Short answer
Blacksmith was measured in CI Bench v1 (1.6x faster GitHub-hosted (ubuntu-latest), 52% lower cost per job at 10,000 jobs a month); Depot was not, because its runners did not start jobs for our account during the test window (checks on 2026-10-01 and 2026-10-24), so there is no measured head-to-head. On published prices for 2 vCPU Linux, Blacksmith lists $0.004 a minute with 3,000 free minutes a month and Depot $0.006 a minute per second with plans from $20 a month; at 4 vCPU Depot lists $0.012. Both change one runs-on line. Maintained by Vitko, Inc., which sells one of the products measured.
Side by side
| Topic | Blacksmith | Depot |
|---|---|---|
| Measured speed vs GitHub-hosted | 1.6x faster | Not measured |
| Measured cost per job vs GitHub-hosted, 10,000 jobs a month | 52% lower | Not measured |
| List price, 2 vCPU Linux | $0.004 a minute; rounding not stated on the pricing page | $0.006 a minute, billed per second |
| List price, 4 vCPU Linux | Not stated on the pricing page read | $0.012 a minute |
| Included usage | 3,000 free minutes a month | Developer $20 a month with 2,000 minutes; Startup $200 with 20,000 |
| Platforms listed | Ubuntu x64 and Arm, Windows, macOS | Linux x64 and Arm, macOS; organization-owned repositories only |
| Docker caching | Docker layer caching add-on, +$0.50 per GB a month | Container builds sold separately ($0.04 a minute beyond included minutes) |
Sources, read 2026-10-27: Blacksmith pricing, Depot runner types, Depot pricing. Blacksmith's container-workload cell carries a note on the method page. Depot's own speed claim ("up to 3x faster than a GitHub-hosted runner") is its claim on its page; we did not measure it. List price per minute is not cost per job; faster runners finish sooner.
Alternatives measured on the same workloads: Blacksmith alternatives, Depot alternatives, and the four-way RunsOn vs Blacksmith vs Depot vs Namespace.
More: all questions answered · 12 options compared · ranked by speed · ranked by cost per job · free minutes.
Provider pages may have changed since 2026-10-27; they are the authority. Method: how the runs were made; data: results.json; every raw record: the repository. Maintained by Vitko, Inc., which sells one of the products measured. Page dated October 28, 2026.