Depot alternatives: 5 apps ranked by verified data

Facts checked Oct 25, 2026AppBreakup editorialHow we rank

Common reasons people leave Depot: no free plan beyond a trial, and another vendor alongside your CI. We ranked 5 alternatives by how directly each one replaces Depot, then by reviews, real visits and how recently each app's facts were checked against its own website. Blacksmith currently ranks first.

Quick comparison

#	App	Pricing	Open source	Platforms	Verified facts	Score
1	Blacksmith	Free plan + paid	No	Web	4 of 4	66.5
2	GitHub Actions	Free plan + paid	No	Web, Self-hosted	4 of 4	62.6
3	CircleCI	Free plan + paid	No	Web, Self-hosted	4 of 4	59.6
4	Buildkite	Free plan + paid	No	Web, Self-hosted	4 of 4	57.2
5	Dagger	Open source	Yes	Self-hosted, Linux, macOS +1	3 of 3	55.3

1. BlacksmithTop pick
Best for: Teams on GitHub Actions who want faster, cheaper runners with a one-line change
Free plan + paidWeb
66.5
score / 100
Why switch from Depot
Faster, cheaper GitHub Actions runners with a free monthly allowance.
Pros
One-line switch from GitHub-hosted runners
Lower per-minute prices
Free monthly minutes
Cons
Only works with GitHub Actions
Caching features are paid add-ons
Adds a third party with access to your builds
Visit Blacksmith Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.3100
Reviews ×0.363
Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
Freshness ×0.1585
Votes ×0.150
0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula
Is Blacksmith a good Depot alternative?
Verified facts
4 of 4 verified
Linux x64 price
$0.004/min (2 vCPU)
Checked Oct 25, 2026blacksmith.sh(opens source in a new tab)
Free minutes
3,000/month
Checked Oct 25, 2026blacksmith.sh(opens source in a new tab)
Docker layer caching
$0.50/GB/month add-on
Checked Oct 25, 2026blacksmith.sh(opens source in a new tab)
Setup
Drop-in replacement for GitHub runners
Checked Oct 25, 2026blacksmith.sh(opens source in a new tab)
2. GitHub Actions
Best for: Teams hosting code on GitHub who want CI/CD right next to their repositories
Free plan + paidWeb, Self-hosted
62.6
score / 100
Why switch from Depot
Stick with standard runners if speed isn't the bottleneck.
Pros
No separate tool to set up for GitHub repos
Large marketplace of reusable actions
Free for public repositories
Cons
Hosted runners are slower than specialist providers
YAML workflows get hard to debug at scale
Only works with GitHub-hosted code
Visit GitHub Actions Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.387
Reviews ×0.363
Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
Freshness ×0.1585
Votes ×0.150
0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula
Is GitHub Actions a good Depot alternative?
Verified facts
4 of 4 verified
Free usage
Public repos and self-hosted runners
Checked Oct 25, 2026docs.github.com(opens source in a new tab)
Free plan minutes
2,000/month
Checked Oct 25, 2026docs.github.com(opens source in a new tab)
Team plan minutes
3,000/month
Checked Oct 25, 2026docs.github.com(opens source in a new tab)
Linux minute price
$0.006 per minute
Checked Oct 25, 2026docs.github.com(opens source in a new tab)
3. CircleCI
Best for: Teams with large test suites that want faster builds and better insight than built-in CI
Free plan + paidSelf-hostableWeb, Self-hosted
59.6
score / 100
Why switch from Depot
Fast hosted CI with Docker layer caching built in.
Pros
Wide choice of machine types including macOS and GPU
Test splitting, caching and insights for speed
Works with GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket
Cons
Credit-based pricing takes effort to predict
Separate tool from your code host
Config can get complex with orbs and anchors
Visit CircleCI Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.377
Reviews ×0.363
Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
Freshness ×0.1585
Votes ×0.150
0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula
Is CircleCI a good Depot alternative?
Verified facts
4 of 4 verified
Free plan
Up to 6,000 build minutes/month
Checked Oct 25, 2026circleci.com(opens source in a new tab)
Free plan users
Up to 5 active users
Checked Oct 25, 2026circleci.com(opens source in a new tab)
Performance plan
From $15/month
Checked Oct 25, 2026circleci.com(opens source in a new tab)
Included credits
30,000 on Performance
Checked Oct 25, 2026circleci.com(opens source in a new tab)
4. Buildkite
Best for: Engineering teams with large build volumes who want builds on their own infrastructure
Free plan + paidWeb, Self-hosted
57.2
score / 100
Why switch from Depot
Run builds on your own beefy hardware.
Pros
Builds run on your own machines, keeping code private
Scales to very high concurrency
Dynamic pipelines suit large monorepos
Cons
You manage the agent infrastructure unless you pay for hosted agents
Per-user pricing adds up for big orgs
More setup than all-hosted CI
Visit Buildkite Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.369
Reviews ×0.363
Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
Freshness ×0.1585
Votes ×0.150
0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula
Is Buildkite a good Depot alternative?
Verified facts
4 of 4 verified
Free plan
$0 for solo developers and small teams
Checked Oct 25, 2026buildkite.com(opens source in a new tab)
Pro plan
$30 per active user/month
Checked Oct 25, 2026buildkite.com(opens source in a new tab)
Free trial
30 days, no card
Checked Oct 25, 2026buildkite.com(opens source in a new tab)
Self-hosted agents
Yes
Checked Oct 25, 2026buildkite.com(opens source in a new tab)
5. Dagger
Best for: Developers tired of YAML who want portable, testable pipelines in code
Open sourceSelf-hostableSelf-hosted, Linux, macOS, Windows
55.3
score / 100
Why switch from Depot
Cached, containerised pipelines that run anywhere.
Pros
Same pipeline runs locally and in any CI
Real programming languages instead of YAML
Aggressive caching speeds up runs
Cons
Another abstraction layer to learn
Still needs a CI service or Dagger Cloud to trigger runs
Requires a container runtime
Visit Dagger Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.363
Reviews ×0.363
Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
Freshness ×0.1585
Votes ×0.150
0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula
Is Dagger a good Depot alternative?
Verified facts
3 of 3 verified
License
Apache-2.0
Checked Oct 25, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab)
Engine cost
Free, open source
Checked Oct 25, 2026dagger.io(opens source in a new tab)
Dagger Cloud minimum
$20/month individuals, $200 teams
Checked Oct 25, 2026dagger.io(opens source in a new tab)

The best Depot alternative for…

The highest-ranked app in this list for each need.

Best Depot alternative for most people

Blacksmith

Faster, cheaper GitHub Actions runners with a free monthly allowance.