQ

Short answers to the questions teams ask when they compare

What are the alternatives to Avrea for GitHub Actions runners?

Hosted runner services: CRACI, Blacksmith, Depot, Namespace, WarpBuild and Ubicloud. Runners in your own cloud account: RunsOn, and WarpBuild's bring-your-own-cloud option. And GitHub's own hosted runners. Which one fits depends on why you are looking: ARM64 price, a record of what each build fetched, runners in your own cloud, or a specific operating system.

Which Avrea alternative is cheapest on ARM64?

Of the hosted runners here, Ubicloud lists the lowest 2 vCPU ARM64 price, $0.00125 per minute, followed by Blacksmith at $0.0025 and WarpBuild at $0.003. CRACI charges $0.004, the same as on x64. Avrea's 2 vCPU ARM64 runner, on Apple M5 Max hardware, costs $0.012. Prices as of November 2026.

Which Avrea alternatives offer macOS and Windows runners?

GitHub-hosted runners, Blacksmith, Depot, Namespace and WarpBuild offer both, with Windows in public beta on Blacksmith. RunsOn offers Windows in your AWS account and keeps macOS jobs on GitHub-hosted runners. CRACI runs Linux on x86-64 and ARM64 today, with Windows and macOS on the roadmap.

Which alternatives run in Europe?

CRACI runs its runners on European bare-metal infrastructure and is a European company. Ubicloud runs GitHub Actions runners in its European regions, and Blacksmith has machines in Amsterdam and Frankfurt as well as in the US. Avrea names hosting providers including Aiven, Google Cloud and OVHcloud, and asks customers to discuss data location requirements with it.

Is there an Avrea alternative that records an SBOM of each build?

Yes, CRACI. Avrea's SBOM, in preview, reads the manifests and lockfiles on a repository's default branch. CRACI records what each build actually fetched while it ran, including packages restored from caches and dependencies no lockfile lists, and gives each SBOM a completeness state.

How hard is it to move off Avrea?

Avrea and its alternatives replace the runner, not GitHub Actions, so moving is a label change in either direction: from an Avrea label to runs-on: craci, for example. Caches start again on the new runner, and outbound IP addresses and cloud trust policies are worth checking before you move.