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 Woodpecker
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 Woodpecker if teams who already run Gitea / Forgejo / GitHub and will stay on the Apache self-host at $0 while they open a first pipeline log, then keep self-hosting because Woodpecker does not print a hosted Cloud dollar.
Blacksmith
hosted GitHub Actions runner
Woodpecker
open-source CI desk
Best for
Blacksmith Actions minutes you pay per minute
Woodpecker Pipelines you start at $0 on your host
Free plan
Blacksmith No free plan
Woodpecker $0 · apache-2.0. You run the server + one or more agents + a forge. Confirmed by the repo LICENSE (“Apache License / Version 2.0”)
Lowest paid
Blacksmith Ubuntu ARM $0.0025
Woodpecker Not published by the vendor
Next step up
Blacksmith Ubuntu x64 $0.004
Woodpecker
Coding agent
Blacksmith
Woodpecker Pipelines
Runs where
Blacksmith Local or hosted
Woodpecker
Watch out
Blacksmith Try for free is not a forever Free plan
Woodpecker $0 is the license, not the agent VM
Last checked
Blacksmith 2026-10-23 · blacksmith.sh/pricing
Woodpecker 2026-10-23 · github.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker/blob
Which one, then?
Pick Woodpecker if
teams who already run Gitea / Forgejo / GitHub and will stay on the Apache self-host at $0 while they open a first pipeline log, then keep self-hosting because Woodpecker does not print a hosted Cloud dollar.
Read the Woodpecker page