Blacksmith CI
UnclaimedRun your GitHub Actions faster and more cost-effectively with enhanced observability.
Visit WebsiteFreemiumVisit Website
Tracked since2026
0 reviews trackedThe Bottom Line
Entry price
Free plan available, paid tiers above
Biggest pro
Significantly faster CI/CD pipeline execution.
Biggest con
Specific advanced support features are add-ons or require Enterprise plan.
TL;DR - Blacksmith CI
- Accelerates GitHub Actions by up to 2x and reduces costs by up to 75%.
- Provides enhanced observability and debugging tools for CI pipelines.
- Offers a drop-in replacement for GitHub runners with instant microVM provisioning.
Pricing: Free plan available
Best for: Growing teams
What is Blacksmith CI?
Blacksmith CI is a drop-in replacement for GitHub Actions runners, designed to significantly speed up CI/CD pipelines and reduce costs. It achieves this by running jobs on high-performance bare metal gaming CPUs, offering faster cache downloads through co-located artifacts, and accelerating Docker builds by persisting layers on NVMe drives. The platform aims to cut build, test, and deploy times in half, providing immediate feedback on pull requests.
Beyond performance, Blacksmith CI addresses the observability gap in GitHub Actions. It provides a console for quickly seeing what's happening in CI pipelines, helping developers spot failing and slow jobs, debug flaky tests, and fix issues directly from GitHub comments with inline logs. This makes it ideal for development teams looking to optimize their CI/CD workflows, improve developer productivity, and reduce infrastructure spending, especially those heavily reliant on GitHub Actions.
Available on: Web
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Significantly faster CI/CD pipeline execution.
- Substantial cost savings compared to GitHub runners.
- Improved visibility and debugging capabilities for CI failures.
- Easy to integrate as a drop-in replacement.
- Free tier available for getting started.
Cons
- Specific advanced support features are add-ons or require Enterprise plan.
- Currently focused on GitHub Actions, may not support other CI platforms.
Preview
Key Features
2x faster hardware (bare metal gaming CPUs)4x faster cache downloads (co-located artifacts)40x faster Docker Builds (persistent layers on NVMe drives)GitHub Actions observability consoleSpot failing and slow jobsDebug flaky tests with global log searchInline logs of failed tests in GitHub commentsInstant microVM provisioning
Pricing Plans
Free TrialPay-As-You-Go
$0.004 / min
- 3K free min/mo (on 2 vCPU runners, scales accordingly for larger runners)
- 2x faster hardware
- 4x faster cache downloads
- GitHub Actions observability
Enterprise
Contact us
- Includes Pay-As-You-Go features
- Enterprise free trial
- White-glove onboarding
- 99.9% SLA
- 24/7 advanced support
- Dedicated Slack channel
- CI optimization support
- Pre-baked dependencies
Reviews
Be the first to review Blacksmith CI
Your take helps the next buyer. Verified LinkedIn reviewers get a badge.
Write a reviewBest Blacksmith CI Alternatives
Top alternatives based on features, pricing, and user needs.
JenkinsFree
Automate builds, deployments, and software projects
CircleCIFreemium
Continuous integration and delivery
BuddyFreemium
CI/CD for web developers with visual pipelines
Travis CIFreemium
CI/CD platform for Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, and GPU
BuildkiteFreemium
CI/CD platform running builds on your infrastructure
GitHub ActionsFreemium
Automate CI/CD, testing, and deployment directly from your repository
Still deciding?
Most buyers shortlist 2 or 3 tools before committing. Pull a side-by-side comparison or browse the full alternatives shortlist below.
Explore More
Blacksmith CI FAQ
What is Blacksmith CI?
Blacksmith CI is a high-performance, cost-effective alternative to GitHub Actions runners. It speeds up CI/CD pipelines by using powerful hardware and optimized caching, while also providing advanced observability tools to help developers debug and fix issues faster.
How much does Blacksmith CI cost?
Blacksmith CI operates on a Pay-As-You-Go model, starting at $0.004 per minute for 2 vCPU runners. They offer a free tier of 3,000 minutes per month. Enterprise plans are available with custom pricing for SLAs, white-glove support, and more.
Is Blacksmith CI free?
Yes, Blacksmith CI offers a free tier that includes 3,000 free minutes per month on 2 vCPU runners. No credit card is required to sign up for the free tier. They also offer discounts for startups and open-source projects.
Who is Blacksmith CI for?
Blacksmith CI is designed for development teams, startups, and enterprises that use GitHub Actions and are looking to improve their CI/CD pipeline speed, reduce costs, and gain better observability into their build and test processes.
Source: blacksmith.sh