Depot vs Self-Hosted vs Cloud CI
Three options for CI compute in 2026: managed acceleration (Depot.dev), self-hosted runners, or cloud hosted runners (GitHub Actions, CircleCI). Honest per-minute pricing, real break-even, and when each option actually wins.
Head-to-head dimensions
| Dimension | Depot.dev | Self-hosted runners | Cloud hosted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per-minute rate (Linux baseline) | $0.04 | ~$0.001 ($30 VPS @ 30K min/mo) | $0.006 (no self-hosted fee) |
| Cache persistence | Yes (EBS volume) | Yes (manual setup, runner-local) | Ephemeral / GitHub-managed (limited) |
| Operational burden | None (managed) | High (runner controller, security, scaling) | None (managed) |
| Setup time | <1 hour (drop-in) | 1-2 weeks (real production setup) | Default (already there) |
| Multi-architecture builds | Native (ARM + AMD) | Manual (separate runner pools) | Native on hosted ARM runners |
| Pricing transparency | $0.04/min flat published | Server cost + admin time (variable) | Published per-minute by OS |
Four scenarios, four answers
Startup, 5 engineers, 4K min/month, simple Linux pipeline
Free tier 2,000-3,000 minutes covers all of it. Nothing to optimise.
Scaleup, 30 engineers, 25K min/month, Docker-heavy
Docker layer cache hits ~40-60% time reduction on typical Docker builds. At 25K min/mo: cloud = $150/mo, Depot = $400/mo for 10K compressed min/mo. Depot adds ~$250/mo for 30-50% faster CI feedback loops.
Enterprise, 100 engineers, 200K min/month, mature platform team
At 200K min/month: cloud = $1,200/mo, Depot = $8,000/mo, self-hosted on c6i.4xlarge cluster = ~$2,000/mo + 0.5 FTE platform engineer ($75K/yr loaded). Self-hosted wins on $ by 5x but requires real platform team commitment.
macOS-heavy, 15 engineers, 8K macOS min/month
macOS hosted at $0.062/min × 8K = $496/mo even after the January 2026 cut (-23%). Self-hosted Mac mini M2 cluster: $599 capex × 3 + $150/mo colo = ~5 month payback on the hardware, then ~$350/mo saved. Depot doesn't offer macOS. The real cost of self-hosting here is iOS provisioning admin, not the hardware.
The honest read on Depot
Depot.dev is a real product solving a real problem (cache persistence and faster builds), and their calculator tool is honest. But the pitch frame matters: Depot is most economically attractive when your pipeline is genuinely cache-heavy (Docker builds, large dep installs, Go module downloads). For lighter pipelines, the 7x per-minute premium over GitHub hosted runners is harder to justify.
The realistic decision: if you spend $300+/month on CI, run a 2-week proof-of-concept on Depot with your actual build pipeline. The numbers will surface whether the cache wins outweigh the per-minute premium for your specific workload. The bigger your Docker layer surface area, the more Depot pays back.
For pure Linux test pipelines without heavy caching (think: pytest test suite, ESLint, Go test, lightweight unit tests), GitHub hosted Linux at $0.006/min is hard to beat on cost. The Depot pitch lands less here.
Frequently asked questions
Is Depot.dev cheaper than GitHub Actions hosted runners?
Depending on build pattern. Depot.dev charges $0.04 per build minute for their managed runner platform with persistent cache, which is roughly 7x more expensive per minute than GitHub Actions hosted Linux ($0.006/min after the January 2026 cuts). But Depot's persistent layer cache typically cuts total build time 30-70%, so total cost may be lower despite the higher per-minute rate. The honest answer requires modelling your specific build pattern. For pipelines with heavy cache-eligible steps (Docker layer caching, npm/yarn/pip dependency installs, Go module downloads), Depot often wins on total cost. For lightweight pipelines, hosted runners stay cheaper.
When does self-hosted CI beat both Depot and cloud hosted?
Self-hosted wins on pure per-minute cost at 5,000+ minutes/month on a $30/mo VPS (no platform fee applies: the charge GitHub announced for March 2026 was postponed and never took effect). Beyond 50,000 min/month, the case strengthens further. The catch is operational cost: a 0.5 FTE platform engineer at $150K loaded salary is $75/month per 1,000 minutes of admin overhead. Self-hosted is the cost-winner at scale, but only if you genuinely have the platform team to maintain it (security patches, capacity planning, runner controller updates, secret rotation).
What does Depot.dev actually do that hosted runners don't?
Depot provides three things hosted GitHub Actions runners don't: (1) persistent layer cache that survives across builds (hosted runners have ephemeral caches; Depot mounts a persistent EBS volume), (2) larger compute classes available cheaper than GitHub's larger-runner pricing, and (3) Docker buildx with native multi-architecture support. The selling point is that for cache-heavy pipelines, Depot's $0.04/min nets out cheaper than hosted runners running 3-5x longer.
What's the realistic break-even between Depot and cloud hosted for typical builds?
If your build is 50% cache-eligible work (Docker layers, dep installs) and 50% pure compute, Depot's ~50% time reduction halves wall-clock minutes. At $0.04/min Depot vs $0.006/min hosted Linux, you need a 6.7x time reduction for cost parity. That's unrealistic except for cache-heavy pipelines. The realistic case: 30-40% time reduction makes Depot competitive on pipelines that lean cache-heavy. For pure Linux test pipelines without heavy caching, hosted is cheaper.
Is Depot a real competitor to self-hosted at scale?
It's positioned as middle ground. Depot's pitch is 'self-hosted speed without the operational burden'. At scale (50K+ min/month), self-hosted on a c6i.4xlarge ($560/mo) with good cache discipline matches or beats Depot on raw cost. Below that scale, Depot's operational simplicity (zero infrastructure to manage) is genuinely valuable. The procurement question is whether the engineering time saved is worth the cost premium over self-hosted.