CircleCI vs Bitrise
CircleCI is a general CI and CD platform: each job runs on a fresh Linux, Arm, Windows, macOS or GPU machine, then the machine is thrown away. Bitrise is built for mobile teams, with iOS and Android pipelines on Apple silicon Macs and Linux, plus remote dev environments with a persistent disk for developers and coding agents.
The companies and products
CircleCI
CircleCI is a CI and CD platform that runs your pipeline jobs on machines it hosts, or on runners you host.
You describe jobs in a config file, and each job runs on a fresh Docker container or a machine VM (Linux, Arm, Windows, macOS on Apple M4 Pro, or GPU on Scale), then the machine is discarded. Files move between jobs only through caches, workspaces and artifacts. It is a CI service, not an agent sandbox, so this page compares where they overlap: a machine where a job or an agent does its work. CircleCI also has Chunk, a toolkit that starts its own agent tasks in CircleCI Cloud from a prompt.
Bitrise
Bitrise is a mobile CI/CD platform that builds, tests and ships iOS and Android apps on its own Mac and Linux machines.
Bitrise is a different kind of product: a CI service. Each build runs in its own virtual machine from a Bitrise stack, and the machine is rolled back after the build. Since 2026 it also sells Remote Dev Environments, macOS and Linux sessions with a persistent disk where you can start Claude Code from a CLI or drive the machine through an MCP server. It is built for mobile teams.
- Funding
- $95M+ in total
Which use cases each one fits
For each use case, Battleships prices every sandbox provider on the same workload and sorts them from the cheapest monthly bill up. “136th cheapest of 377” means 135 of the other 376 providers run that workload, with every feature it needs, for less. “With limits” means the provider runs it but misses something, so it is listed after every full match. Open a use case for its whole ranking and what each provider misses.
| Use case and its workload | CircleCI: price rank | Bitrise: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month A coding agent building a whole app needs one machine for hours: CircleCI jobs stop after 3 hours on Performance, Bitrise moves this into dev environments with 1 to 5 VMs per tier, and boat has no session cap on paid plans. | 333rd of 367, with limits $8,692 a month | 38th of 367, with limits $3,403 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB An always-on assistant does not fit a CircleCI job, which ends after 5 hours even on Scale; Bitrise dev sessions stop after days idle and now and then for maintenance, and boat has no session cap on paid plans. | 340th of 366, with limits $13,137 a month | 73rd of 366, with limits $1,970 a month | 5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month |
| Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month | 285th of 345, with limits $572 a month | 289th of 345, with limits $658 a month | 186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month Neither CircleCI nor Bitrise exposes a port as a public URL, and their plans run 80 and 10 to 30 jobs at once; boat ranks 1st, with HTTPS on up to 50 ports per sandbox. | 316th of 361, with limits $3,702 a month | 269th of 361, with limits $1,604 a month | Cheapest of 361 $209 a month |
| RL rollouts 1,000 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 1,000,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 310th of 360, with limits $17,882 a month | 271st of 360, with limits $6,818 a month | 34th of 360, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Agent evals 250 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 15,000 sessions of 20 min a month | 318th of 364, with limits $2,877 a month | 289th of 364, with limits $1,274 a month | 10th cheapest of 364 $200 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month CI is home ground for both: CircleCI is a full match and CircleCI ranks 136th, Bitrise ranks 181st as a compromise, and boat ranks 4th for generic Linux jobs but has no pipeline service. | 136th cheapest of 377 $4,302 a month | 181st of 377, with limits $859 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB Bitrise dev environments keep a persistent disk, which CircleCI jobs never do; boat ranks 18th with a Linux box whose disk is saved every minute. | 197th of 368, with limits $508 a month | 168th of 368, with limits $119 a month | 18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month |
| Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month Bitrise gives agents a VNC desktop on macOS through its MCP server, CircleCI jobs are headless, and boat streams a 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium. | 320th of 369, with limits $2,589 a month | 68th of 369, with limits $1,186 a month | 6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month |
| Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month | 116th of 367, with limits $1,293 a month | 132nd of 367, with limits $746 a month | 7th cheapest of 367 $200 a month |
| Scraping & bots (startup scale) 50 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 100,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 70th cheapest of 346 $860 a month | 131st of 346, with limits $862 a month | 6th cheapest of 346 $90 a month |
| Mass scraping & bots (undetectable) 1,000 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 3,000,000 sessions of 2 min a month | 274th of 338, with limits $17,532 a month | 256th of 338, with limits $13,088 a month | 71st of 338, with limits $1,800 a month |
| Parallel red teaming 200 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 5,000 sessions of 30 min a month | 80th of 360, with limits $852 a month | 73rd of 360, with limits $537 a month | 2nd cheapest of 360 $200 a month |
| GPU eval jobs 10 at once · 8 vCPU / 32 GB · 500 sessions of 30 min a month Only CircleCI has GPUs, on its custom-priced Scale plan, so it is not priced here; Bitrise and boat have none. | Can't run it | Can't run it | Can't run it |
| macOS agents 5 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 1,000 sessions of 20 min a month Both rent Macs: Bitrise ranks 21st with Apple silicon dev sessions and iOS simulators, CircleCI ranks 34th with macOS on Apple M4 Pro and Xcode, and boat has no macOS. | 34th of 36, with limits $2,262 a month | 21st of 36, with limits $400 a month | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | CircleCI | Bitrise | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kind of product | General CI and CD platform: jobs started by pipelines from a config file | Mobile CI and CD service, plus Remote Dev Environments for developers and agents | Agent sandboxes: Linux VMs you create, run, stop and fork by API, CLI or SDK |
| Isolation | Containers on the Docker executor; a fresh VM per job on machine, Windows and macOS executors | Every build or session is its own VM; CI VMs are rolled back after each build | Every sandbox is a full VM with its own kernel, on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5) hosts |
| Operating systems | Linux on x86 and Arm, Windows, and macOS on Apple M4 Pro with Xcode | macOS on Apple silicon (M2 Pro, M4, M4 Pro) with iOS simulators, and Linux with Android emulators | Linux only (x86) |
| Pipelines and self-hosting | Pipelines, caches, workspaces, test splitting and orbs; self-hosted runners, or CircleCI Server on your own Kubernetes | Mobile workflows with code signing, build cache, release management and over-the-air updates; Bitrise on AWS in your account or self-hosted Runners | No pipeline service; managed only, you run CI jobs on a sandbox yourself |
| How long a machine runs | 1 hour per job on Free, 3 on Performance, 5 on Scale | CI builds time out at 210 minutes (up to 4 hours on Enterprise); dev sessions have no time cap but end after 5 days idle by default | No session cap on paid plans; you set the time to live |
| Files after a run | The machine is discarded; you copy chosen paths out with caches, workspaces and artifacts | CI machines keep nothing; a dev session keeps one persistent disk, which is not backed up | The whole disk is saved every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| Fork | No fork of a job | No fork; warm pools hand out fresh sessions booted from a template | Fork a running sandbox with its disk |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker and sudo on machine executors; nested virtualization documented on the Android machine image | Docker and nested virtualization on Linux machines; neither on macOS sessions | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| Desktop and computer use | Headless jobs; browsers in images for tests, no desktop | VNC desktop on macOS sessions; an open-source MCP server takes screenshots and controls it | 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium, computer use and browser control, embeddable stream |
| Coding agents | Chunk starts CircleCI's own agent tasks from a prompt; other agents are job steps you install | Claude Code started from the CLI and used in a terminal; other agents through warmup scripts | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, driven from outside with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Keeping API keys out | Contexts inject secrets as environment variables; OIDC tokens for cloud logins | Secrets are environment variables, so the value enters the machine | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; real keys never enter the VM |
| Reaching the machine | No exposed ports; rerun a job with SSH, open for 10 minutes after it ends | SSH, VNC and a web terminal; device preview links stream a simulator; no public URL for a port | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; dedicated IPv4 or IPv6 |
| GPUs | Nvidia T4, V100 and other GPU classes on the Scale plan | None | None |
| Regions | US only: AWS us-east-1 and us-east-2, GCP us-east1 and us-central1 | US, Ireland, Frankfurt, Singapore and Sydney | EU only (Germany, Finland, France), with EU data residency |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | CircleCI | Bitrise | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Root | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | No | No | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | No | Yes | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | Yes | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | No | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | No | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | No | No | Yes |
| Fork/clone | No | No | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | No | No | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | No | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | No | No | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | Yes | No |
| Wake on request | No | No | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | No | No | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | No | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | No | No | No |
| Secret proxy | No | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | No | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | No | Yes | Yes |
| Agent harness API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes | No |
| GPU | Yes | No | No |
| Windows | Yes | No | No |
| Arm64 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes | No |
| BYOC | No | Yes | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Audit logs | Yes | Not published | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | No | No | No |
| EU data residency | No | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
We have no comparable measurement for CircleCI or Bitrise: neither was part of the StarSling hpc-sandbox-benchmarks run, so we do not compare their speeds. On that Node.js build-and-test benchmark at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, boat did 26.69 runs per second on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5) hosts.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. CircleCI and Bitrise have no published run in this suite yet, so there is no like-for-like number to compare.
Pricing in five scenarios
Each bill is priced from the providers' public price lists by the open Battleships engine, with the cheapest plan that runs the scenario.
| Scenario | CircleCI, a month | Bitrise, a month | boat, a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, 8 hours a day, 22 days a month, files kept between days | $96 · Performance · with limits | $260 · Pro · with limits | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $508 · Performance · with limits | $119 · RDE Pro · with limits | $26 · $20/mo |
| 50 agents in parallel 50 machines of 4 vCPU / 8 GB at once, 8-hour sessions, 1,100 sessions a month, Docker inside | $5,714 · Performance · with limits | $2,309 · Pro · with limits | $317 · $20/mo × 3 seats |
| Sandboxes for your users 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 30,000 sessions of 10 minutes a month, up to 300 at once | $1,617 · Performance · with limits | $812 · Pro · with limits | $200 · $100/mo × 2 seats |
| 1,000 short jobs at once 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 1,000 at once, 3 minutes each, 200,000 jobs a month | $3,562 · Performance · with limits | $1,538 · Pro · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
CircleCI: CircleCI bills in credits per minute for the machine class a job uses: Performance starts at $15 a month with 30,000 credits, and more credits cost $15 per 25,000. A 4 vCPU / 15 GB Linux machine uses 20 credits a minute, about $0.72 an hour, and Scale is custom and billed annually.
Bitrise: Bitrise CI is sold by plan: Starter is a flat fee with unlimited minutes on Medium machines, and Pro adds per-minute machine time and a monthly build allowance on top of its fee. Remote Dev Environments charge a base fee with some included minutes, then per minute up to a monthly cap per OS.
Bitrise: You pick a monthly plan from $20, and all of it becomes usage credit spent per second on running sandboxes. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
On CircleCI the limit is the job: it stops after 3 hours on Performance and the machine is discarded, so the workday agent, the always-on agent and the 50-agent fleet do not fit, and Performance runs at most 80 jobs at once. Bitrise CI builds stop at 210 minutes and Pro runs at most 10 macOS or 30 Linux builds at once, so 50 agents and 300 user sandboxes do not fit there either. Bitrise dev environments come closest for the always-on agent, at $119 a month, but each tier runs only 1 to 5 VMs at once. On boat the 1,000-job burst is queued and needs more starts per day than the $2,000 plan allows.
| Scenario | CircleCI | Bitrise | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays |
|
| None that bite |
| One agent that never stops |
|
| None that bite |
| 50 agents in parallel |
|
| None that bite |
| Sandboxes for your users |
|
| None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
|
|
|
Which one should you use?
Use CircleCI when
you want one CI platform for any stack, with Windows, Arm and GPU machines, macOS on Apple M4 Pro, or the whole service on your own Kubernetes.
- Windows, Arm and GPUs. Useful if you build beyond mobile: CircleCI runs Windows and Arm Linux machines, and Nvidia GPU classes on Scale.
- CI for any stack. Useful for backend and web teams: pipelines, caches, workspaces, test splitting and orbs work for any language.
- The whole platform on your Kubernetes. Useful if CI must run on your own servers: CircleCI Server installs the whole service on your Kubernetes on AWS or GCP.
Use Bitrise when
you build and ship iOS or Android apps, want Mac dev machines for developers or agents, or need machines in Europe, Asia Pacific or your own AWS account.
- Built for shipping mobile apps. Useful if you ship iOS or Android apps: Bitrise handles code signing, build cache, store releases and over-the-air updates.
- Mac dev machines for agents. Useful if agents work on iOS apps: Bitrise rents Apple silicon Mac sessions with a persistent disk, iOS simulators and a desktop.
- More regions and your own AWS. Useful outside the US: Bitrise runs in Ireland, Frankfurt, Singapore and Sydney too, or inside your own AWS account.
Where boat fits
CircleCI and Bitrise are CI services, and boat is not one. If what you are really running is agents, the job is different: one Linux machine that works for hours or days, keeps its files, shows its work at a URL, and takes prompts from outside. That is what boat is built for.
A machine that outlasts the job
A CircleCI job stops after 3 hours on Performance and its machine is discarded; a Bitrise build stops at 210 minutes. Bitrise dev sessions run longer, but their disk is not backed up. boat has no session cap on paid plans, saves the disk every minute, and forks.
Agents you drive from outside
CircleCI's Chunk runs its own agent tasks, and Bitrise starts Claude Code in a terminal, with secrets as environment variables on both. boat ships coding agents with a prompt, steer and events API, and its credentials proxy keeps real keys out of the VM.
A full Linux computer you can reach
Neither gives a port a public URL: CircleCI offers an SSH rerun for 10 minutes, Bitrise SSH and VNC, and Bitrise macOS sessions cannot run Docker. Every boat sandbox has Docker, /dev/kvm, a 60fps desktop and HTTPS on up to 50 ports.
Use boat when what you are really running is agents on Linux: one full VM that runs for days, keeps its disk, forks, serves URLs, and has coding agents you drive from outside. Compare it one to one: boat vs CircleCI and boat vs Bitrise.
Questions people ask
Is CircleCI cheaper than Bitrise?
It depends on the shape. One coding agent on workdays comes to $96 a month on CircleCI and $260 on Bitrise, but Bitrise costs less in the other agent scenarios, such as $2,309 versus $5,714 for 50 agents in parallel. None of these fit as priced on either, because both are CI services with job time limits.
Which is faster, CircleCI or Bitrise?
We have no comparable measurement for either one, so we do not compare their speeds. boat did 26.69 runs per second on the StarSling Node.js benchmark at 4 vCPU / 8 GB.
Which is better for iOS builds?
Both run macOS on Apple silicon: CircleCI on M4 Pro with Xcode, and Bitrise on M2 Pro, M4 and M4 Pro with a full mobile pipeline, code signing and store releases. Bitrise also rents Mac dev sessions with iOS simulators. boat runs Linux only.
Can CircleCI and Bitrise run Docker?
CircleCI runs Docker on its Docker and machine executors. Bitrise runs Docker and nested virtualization on Linux machines, but not inside macOS sessions. boat runs Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm on every sandbox.
Can I run Claude Code on CircleCI or Bitrise?
On CircleCI, as a step you install in a job, which ends at 3 hours on Performance. On Bitrise, its CLI starts Claude Code in a Remote Dev Environment session that you use in a terminal. On boat Claude Code is preinstalled, and you prompt and steer it through an API.
How long can a job run on each?
CircleCI jobs run up to 1 hour on Free, 3 on Performance and 5 on Scale. Bitrise CI builds time out at 210 minutes, up to 4 hours on Enterprise, while dev sessions only end after a stretch of inactivity. boat has no session cap on paid plans.
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