{"slug": "runson", "name": "RunsOn", "category": "infra", "category_name": "Infrastructure and DevOps", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 5, "warners": 0, "score": 3.884, "rising": 0.02, "first": "2026-04-28", "latest": "2026-10-28", "why": "I can\u2019t imagine using GitHub\u2019s terribly slow runners after migrating.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 0, "compare": 1, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I can\u2019t imagine using GitHub\u2019s terribly slow runners after migrating.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "runs-on.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://runs-on.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["RunsOn", "runs-on", "Runs-on"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 804360944, "item_id": 50272559, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50272559", "by": "logankeenan", "date": "2026-10-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I can\u2019t imagine using GitHub\u2019s terribly slow runners after migrating.", "excerpt": "We use runs on for our runners now. https://runs-on.com/ Our app isn\u2019t Rust, but our agentic engineering requires lots of various tests. I can\u2019t imagine using GitHub\u2019s terribly slow runners after migrating. Having faster CI compute would reduce a big negative of Rust", "context": "team with heavy agentic test needs", "use_case": "faster CI runners", "switched_from": "GitHub Actions runners", "story": "One year of Dioxus fullstack in production: the good, the painful"}, {"id": 793891056, "item_id": 49618191, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49618191", "by": "logankeenan", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Pretty great if you want to get off expensive GH actions boxes", "excerpt": "We\u2019ve been using runs on for maybe a year now. It\u2019s a managed service for self hosted runners. Pretty great if you want to get off expensive GH actions boxes and do self hosting but don\u2019t have the time to manage it yourself. https://runs-on.com/", "context": "", "use_case": "self-hosted CI runners", "switched_from": "GitHub Actions", "story": "Our GitHub Actions bill kept climbing, so we moved CI to one box"}, {"id": 775576176, "item_id": 48473511, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48473511", "by": "beaylott", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I can't recommend https://runs-on.com/ enough.", "excerpt": "If you want a 'fixed' cost option for GitHub self hosted runners on your AWS I can't recommend https://runs-on.com/ enough.", "context": "", "use_case": "Self-hosted GitHub runners on AWS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Surprise Pay $1000"}, {"id": 772460977, "item_id": 48278811, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48278811", "by": "ttouch", "date": "2026-05-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "there are a couple and have very good reputation - though I've never used them", "excerpt": "there are a couple and have very good reputation - though I've never used them https://www.blacksmith.sh/ and https://runs-on.com/ They also say that they're much cheaper than github", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "GitHub Actions down again today"}, {"id": 766984160, "item_id": 47936510, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47936510", "by": "kevin_nisbet", "date": "2026-04-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My team has been using https://runs-on.com/ for AWS instance runners, had a few glitches but largely been great", "excerpt": "My team has been using https://runs-on.com/ for AWS instance runners, had a few glitches but largely been great for using AWS instances for runners.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "GitHub Actions is the weakest link"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "logankeenan", "context": "team with heavy agentic test needs", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50272559", "date": "2026-10-28"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["self-hosted ci runners", "faster ci runners", "self-hosted github runners on aws"], "compared": [{"slug": "github-actions", "name": "GitHub Actions", "co": 6, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "blacksmith", "name": "Blacksmith", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 751309216, "item_id": 46956826, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46956826", "by": "crohr", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For the record I maintain the Runs-on", "excerpt": "> You know how I know GitHub\u2019s runners are bad? Because there\u2019s an entire cottage industry of companies whose sole product is \u201cGitHub Actions, but the runners don\u2019t suck.\u201d Namespace, Blacksmith, Actuated, Runs-on, BuildJet He's not wrong. Buildjet just announced they were shutting down though, citing recent improvements to the GitHub Actions platform. For the record I maintain the Runs-on [1] he's talking about, as a", "context": "solo developer", "use_case": "Self-hosted GitHub Actions runners", "switched_from": "", "story": "GitHub Actions Is Slowly Killing Your Engineering Team"}, {"id": 751127280, "item_id": 46945455, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945455", "by": "crohr", "date": "2026-02-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "For alternatives, I maintain a benchmark at https://runs-on.com/benchmarks/github-actions-cpu-performance/", "excerpt": "For alternatives, I maintain a benchmark at https://runs-on.com/benchmarks/github-actions-cpu-performance/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Buildjet Shuts Down"}, {"id": 740741920, "item_id": 46296370, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46296370", "by": "paulddraper", "date": "2025-12-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "I did something very similar. Create/start/stop/terminate EC2. https://github.com/redoapp/fast-actions-runner-ec2", "context": "developing it", "use_case": "Self-hosted GitHub Actions runners", "switched_from": "", "story": "Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions"}, {"id": 740724897, "item_id": 46295306, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46295306", "by": "crohr", "date": "2025-12-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I am developing a self-hosted solution for this [1]", "excerpt": "I am developing a self-hosted solution for this [1]. It\u2019s true that it\u2019s somewhat of a pain but JIT runners allow a lot of flexibility that we don\u2019t find elsewhere. [1] https://runs-on.com", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46291156", "title": "Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50265960", "title": "One year of Dioxus fullstack in production: the good, the painful", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49612772", "title": "Our GitHub Actions bill kept climbing, so we moved CI to one box", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48468370", "title": "Surprise Pay $1000", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48278374", "title": "GitHub Actions down again today", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48022900", "title": "Yet Another GitHub Incident", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {"compare": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804360944, "item_id": 50272559, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50272559", "by": "logankeenan", "date": "2026-10-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I can\u2019t imagine using GitHub\u2019s terribly slow runners after migrating.", "excerpt": "We use runs on for our runners now. https://runs-on.com/ Our app isn\u2019t Rust, but our agentic engineering requires lots of various tests. I can\u2019t imagine using GitHub\u2019s terribly slow runners after migrating. Having faster CI compute would reduce a big negative of Rust", "context": "team with heavy agentic test needs", "use_case": "faster CI runners", "switched_from": "GitHub Actions runners", "story": "One year of Dioxus fullstack in production: the good, the painful"}, {"id": 793891056, "item_id": 49618191, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49618191", "by": "logankeenan", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Pretty great if you want to get off expensive GH actions boxes", "excerpt": "We\u2019ve been using runs on for maybe a year now. It\u2019s a managed service for self hosted runners. Pretty great if you want to get off expensive GH actions boxes and do self hosting but don\u2019t have the time to manage it yourself. https://runs-on.com/", "context": "", "use_case": "self-hosted CI runners", "switched_from": "GitHub Actions", "story": "Our GitHub Actions bill kept climbing, so we moved CI to one box"}, {"id": 775576176, "item_id": 48473511, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48473511", "by": "beaylott", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I can't recommend https://runs-on.com/ enough.", "excerpt": "If you want a 'fixed' cost option for GitHub self hosted runners on your AWS I can't recommend https://runs-on.com/ enough.", "context": "", "use_case": "Self-hosted GitHub runners on AWS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Surprise Pay $1000"}, {"id": 772460977, "item_id": 48278811, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48278811", "by": "ttouch", "date": "2026-05-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "there are a couple and have very good reputation - though I've never used them", "excerpt": "there are a couple and have very good reputation - though I've never used them https://www.blacksmith.sh/ and https://runs-on.com/ They also say that they're much cheaper than github", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "GitHub Actions down again today"}, {"id": 768416497, "item_id": 48026031, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48026031", "by": "8organicbits", "date": "2026-05-05", "stance": "compare", "quote": "they already charge 10x what others charge", "excerpt": "One challenge is that they have a ton of usage under their free tier, especially by free and open source projects which have near zero budgets. Its an artificial economy of projects that cannot pay for their own usage. Another challenge is that the GitHub Actions paid tier is already very expensive, the quality of service is poor, and they have major security challenges. They could load shed by raising prices, drivin", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yet Another GitHub Incident"}, {"id": 766984160, "item_id": 47936510, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47936510", "by": "kevin_nisbet", "date": "2026-04-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My team has been using https://runs-on.com/ for AWS instance runners, had a few glitches but largely been great", "excerpt": "My team has been using https://runs-on.com/ for AWS instance runners, had a few glitches but largely been great for using AWS instances for runners.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "GitHub Actions is the weakest link"}, {"id": 749896960, "item_id": 46868560, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46868560", "by": "crohr", "date": "2026-02-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you can have a look at https://github.com/runs-on/runs-on", "excerpt": "Not fully OSS, but you can have a look at https://github.com/runs-on/runs-on", "context": "", "use_case": "Self-hosted CI runners", "switched_from": "", "story": "GitHub Incidents with Actions and Codespaces"}]}