# Blacksmith vs Ubicloud: prices, plans and limits (Nov 2026)

Blacksmith and Ubicloud side by side for ci runners: 11 terms differ. Every value links to the provider's own page.

## CI runners

| Term | Blacksmith | Ubicloud |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price | $0.0025 /min (blacksmith-2vcpu-ubuntu-2404-arm) | $0.00125 /min (ubicloud-standard-2) |
| 5-min job | ≥ $0.02 (Linux x64, 2 vCPU · rank 8 of 16) | ≥ $0.00625 (Linux x64, 2 vCPU · rank 5 of 16) |
| Billed | unknown (metered: usage billed afterwards) | Per minute (metered: usage billed afterwards) |
| Sizes | 17 sizes (Linux, Windows, macOS · 2–32 vCPU) | 15 sizes (Linux · 2–30 vCPU) |
| Billing: Payment | Metered: usage billed afterwards [1] | Metered: usage billed afterwards [2] |
| Billing: Plan minimum | None [1] | None [2] |
| Billing: Billing increment | unknown (Prices are per minute; neither the pricing page nor the docs say how partial minutes are rounded) [1] | Per minute (rounded up) [2] |
| Billing: Minimum charge | unknown (No minimum billed time stated on the pricing page or docs) [1] | unknown (Pricing page states per-minute granularity but not whether a partial minute rounds up to a full minute) [2] |
| Billing: Per-job fee | None [1] | None [2] |
| Limits: vCPU | unknown (Docs describe Firecracker microVMs on bare-metal hosts but do not say whether vCPUs are dedicated) [3] | Dedicated [4] |
| Limits: Concurrent jobs | Unlimited [3] | unknown (No concurrency limit on pricing, runner types, quickstart or regions docs) [4] |
| Limits: Max job length | unknown (No job time limit stated in the runner docs) [3] | unknown (No job time limit on pricing or GitHub Actions integration docs) [4] |
| Setup: Setup billed | unknown (Docs and pricing page do not say whether microVM boot time is billed) [3] | unknown (Billing is 'based on the resources provisioned'; docs don't say whether VM boot before the job is billed) [4] |
| Setup: Billed setup per job | unknown (Docs and pricing page do not say whether microVM boot time is billed) [3] | unknown (Not published) [4] |
| Platform: CI systems | GitHub Actions [5] | GitHub Actions [6] |
| Platform: Hosting | Managed [5] | Managed [6] |
| Platform: Regions | us-east, us-west, eu-west, eu-central [5] | eu-central-h1 (Hetzner Falkenstein), Leaseweb Germany [6] |
| Free allowance: Minutes a month | 3,000 [5] | None [2] |
| Free allowance: Credit a month | None [5] | $2.50 [2] |
| Free allowance: One-time credit | None [5] | None [2] |
| Cache: Included | 25 GB [1] | 30 GB [7] |
| Cache: Extra storage | $0.5 per GB-month [1] | $0.04 per GB-month [7] |
| Cache: Docker layer cache | Yes [1] | No [7] |
| Cache: Persistent disks | Yes [1] | No [7] |
| Features: SSH debugging | Yes [8] | Yes [9] |
| Features: Static IPs | Yes [8] | No [9] |
| Features: GPU runners | No [8] | No [9] |
| Features: SOC 2 | Yes [8] | Yes [9] |

## Sources

[1] https://www.blacksmith.sh/pricing (checked 31 Oct 2026)
[2] https://www.ubicloud.com/docs/about/pricing (checked 31 Oct 2026)
[3] https://docs.blacksmith.sh/blacksmith-runners/concurrency (checked 31 Oct 2026)
[4] https://www.ubicloud.com/docs/github-actions-integration/runner-types (checked 31 Oct 2026)
[5] https://docs.blacksmith.sh/blacksmith-runners/overview (checked 31 Oct 2026)
[6] https://www.ubicloud.com/docs/about/regions (checked 31 Oct 2026)
[7] https://www.ubicloud.com/docs/github-actions-integration/ubicloud-cache (checked 31 Oct 2026)
[8] https://www.blacksmith.sh/security (checked 31 Oct 2026)
[9] https://www.ubicloud.com/docs/security/overview (checked 31 Oct 2026)