RunsOn m8a.xlarge · EBS gp3 vs GitHub 4-core x64
RunsOn does each build for 3.9–9.3× less and 1.4–1.9× faster. Both 4 vCPU x64.
All three builds 4.6× cheaper on RunsOn: $0.0538 vs $0.2498RunsOn 1.5× faster: 12m 05s vs 18m 27s
Rust build 9.3× cheaper on RunsOn: $0.0050 vs $0.0466RunsOn 1.9× faster: 1m 59s vs 3m 47s
TypeScript build 8.6× cheaper on RunsOn: $0.0031 vs $0.0268RunsOn 1.9× faster: 1m 01s vs 1m 56s
Docker build 3.9× cheaper on RunsOn: $0.0457 vs $0.1764RunsOn 1.4× faster: 9m 05s vs 12m 44s
RunsOn m8a.xlarge · EBS gp3
jobs ran from Amazon.com (US)
GitHub 4-core
jobs ran from Microsoft (US, CA)
Side by side
Every measurement both runners share, cost first. The dot marks the better value; gap is the larger over the smaller.
| Measurement | RunsOn | GitHub | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | |||
| Cost per Rust build | $0.0050 | $0.0466 | 9.3× RunsOn |
| Cost per TypeScript build | $0.0031 | $0.0268 | 8.6× RunsOn |
| Cost per Docker build | $0.0457 | $0.1764 | 3.9× RunsOn |
| Price per minute | $0.0015 | $0.0120 | 8.0× RunsOn |
| Real builds, wall time | |||
| Rust build (spotify-player) | 1m 59s | 3m 47s | 1.9× RunsOn |
| TypeScript build (opencode) | 1m 01s | 1m 56s | 1.9× RunsOn |
| Docker build (PostHog) | 9m 05s | 12m 44s | 1.4× RunsOn |
| CPU & memory | |||
| PassMark single-thread (points) | 3,809 | 2,370 | 1.6× RunsOn |
| PassMark CPU Mark, all cores (points) | 13,474 | 6,130 | 2.2× RunsOn |
| sysbench CPU, 1 thread (events/s) | 5,543 | 3,670 | 1.5× RunsOn |
| 7-Zip compression (MIPS) | 28,488 | 16,137 | 1.8× RunsOn |
| Memory read bandwidth | 36.4 GiB/s | 20.9 GiB/s | 1.7× RunsOn |
| Measurement | RunsOn | GitHub | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workspace disk (fio) | |||
| Random read, 4k QD32 (IOPS) | 2,993 | 19,587 | 6.5× GitHub |
| Random write, 4k QD32 (IOPS) | 2,993 | 11,712 | 3.9× GitHub |
| Random read, 4k QD1 (IOPS) | 1,828 | 6,843 | 3.7× GitHub |
| QD1 read latency, p99 | 840 µs | 251 µs | 3.3× GitHub |
| Sequential read | 401 MiB/s | 394 MiB/s | ≈ even |
| Sequential write | 401 MiB/s | 394 MiB/s | ≈ even |
| Sync write, 4k + fdatasync (IOPS) | 539 | 3,262 | 6.1× GitHub |
| Network, cache & Docker | |||
| Download from GitHub | 321 MiB/s | 91 MiB/s | 3.5× RunsOn |
| Cache restore, 4 GB (actions/cache) | 18s | 41s | 2.3× RunsOn |
| Cache save, 4 GB (actions/cache) | 17s | 30s | 1.8× RunsOn |
| docker pull | 5.3s | 16.4s | 3.1× RunsOn |
| Database | |||
| pgbench read/write (TPS) | 3,311 | 2,797 | 1.2× RunsOn |
| pgbench read-only (TPS) | 145,948 | 20,013 | 7.3× RunsOn |
| Queue | |||
| Queue under burst load | 17s | 4s | 4.3× GitHub |
- ≈ even: under 5% apart, or a build inside both runners' run-to-run spread
- Queue: identical jobs queued at the same instant (burst suite)
- RunsOn at EC2 spot, its default (7-day average of the cheapest us-east-1 zone's spot price, fetched 5 Oct 2026); the jobs ran on spot
- Cost: a managed SaaS runner against RunsOn self-hosted on your AWS account; the effort of running it was not measured