Buildkite vs Ubicloud
Buildkite is a CI platform whose hosted agents start a fresh VM for each pipeline job and destroy it when the job ends. Ubicloud is an open source cloud that rents plain Linux VMs you set up yourself and keep as long as you like, plus cheap GitHub Actions runners.
The companies and products
Buildkite
Buildkite is a CI and software delivery platform, and hosted agents are the build machines it runs for you.
You write Buildkite pipelines, and each job runs on a fresh virtual machine that Buildkite starts for that job and destroys when it ends; only cache volumes carry files to the next job. Hosted agents come in Linux and macOS on Apple M4, with Windows in private preview, and you can also run Buildkite's agent on your own machines. It is a CI service, not an agent sandbox, so this page compares the part where they overlap: a machine where an agent or a job does its work.
- Where it runs
- Hosted agents run only in US East Coast data centers
- Compliance
- Maintains a SOC 2 Type II report
Ubicloud
Ubicloud is an open source cloud that runs VMs, managed Postgres, Kubernetes and GitHub Actions runners on leased bare-metal servers.
You rent Linux VMs (Standard with dedicated CPU, or cheaper Burstable with shared CPU) from Ubicloud's managed service, or run the same AGPL code on your own servers. Around the VMs it offers private subnets, an inbound firewall, load balancers, managed PostgreSQL, Kubernetes, GPU VMs, inference endpoints and cheap GitHub Actions runners. It is general infrastructure, not an agent sandbox, so this page compares the two where they overlap: giving an agent its own Linux machine.
Which use cases each one fits
For each use case, Battleships prices every sandbox provider on the same workload and sorts them from the cheapest monthly bill up. “43rd cheapest of 367” means 42 of the other 366 providers run that workload, with every feature it needs, for less. “With limits” means the provider runs it but misses something, so it is listed after every full match. Open a use case for its whole ranking and what each provider misses.
| Use case and its workload | Buildkite: price rank | Ubicloud: price rank | bochka: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month A coding agent that builds a whole app needs the same machine for hours; a Buildkite job VM is destroyed when the job ends, a Ubicloud VM stays but starts empty, and bochka keeps its disk with coding agents preinstalled. | 43rd of 367, with limits $11,648 a month | 126th of 367, with limits $1,136 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB An assistant that runs all month does not fit a Buildkite job that stops after 8 hours; a Ubicloud VM can stay up, and bochka has no session cap on paid plans. | 351st of 366, with limits $17,564 a month | 154th of 366, with limits $1,139 a month | 5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month |
| Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month Ubicloud fits short bursts best here: cheap burstable VMs bill per minute with no plan fee, while Buildkite's vCPU pool and bochka's start limits make big bursts a compromise. | 315th of 345, with limits $1,587 a month | 59th of 345, with limits $52 a month | 186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month Buildkite hosted agents expose no ports and Pro caps 256 vCPU at once; Ubicloud needs a quota raise for 300 user sandboxes, and bochka gives each sandbox HTTPS on up to 50 ports. | 326th of 361, with limits $4,984 a month | 53rd of 361, with limits $390 a month | Cheapest of 361 $209 a month |
| RL rollouts 1,000 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 1,000,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 316th of 360, with limits $23,881 a month | 234th of 360, with limits $1,560 a month | 34th of 360, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Agent evals 250 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 15,000 sessions of 20 min a month | 324th of 364, with limits $3,884 a month | 31st cheapest of 364 $624 a month | 10th cheapest of 364 $200 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month Both are CI options: Buildkite is a full pipeline platform, while Ubicloud sells GitHub Actions runners billed per minute of job time; bochka runs CI jobs on full VMs with Docker and /dev/kvm. | 203rd of 377, with limits $2,318 a month | 28th cheapest of 377 $300 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB A dev box must stay up and keep its packages, which Buildkite's per-job VMs do not; Ubicloud and bochka both fit, with bochka saving the disk every minute. | 354th of 368, with limits $715 a month | 67th cheapest of 368 $91 a month | 18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month |
| Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month | 70th of 369, with limits $3,500 a month | 132nd of 369, with limits $312 a month | 6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month |
| Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month | 142nd of 367, with limits $1,772 a month | 188th of 367, with limits $156 a month | 7th cheapest of 367 $200 a month |
| Scraping & bots (startup scale) 50 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 100,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 142nd of 346, with limits $2,354 a month | 165th of 346, with limits $78 a month | 6th cheapest of 346 $90 a month |
| Mass scraping & bots (undetectable) 1,000 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 3,000,000 sessions of 2 min a month | 317th of 338, with limits $46,814 a month | 60th of 338, with limits $1,573 a month | 71st of 338, with limits $1,800 a month |
| Parallel red teaming 200 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 5,000 sessions of 30 min a month | 85th of 360, with limits $1,184 a month | 129th of 360, with limits $81 a month | 2nd cheapest of 360 $200 a month |
| GPU eval jobs 10 at once · 8 vCPU / 32 GB · 500 sessions of 30 min a month Only Ubicloud fits: it rents Nvidia GPU VMs on request, and neither Buildkite hosted agents nor bochka have GPUs. | Can't run it | 93rd of 98, with limits $795 a month | Can't run it |
| macOS agents 5 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 1,000 sessions of 20 min a month Only Buildkite fits: it runs macOS on Apple M4 with Xcode, and Ubicloud and bochka run Linux only. | 35th of 36, with limits $2,310 a month | Can't run it | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | Buildkite | Ubicloud | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kind of product | CI build machines that run jobs from Buildkite pipelines | A general cloud VM you set up and run yourself, plus Postgres, Kubernetes and CI runners | Agent sandboxes you create and drive by API, CLI or SDK, on full VMs |
| Isolation | A virtual machine per job; Apple Virtualization framework on macOS | Every VM is a full KVM guest (Cloud Hypervisor) with its own kernel | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5) hosts |
| How long a machine runs | Up to 8 hours per job on Linux and 4 on macOS, longer on request | Runs until you stop or delete it; no maximum documented | No session cap on paid plans; you set the time to live |
| Files after a run or stop | The VM and its data are destroyed; cache volumes keep chosen paths, best effort, up to 14 days | The disk stays, but a stopped VM keeps billing as if it were running | The whole disk is saved every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| Snapshots and fork | Each job gets its own copy of the last committed cache volume | Stop the VM, capture a machine image (single disk up to 40 GiB), boot new VMs from it | Automatic snapshots every minute; fork a running sandbox in one call |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker on Linux; macOS has the Docker CLI but no daemon; /dev/kvm not documented | Root over SSH, so Docker installs like on any Linux VM; nested virtualization not documented | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine, documented |
| Reaching the machine | No exposed ports; a terminal into a running job through Buildkite's UI or bk job ssh | Free public IPv6, IPv4 for $3 a month; HTTPS means running TLS on the VM yourself | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; dedicated IPv4 or IPv6 |
| Desktop and computer use | Browser-based desktop access to debug a running macOS job; no computer-use API | None; you install a desktop and browser on the VM yourself | 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium, computer use and browser control, embeddable stream |
| Coding agents | You install Claude Code in your image or step and run it as a pipeline job | None; you install and drive agents yourself, for example over SSH | Claude Code, Codex and five more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Keeping API keys out | Anthropic proxy only: jobs call it with the job token and Buildkite sets the key | No credentials proxy; secrets live on the VM | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API you register |
| Operating systems and chips | Linux (AMD64, ARM64 on Enterprise), macOS on Apple M4, Windows in private preview | Linux VMs, arm64 CI runners, Nvidia GPU VMs on request | Linux on x86 only, no GPUs |
| CI pipelines | Full CI platform with pipelines, test tooling and your own self-hosted agents | Managed GitHub Actions runners, x64 and arm64, billed per minute of job time | No pipeline service; run CI jobs on a sandbox yourself |
| Self-hosting | You can run Buildkite's agent on your own machines; the platform is managed | The whole stack is AGPL code you can run on your own servers | Managed service only |
| Regions | US East Coast only | Germany, Finland and Virginia (US), plus GPUs in Istanbul | EU only (Germany, Finland, France), with EU data residency |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Buildkite | Ubicloud | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | No | Not published | Yes |
| Root | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | No | Not published | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | Yes | No | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | No | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | No | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | No | No | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | Yes | No | Yes |
| Fork/clone | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | No | No | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | No | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | No | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | No | No |
| Wake on request | No | No | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | No | No | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | Not published | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | Yes | No |
| Egress allowlist | No | No | No |
| Secret proxy | Yes | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | No | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | No | No | Yes |
| Agent harness API | No | No | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | No | No |
| GPU | No | Yes | No |
| Windows | Yes | No | No |
| Arm64 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes | No |
| BYOC | No | Yes | No |
| Open source | No | Yes | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | No | No | Yes |
| Audit logs | Not published | Yes | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | No | No | No |
| EU data residency | No | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
We have no comparable measurement for Buildkite hosted agents or for Ubicloud: neither was part of the StarSling hpc-sandbox-benchmarks run. On that Node.js build-and-test benchmark at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, bochka did 26.69 runs per second on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5) hosts. On Ubicloud, results would depend on the family, since Standard VMs have dedicated CPU and Burstable VMs get half of each vCPU.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Buildkite and Ubicloud have no published run in this suite yet, so there is no like-for-like number to compare.
Pricing in five scenarios
Each bill is priced from the providers' public price lists by the open Battleships engine, with the cheapest plan that runs the scenario.
| Scenario | Buildkite, a month | Ubicloud, a month | bochka, a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, 8 hours a day, 22 days a month, files kept between days | $166 · Pro · with limits | $22 · Usage | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $715 · Pro · with limits | $91 · Usage | $26 · $20/mo |
| 50 agents in parallel 50 machines of 4 vCPU / 8 GB at once, 8-hour sessions, 1,100 sessions a month, Docker inside | $7,677 · Pro · with limits | $1,098 · Usage | $317 · $20/mo × 3 seats |
| Sandboxes for your users 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 30,000 sessions of 10 minutes a month, up to 300 at once | $2,204 · Pro · with limits | $156 · Usage | $200 · $100/mo × 2 seats |
| 1,000 short jobs at once 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 1,000 at once, 3 minutes each, 200,000 jobs a month | $4,787 · Pro · with limits | $312 · Usage · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Buildkite: Pro costs $30 per active user a month and includes 4,000 Linux vCPU minutes; after that Linux is $0.004 per vCPU minute, metered to the second. A 4 vCPU / 16 GB Linux agent comes to about $0.94 to $0.98 an hour in our scenarios.
Ubicloud: Ubicloud bills each VM per minute for as long as it exists, running or stopped, with no plan fee; a 4 vCPU / 16 GB standard-4 VM is $0.1248 an hour. A public IPv4 adds $3 a month.
Ubicloud: You pick a monthly plan from $20, and all of it becomes usage credit spent per second on running sandboxes. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
On Buildkite the job is the limit: it stops after 8 hours and only cache volume paths survive, so none of our agent scenarios fit, and Pro's 256 vCPU pool means 300 user sandboxes or 1,000 short jobs at once mostly wait in the queue. Ubicloud fits the agent scenarios, but a project runs 256 vCPU by default once verified, so big bursts need a raise from support, and its cheap burstable shape guarantees only half of each vCPU. On bochka the 1,000-job burst is queued too and needs more starts per day than the $2,000 plan allows.
| Scenario | Buildkite | Ubicloud | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays |
| None that bite | None that bite |
| One agent that never stops |
| None that bite | None that bite |
| 50 agents in parallel |
| None that bite | None that bite |
| Sandboxes for your users |
| None that bite | None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
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Which one should you use?
Use Buildkite when
you need a CI platform with pipelines, macOS on Apple M4 for iOS builds, Windows, or Linux build machines larger than 16 vCPU.
- A whole CI platform. Pick it if you want managed CI with pipelines, test tooling and cache volumes, mixing hosted and self-hosted agents.
- macOS on Apple M4, and Windows. Pick it if you build iOS or Mac apps: macOS runs on Apple M4 with current Xcode, and Windows is in preview.
- Big build machines. Pick it for heavy builds: Enterprise Linux shapes go up to 64 vCPU and 256 GB, with ARM64 shapes too.
Use Ubicloud when
you want an open source cloud you can also run yourself, GPU VMs, cheap GitHub Actions runners, a US region, or a long-lived VM next to managed Postgres.
- Open source you can run yourself. Pick it if you want to run the cloud on your own servers: the whole stack is AGPL code.
- GPUs on request. Pick it if your work needs models on GPUs: it rents Nvidia A100, B200 and RTX PRO 6000 VMs once enabled.
- Long-lived VMs next to a whole cloud. Pick it if a VM must stay up next to managed Postgres, Kubernetes and cheap GitHub Actions runners, or run in the US.
Where bochka fits
Buildkite and Ubicloud are not agent sandboxes: one runs CI jobs, the other rents plain cloud VMs. If what you are really running is agents, bochka gives each one a full Linux VM that keeps its disk, stops for free, and comes with coding agents, a desktop and HTTPS ports built in.
One machine that keeps its state, and free stops
A Buildkite job VM is destroyed after at most 8 hours, keeping only cache volume paths. A Ubicloud VM keeps its disk but bills while stopped, so you pay for idle time or delete it and lose the disk.
Coding agents you drive from outside
On Buildkite an agent is a pipeline step you read through logs, and on Ubicloud you install and supervise it over SSH. bochka preinstalls Claude Code, Codex and more, with a prompt, steer and events API and a credentials proxy for any HTTPS API.
A desktop and URLs people can reach
Buildkite hosted agents expose no ports, and Ubicloud makes you run TLS and a desktop on each VM yourself. bochka streams a 60fps desktop for computer use and serves up to 50 ports on HTTPS URLs, plus raw TCP.
Use bochka when your agents work on Linux for hours or days: a full VM that keeps its disk and stops for free, Docker and /dev/kvm, a 60fps desktop, HTTPS ports, and coding agents you drive from outside. Compare it one to one: bochka vs Buildkite and bochka vs Ubicloud.
Questions people ask
Is Buildkite cheaper than Ubicloud?
For a machine that stays up, no: one agent running all month comes to $715 on Buildkite and $91 on Ubicloud, and 50 agents in parallel to $7,677 against $1,098. On bochka those come to $26 and $317. Buildkite's price also buys a full CI platform, which Ubicloud's VMs do not.
Which is faster, Buildkite or Ubicloud?
We have no comparable measurement for either one. bochka did 26.69 runs per second on the StarSling Node.js benchmark at 4 vCPU / 8 GB. On Ubicloud, Standard VMs have dedicated CPU while Burstable VMs are throttled above half of each vCPU.
Can Buildkite and Ubicloud run Docker?
Yes. Buildkite runs Docker on its Linux hosted agents, and macOS has the Docker CLI but no daemon. On Ubicloud you have root over SSH, so Docker installs like on any Linux VM. bochka has Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine.
Can I run Claude Code on Buildkite or Ubicloud?
On Buildkite you install it in your image or step and run it as a pipeline job, which ends when the job ends. On Ubicloud you install it on a VM and drive it over SSH. On bochka it is preinstalled, and you prompt and steer it through an API.
Do I pay for a stopped machine?
On Ubicloud, yes: a stopped VM keeps billing as if it were running until you delete it. Buildkite bills only while a job runs, but the VM is destroyed after the job. On bochka a stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Where do Buildkite and Ubicloud run?
Buildkite hosted agents run only in US East Coast data centers. Ubicloud runs VMs in Germany, Finland and Virginia, plus GPU VMs in Istanbul. bochka runs only in the EU, in Germany, Finland and France.
Try bochka
Install the CLI, then run bochka new.
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