Pick Blacksmith if
cI teams who will try Blacksmith for free, then stay on Ubuntu at $0.004 / minute when GitHub-hosted runners are the bill they want to cut.
Read the Blacksmith pageBlacksmith vs Dagger
Our take
Pick Blacksmith if cI teams who will try Blacksmith for free, then stay on Ubuntu at $0.004 / minute when GitHub-hosted runners are the bill they want to cut. Pick Dagger if platform teams who will run the OSS engine at $0 while they write a first function, then start Starter’s Try for free and land on $20/month (1 user, 1-month traces) — or Scale at $200/month when they need unlimited users and 1-year traces.
Blacksmith
hosted GitHub Actions runner
Dagger
portable CI desk
Best for
Blacksmith Actions minutes you pay per minute
Dagger A pipeline you start at $20
Free plan
Blacksmith No free plan
Dagger No free plan
Lowest paid
Blacksmith Ubuntu ARM $0.0025
Dagger Starter $20/mo
Next step up
Blacksmith Ubuntu x64 $0.004
Dagger Scale $200/mo
Runs where
Blacksmith Local or hosted
Dagger Hosted
Watch out
Blacksmith Try for free is not a forever Free plan
Dagger $20 is 1 user and 1-month traces
Last checked
Blacksmith 2026-10-23 · blacksmith.sh/pricing
Dagger 2026-10-22 · dagger.io/pricing
Which one, then?
Pick Dagger if
platform teams who will run the OSS engine at $0 while they write a first function, then start Starter’s Try for free and land on $20/month (1 user, 1-month traces) — or Scale at $200/month when they need unlimited users and 1-year traces.
Read the Dagger page