GitHub Actions vs Bitrise
GitHub Actions is general CI built into GitHub: each job gets a fresh Linux, Windows or macOS VM for up to 6 hours. Bitrise is CI made for iOS and Android apps, and it also rents Mac and Linux dev machines with a disk that stays, where coding agents can work.
The companies and products
GitHub Actions
GitHub Actions is GitHub's CI/CD service: workflows in your repository run as jobs on runners that GitHub hosts or that you host yourself.
GitHub Actions is a CI service, not a sandbox API. Each job on a GitHub-hosted runner gets a new VM, Linux and Windows on Azure and macOS on GitHub's own Mac fleet, with passwordless sudo, and the VM is gone when the job ends. It is built for building, testing and deploying the code in a repository, and GitHub's own Copilot cloud agent and the Claude and Codex agents on GitHub also run on Actions runners.
- Job length
- Each job can run for up to 6 hours
- Self-hosted runners
- Open-source runner under MIT; usage on self-hosted runners is free
Bitrise
Bitrise is a mobile CI/CD platform that builds, tests and ships iOS and Android apps on its own Mac and Linux machines.
Bitrise is a different kind of product: a CI service. Each build runs in its own virtual machine from a Bitrise stack, and the machine is rolled back after the build. Since 2026 it also sells Remote Dev Environments, macOS and Linux sessions with a persistent disk where you can start Claude Code from a CLI or drive the machine through an MCP server. It is built for mobile teams.
- Funding
- $95M+ in total
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. “100th cheapest of 377” means 99 of the other 376 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 | GitHub Actions: price rank | Bitrise: price rank | bochka: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month A software factory needs agents that keep their checkout and services between tasks; GitHub Actions jobs and Bitrise CI builds both start clean, and Bitrise dev environments run only 1 to 5 machines per tier. | 298th of 367, with limits $5,853 a month | 38th of 367, with limits $3,403 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB An always-on assistant does not fit 6-hour GitHub jobs or 210-minute Bitrise builds; Bitrise dev sessions can run for days but stop after idle time and for maintenance, while bochka has no session cap on paid plans. | 333rd of 366, with limits $10,692 a month | 73rd of 366, with limits $1,970 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 | 294th of 345, with limits $721 a month | 289th of 345, with limits $658 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 GitHub's terms rule out offering Actions to your users as a service, and Bitrise caps machines at 10 macOS or 30 Linux builds on Pro, so neither is built for this; bochka is. | 308th of 361, with limits $2,892 a month | 269th of 361, with limits $1,604 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 | 304th of 360, with limits $14,721 a month | 271st of 360, with limits $6,818 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 | 303rd of 364, with limits $1,962 a month | 289th of 364, with limits $1,274 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 GitHub Actions is the native fit for a GitHub repo's CI on any OS, Bitrise is best for iOS and Android pipelines, and bochka suits Linux jobs that need a warm disk or run past 6 hours. | 100th cheapest of 377 $1,012 a month | 181st of 377, with limits $859 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB GitHub runners have no SSH, open ports or lasting disk; Bitrise dev sessions keep one disk with SSH and VNC, and bochka adds snapshots every minute and HTTPS on up to 50 ports. | 279th of 368, with limits $159 a month | 168th of 368, with limits $119 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 GitHub runners are headless, Bitrise gives agents a macOS desktop through its MCP server, and bochka streams a 60fps Linux desktop with computer use built in. | 292nd of 369, with limits $1,768 a month | 68th of 369, with limits $1,186 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 | 135th of 367, with limits $942 a month | 132nd of 367, with limits $746 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 | 134th of 346, with limits $1,184 a month | 131st of 346, with limits $862 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 | 301st of 338, with limits $28,971 a month | 256th of 338, with limits $13,088 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 | 70th of 360, with limits $467 a month | 73rd of 360, with limits $537 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 GitHub Actions has GPU runners, with an NVIDIA T4 on larger runners; Bitrise and bochka have no GPUs. | Can't run it | Can't run it | Can't run it |
| macOS agents 5 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 1,000 sessions of 20 min a month Both rent macOS machines: GitHub Actions as CI jobs, Bitrise as CI builds or dev sessions on Apple silicon with iOS simulators; bochka has no macOS. | 25th of 36, with limits $1,178 a month | 21st of 36, with limits $400 a month | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | GitHub Actions | Bitrise | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kind of product | General CI/CD service; jobs run from workflow files in a GitHub repository | Mobile CI/CD service, plus Remote Dev Environments for developers and agents | Sandbox API for agents: create, stop, fork and reach Linux VMs from your code |
| Isolation | A new VM per job on Azure (Linux, Windows) or GitHub's Mac cloud, with passwordless sudo | Each build or session is its own VM; CI VMs are rolled back after each build | Full VM with its own kernel, root and systemd, on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| How long a machine runs | Up to 6 hours per job | CI builds time out at 210 minutes (up to 4 hours on Enterprise); dev sessions stop after 5 days idle by default, and now and then for maintenance | No session cap on paid plans; you set the time to live |
| Files between runs | Every job starts on a fresh VM; files carry over only through cache, artifacts or custom images | Dev sessions keep one persistent disk that is not backed up; CI machines keep nothing | Disk persists, saved every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| Fork | No; custom images are a template for new runners, not a copy of a live one | No; warm pools hand out fresh sessions booted from a template | Fork a running sandbox with its disk |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker and KVM on Linux runners, after adding the runner user to the KVM group | Docker and nested virtualization on Linux machines; macOS sessions have neither | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| Operating systems | Linux x64 and arm64, Windows x64 and arm64, macOS | macOS on Apple silicon with iOS simulators, and Linux with Android emulators | Linux x64 only |
| GPUs | Linux and Windows larger runners with an NVIDIA T4 | None | None |
| Mobile build pipeline | General workflows with checks, caches and artifacts; hosted macOS runners for Apple builds | Workflows, code signing, build cache, release management and over-the-air updates | None built in; you install the tools you need |
| Coding agents | Copilot cloud agent, plus Claude and Codex in public preview, working on issues and pull requests | Claude Code started from the CLI and used in a terminal; other agents through warmup scripts | Seven agents preinstalled, driven from outside with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Desktop and computer use | Headless runners; browsers are preinstalled for tests | VNC desktop on macOS sessions; an open-source MCP server takes screenshots and controls it | Linux desktop streamed at 60fps, Chromium, computer use API |
| Reaching the machine | No inbound connections to hosted runners | SSH, VNC and a web terminal on dev sessions; no public URL for a port | SSH, HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, raw TCP, dedicated IPv6 or IPv4 |
| Keeping API keys out of the machine | Secrets enter the job as inputs or environment variables, hidden from logs | Secrets are environment variables, so the value enters the machine | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; real keys never enter the VM |
| Regions and self-hosting | Azure, with private networking in the US, EU and APAC; open-source runner free on your own machines | US, Ireland, Frankfurt, Singapore and Sydney; Bitrise on AWS in your account or self-hosted Runners | Managed only, EU only (Germany, Finland, France) |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | GitHub Actions | Bitrise | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | No | No | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | No | Yes | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | Yes | Yes |
| SSH | No | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | No | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | No | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | No | No | Yes |
| Fork/clone | No | No | 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 | No | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | Yes | No |
| Wake on request | No | No | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | No | No | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | No | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | Yes | No | No |
| Secret proxy | No | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | No | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Agent harness API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes | No |
| GPU | Yes | No | No |
| Windows | Yes | No | No |
| Arm64 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes | No |
| BYOC | No | Yes | No |
| Open source | Yes | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Audit logs | Yes | Not published | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | No | No | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
There is no comparable CPU measurement for GitHub Actions hosted runners or for Bitrise in the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks test, so we do not compare their speeds. bochka did 26.69 runs per second on it at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. GitHub Actions and Bitrise 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 | GitHub Actions, a month | Bitrise, 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 | $80 · Team · with limits | $260 · Pro · with limits | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $354 · Team · with limits | $119 · RDE Pro · with limits | $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 | $3,814 · Team · with limits | $2,309 · Pro · with limits | $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 | $1,092 · Enterprise Cloud · with limits | $812 · Pro · with limits | $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 | $2,721 · Enterprise Cloud · with limits | $1,538 · Pro · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
GitHub Actions: GitHub bills per minute per job, rounding each job up to the next minute, at a rate set by the runner type, from $0.006 a minute for 2-core Linux. Plans include monthly minutes for standard runners only; larger and GPU runners are always billed.
Bitrise: Bitrise CI is sold by plan: Starter is a flat fee with unlimited minutes on Medium machines, and Pro adds per-minute machine time and a build allowance on top of its fee. Remote Dev Environments charge a base fee with included minutes, then per minute up to a monthly cap per OS.
Bitrise: Plans start at $20 a month, and the whole fee is usage credit spent per second on running sandboxes. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
Neither GitHub Actions nor Bitrise fits any of the five agent scenarios as a sandbox, because both are CI services: GitHub jobs end after 6 hours with no lasting disk, and Bitrise CI builds stop at 210 minutes on Pro. Bitrise Pro also runs at most 10 builds at once, so 50 agents in parallel and 300 user sandboxes do not fit, while GitHub Enterprise Cloud stops at 500 concurrent jobs. bochka fits four of the five; for 1,000 short jobs at once its $2,000 plan queues starts above 90 a minute.
| Scenario | GitHub Actions | Bitrise | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays |
|
| None that bite |
| One agent that never stops |
|
| None that bite |
| 50 agents in parallel |
|
| None that bite |
| Sandboxes for your users |
|
| None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
|
|
|
Which one should you use?
Use GitHub Actions when
you build, test and deploy a GitHub repository, need Windows, arm64 or GPU runners, or want Copilot, Claude or Codex working on your issues and pull requests.
- Built into GitHub. For a GitHub repository, workflows run on pushes and pull requests with checks, caches and artifacts and no extra service to wire up.
- Windows, arm64 and GPUs. Teams that build for Windows or arm64 Linux, or need an NVIDIA T4, get hosted runners that Bitrise does not offer.
- Free self-hosted runners. The runner is open source under MIT, and jobs on your own machines are free of GitHub charges.
Use Bitrise when
you build and ship iOS or Android apps, need Apple silicon Macs with iOS simulators, or want a Mac dev machine for an agent that keeps its disk.
- Made for mobile apps. Teams shipping iOS or Android apps get code signing, a build cache, store releases and over-the-air updates in one service.
- Macs with iOS simulators. Bitrise rents Apple silicon Macs, M2 Pro to M4 Pro, with iOS simulators an agent can drive through its MCP server.
- Dev machines that stay. Remote Dev Environments keep a disk and can run for days, so a developer or agent can come back to the same machine.
Where bochka fits
GitHub Actions and Bitrise are CI services, and both are good at building and shipping code. If what you are really running is agents that need their own Linux machine for hours or days, many of them at once, bochka is built for that. Keep iOS builds and Windows jobs on the CI service that suits them.
A machine that keeps its work
GitHub jobs end within 6 hours on a clean VM, and Bitrise CI builds stop at 210 minutes and roll back. Bitrise dev sessions keep a disk with no backup. bochka saves the disk every minute and can fork a running sandbox.
Reach it from outside
GitHub runners take no inbound traffic, and Bitrise dev sessions have SSH and VNC but no public URL for a port, so a live preview needs your own tunnel. bochka serves HTTPS on up to 50 ports and raw TCP.
Agents driven by API, keys kept out
GitHub's agents work through issues and pull requests, and Bitrise starts Claude Code in a terminal. On both, secrets sit inside the machine as environment variables. bochka drives agents through one API and keeps real keys in a proxy outside.
Use bochka when your agents need a full Linux VM that runs for days with Docker, saves its disk every minute, forks, takes inbound traffic and is driven from outside by API. Compare it one to one: bochka vs GitHub Actions and bochka vs Bitrise.
Questions people ask
Is GitHub Actions cheaper than Bitrise?
It depends on the job. For one coding agent on workdays we priced GitHub Actions at $80 a month and Bitrise at $260, but for 50 agents in parallel Bitrise came to $2,309 against $3,814, and neither fits these agent scenarios. For plain CI, GitHub's included minutes and free public-repo runners often make it cheaper.
Which is faster, GitHub Actions or Bitrise?
We have no comparable CPU measurement for either one, so we do not rank their speed. bochka did 26.69 runs per second in the same benchmark at 4 vCPU / 8 GB.
Can GitHub Actions and Bitrise run Docker?
Both run Docker on Linux machines, and both expose KVM there for Android emulators. Bitrise macOS sessions cannot run Docker, because Apple's virtualization has no nested virtualization. bochka has Docker and /dev/kvm on every sandbox.
Which is better for iOS builds?
Both rent macOS machines. Bitrise is built around mobile apps, with Apple silicon Macs, code signing, release management and over-the-air updates. GitHub Actions has hosted macOS runners too, as general CI jobs of up to 6 hours. bochka runs Linux only.
Can I run AI coding agents on GitHub Actions or Bitrise?
Yes on both. GitHub's Copilot cloud agent, plus Claude and Codex in preview, work on issues and pull requests on Actions runners, and Bitrise starts Claude Code in a Remote Dev Environment from its CLI. On bochka, seven agents come preinstalled and you drive them through an API.
Is bochka SOC 2 compliant?
SOC 2 is in progress. We're open about where we stand: live status at status.bochka.xyz and our data retention policy at docs.bochka.xyz/data-retention.
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