GitLab.com hosted runners vs Bitrise
GitLab.com hosted runners run the CI jobs of a GitLab project, each on a fresh VM that is deleted within 3 hours. Bitrise is a CI service built for iOS and Android apps on Apple silicon Macs and Linux, and it also rents remote dev environments with a persistent disk.
The companies and products
GitLab.com hosted runners
GitLab.com hosted runners are the machines that run GitLab CI/CD jobs for projects on GitLab.com, paid for in compute minutes.
This is a CI service, not a sandbox API. Each job gets a new VM on Google Cloud (Linux and Windows) or on AWS Mac hardware (macOS), with passwordless sudo, and the VM is deleted right after the job. It is built for building, testing and deploying the code in a GitLab project, and GitLab's Duo Agent Platform also runs Claude Code and Codex agents as CI/CD jobs on these runners.
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. “128th cheapest of 377” means 127 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 | GitLab.com hosted runners: 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 software factory needs agents that keep their checkout and services; GitLab jobs end within 3 hours, and Bitrise dev environment tiers run only 1 to 5 machines at once. | 347th of 367, with limits $14,454 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 cannot live in a 3-hour GitLab job; a Bitrise dev session can run for days but stops after a set idle time and for maintenance now and then. | 353rd of 366, with limits $21,858 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 | 320th of 345, with limits $1,896 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 is built to hand machines to your own users: GitLab runners only run pipeline jobs and take no inbound traffic, and Bitrise Pro runs at most 10 macOS or 30 Linux builds at once. | 331st of 361, with limits $6,133 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 | 318th of 360, with limits $29,762 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 | 330th of 364, with limits $4,758 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 GitLab's runners are the native choice for a GitLab project's pipelines, Bitrise is best for iOS and Android pipelines, and boat suits Linux jobs that need a warm disk or run past 3 hours. | 128th cheapest of 377 $2,089 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 you can SSH into; GitLab's runners have no SSH and delete the VM after each job, and boat keeps a Linux disk with snapshots every minute. | 358th of 368, with limits $805 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 lets an agent drive a macOS desktop through its MCP server, GitLab's runners are headless, and boat streams a 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium. | 342nd of 369, with limits $4,278 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 | 144th of 367, with limits $2,118 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 | 143rd of 346, with limits $2,854 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 | 319th of 338, with limits $58,429 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 | 87th of 360, with limits $1,383 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 GitLab has a Linux runner with an NVIDIA T4 on Premium and Ultimate; Bitrise and boat have no GPUs. | 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 Apple silicon Macs: GitLab's macOS runners are in beta on Premium and Ultimate, Bitrise sells Mac CI and Mac dev sessions, and boat has no macOS. | 24th of 36, with limits $1,069 a month | 21st of 36, with limits $400 a month | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | GitLab.com hosted runners | Bitrise | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kind of product | CI runners for jobs defined in a GitLab project's pipeline file | Mobile CI/CD service, plus Remote Dev Environments for developers and agents | Sandbox API: create, stop, fork and reach Linux VMs from your code |
| Isolation | New VM per job on Google Compute Engine, deleted right after; Linux jobs run in a privileged Docker container | Each build or session is its own VM; CI VMs are rolled back after each build | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts, with root and systemd |
| How long a machine runs | Jobs time out after 3 hours, whatever the project setting | CI builds time out at 210 minutes (up to 4 hours on Enterprise); dev sessions have no time cap but stop after 5 days idle by default | No session cap on paid plans; you set the time to live |
| Files between runs | The VM is deleted after each job; files carry over only through the shared cache or artifacts | Dev sessions keep one persistent disk, not backed up; CI machines keep nothing | Disk persists, saved every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| Fork | No; every job starts from a fresh VM and a container image | No; warm pools hand out fresh sessions booted from a template | Fork a running sandbox with its disk |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker-in-Docker through privileged mode; nested virtualization not documented | Docker and nested virtualization on Linux, so Android emulators run; macOS sessions have neither | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| Reaching the machine | None; inbound traffic is blocked and instance runners have no web terminal | SSH, VNC and a web terminal on dev sessions; no public URL for a port | SSH, HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, raw TCP, dedicated IPv6 or IPv4 |
| Desktop and computer use | Headless; macOS runners do not support jobs that need UI interaction | VNC desktop on macOS sessions; an open-source MCP server takes screenshots and controls it | Linux desktop streamed at 60fps, Chromium, computer use API |
| Coding agents | Duo Agent Platform runs Claude Code, Codex, Amazon Q and Gemini from mentions in issues and merge requests, on Premium and Ultimate | Claude Code started from the Bitrise CLI and used in a terminal; other agents through warmup scripts | Seven agents preinstalled, driven from outside with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Keeping API keys out of the machine | GitLab-managed credentials for its Claude and Codex agents only; other secrets enter the job as CI/CD variables | Secrets are environment variables, so the value enters the machine | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; switch a credential to another account when credits run out |
| Operating systems and GPUs | Linux x64 and Arm64, Windows (beta), macOS on Apple silicon (beta), and a Linux runner with an NVIDIA T4 | macOS on Apple silicon (M2 Pro, M4, M4 Pro) with iOS simulators, and Linux from 2 to 48 vCPUs | Linux x64 only, no GPUs |
| Mobile build pipeline | General CI with caches and artifacts; you add mobile steps yourself | Workflows, code signing, build cache, release management and over-the-air updates | None built in; you install the tools you need |
| Regions | US (Google Cloud us-east1 by default for Linux) | US, Ireland, Frankfurt, Singapore and Sydney | EU only (Germany, Finland, France) |
| Self-hosting | Open-source GitLab Runner on your own machines, with no compute minutes used | Bitrise on AWS in your own account, or fully self-hosted Bitrise Runners | Managed only |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | GitLab.com hosted runners | Bitrise | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | No | Yes | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | No | No | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | No | Yes | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | Yes | Yes |
| SSH | No | 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 | Yes | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | No | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Agent harness API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | No | 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 | Yes | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | No | 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
Neither GitLab.com hosted runners nor Bitrise has a result in the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks CPU test, so we do not compare their speeds. boat did 26.69 runs per second on it at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. GitLab.com hosted runners 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 | GitLab.com hosted runners, 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 | $119 · Premium · 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 | $805 · Premium · 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 | $9,491 · Premium · 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 | $2,658 · Premium · 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 | $5,896 · Premium · with limits | $1,538 · Pro · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
GitLab.com hosted runners: Each job uses compute minutes equal to its run time times a cost factor, from 1 for small Linux up to 12 for the biggest Linux and macOS machines. Plans include monthly minutes per group (400 on Free, 10,000 on Premium at $29 per user a month billed yearly), and extra minutes cost $10 per 1,000, bought ahead.
Bitrise: Bitrise CI is sold by plan: Starter is a flat fee with unlimited usage on one machine at a time, and Pro adds per-minute machine time and a monthly build allowance on top of its fee. Remote Dev Environments charge a monthly base fee by tier with some included minutes per OS, then per minute.
Bitrise: Plans start at $20 a month, and the whole fee is usage credit spent per second while a sandbox runs. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
Neither fits the five agent scenarios as a sandbox. GitLab jobs end after 3 hours with nothing kept on disk, and GitLab publishes no limit on how many runner VMs run at once. Bitrise CI builds stop at 210 minutes on Pro, Pro runs at most 10 machines at once in our scenarios, and a dev environment tier runs 1 to 5 VMs. boat fits four of the five; the 1,000-job burst needs more starts per day than its $2,000 plan allows.
| Scenario | GitLab.com hosted runners | 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 GitLab.com hosted runners when
your code lives on GitLab and you want CI that works from the first pipeline, with Windows, Arm64 or GPU runners, or your own runners at no minute cost.
- Native CI for GitLab projects. If your code lives on GitLab, these runners work from the first pipeline with no extra service to wire up.
- Windows, Arm64 and a GPU. Teams that need Windows or Linux Arm64 builds, or a T4 GPU in CI, get a hosted runner for each.
- Open-source runner, free of minutes. You can run the MIT-licensed GitLab Runner on your own machines, and those jobs use no compute minutes.
Use Bitrise when
you build and ship iOS or Android apps, need Apple silicon Macs with simulators, or want a Mac dev machine with a persistent disk for developers and agents.
- Built for mobile apps. If you ship iOS or Android apps, Bitrise handles builds, code signing, caching, store releases and over-the-air updates.
- Macs with a disk that stays. Remote dev environments give developers and agents a Mac or Linux machine with a persistent disk, SSH and a desktop.
- More regions. Bitrise runs in the US, Ireland, Frankfurt, Singapore and Sydney, or inside your own AWS account.
Where boat fits
Both are CI services, and for building a GitLab project or a mobile app they are the right tools. If what you are really running is agents, boat gives each one a full Linux VM that keeps its disk, runs with no session cap and can be reached from outside. It does not run macOS, so iOS work stays on a Mac service.
A machine that stays
A GitLab job is deleted within 3 hours and a Bitrise CI build rolls back after 210 minutes, so an agent reinstalls and reclones each time. A Bitrise dev session keeps a disk, but it is not backed up; boat saves the disk every minute.
Reach it and fork it
GitLab blocks inbound traffic and Bitrise has no public URL for a port, so a preview or webhook needs your own tunnel. Neither can copy a running machine; boat serves HTTPS on 50 ports and forks a running sandbox.
Agents you drive from outside, keys kept out
GitLab runs agents from issue mentions and Bitrise starts Claude Code in a terminal, and on both most secrets sit inside the VM as variables. boat drives seven agents through an API and keeps real keys in a credentials proxy.
Use boat when your agents need a full Linux VM that keeps its disk, runs past 3 hours, forks, serves HTTPS on open ports and runs coding agents you drive from outside. Compare it one to one: boat vs GitLab.com hosted runners and boat vs Bitrise.
Questions people ask
Is GitLab.com hosted runners cheaper than Bitrise?
In our agent scenarios Bitrise comes out lower: one agent running all month is $805 on GitLab against $119 on Bitrise, and 50 agents in parallel $9,491 against $2,309. For one agent on workdays GitLab is lower, $119 against $260. Neither fits these scenarios, and for plain CI the minutes in your plan matter most.
Which is faster, GitLab runners or Bitrise?
We cannot say: neither has a result in the CPU benchmark we use. boat did 26.69 runs per second on it at 4 vCPU / 8 GB.
Can GitLab runners or Bitrise build iOS apps?
Both can. GitLab has macOS runners on Apple silicon in beta for Premium and Ultimate, and Bitrise is built for iOS and Android with Macs, simulators, code signing and store releases. boat runs Linux only.
Can they run Docker?
GitLab Linux jobs run in a privileged Docker container, so Docker-in-Docker works. Bitrise runs Docker and Android emulators on Linux machines, but not inside macOS sessions. boat has Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine.
Can I run AI coding agents on them?
GitLab's Duo Agent Platform runs Claude Code and Codex as CI jobs from issues and merge requests on Premium and Ultimate. Bitrise starts Claude Code in a remote dev environment from its CLI. On boat the agents come preinstalled and you drive them through an API.
Is boat SOC 2 compliant?
SOC 2 is in progress. We're open about where we stand: live status at status.ascii.dev and our data retention policy at docs.boat.dev/data-retention.
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