Ubicloud vs GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU): speed and cost on 12 real CI workloads

Speed

× faster than GitHub-hosted (ubuntu-latest) · higher is better

Ubicloud

1.1×

GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)

1.6×

GitHub-hosted (ubuntu-latest)

1.0×

USD per $1.00 spent on GitHub-hosted (ubuntu-latest), at 100,000 jobs a month · lower is better

Ubicloud

$0.17

GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)

$1.39

GitHub-hosted (ubuntu-latest)

$1.00

Ubicloud had the lowest median time of the two on 1 of 12 workloads, GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU) on 11.

Workload	Ubicloud	GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)	Lowest median
Burst: 20 jobs at once	203 s	154 s	GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
cli	359 s	192 s	GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
codex-lint	682 s	476 s	GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
container	213 s	185 s	GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
fd	87 s	66 s	GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
flask	36 s	21 s	GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
guava	881 s	946 s	Ubicloud
monorepo	276 s	220 s	GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
pydantic	159 s	154 s	GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
ts	560 s	435 s	GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
vite	502 s	288 s	GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
vue	114 s	67 s	GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)

Mean cost per job in USD, from the benchmark’s sensitivity results

Volume	Ubicloud	GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU)
100,000 jobs a month	$0.173	$1.387
10,000 jobs a month	$0.173	$1.387
1,000 jobs a month	$0.173	$1.387

Counted, never replaced

Each configuration page lists where its failures happened. All losses.

One line per configuration pairing, generated from the benchmark data

GitHub-hosted larger runner (4 vCPU) ran jobs 1.4× faster than Ubicloud (95% interval 1.3× to 1.4×); Ubicloud cost 88% less per job (at 100,000 jobs a month).