NoMacCircleCI macOS alternative
NoMac CI vs CircleCI macOS
About an eighth of the price per macOS minute, with no second CI system to run. NoMac CI runs macOS jobs in GitHub Actions for $0.90 an hour, billed per minute.
A fresh Mac for every GitHub Actions job.
$0.90/hour per job · billed per minute · no subscription
7-day money-back guarantee on your first purchase. Prices checked 2 November 2026 from public list prices.
What CircleCI macOS is
CircleCI's hosted CI, with macOS jobs on M4 Pro machines only since February 2026: m4pro.medium (6 vCPU, 28 GB) costs 200 credits a minute, about $0.12, configured in CircleCI's own config.yml. Jobs stop at 1 hour on the Free plan, 3 on Performance and 5 on Scale.
NoMac CI vs CircleCI macOS at a glance
| NoMac CI | CircleCI macOS | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.90/hour, 1.5¢ a minute | About $0.12/min (m4pro.medium) |
| An hour of macOS | $0.90 | About $7.20 |
| Workflows | Your GitHub Actions workflow | CircleCI config.yml |
| Time limit | 6 hours | 1 h (Free), 3 h (Performance), 5 h (Scale) |
| Credit expiry | Never | Free credits monthly; paid credits after a year |
Why teams choose NoMac CI
- ✓About an eighth of the price: $0.90 an hour, against about $7.20 for an hour of m4pro.medium.
- ✓macOS jobs in GitHub Actions, next to the rest of your workflows: no config.yml and no second CI system to run.
- ✓Jobs up to 6 hours, where CircleCI stops them at 1 hour on Free and 3 on Performance.
- ✓Credit that never expires, from $10. CircleCI's free credits lapse each month and paid ones after a year.
- ✓No seats: CircleCI's Performance plan charges $15 a month for each user beyond five.
The verdict
CircleCI charges about eight times as much per macOS minute, in a CI of its own. NoMac CI runs them in GitHub Actions for $0.90 an hour.
Move it to GitHub Actions
Connect GitHub once, then add a workflow like this one to .github/workflows:
name: CI
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
test:
runs-on: nomac
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v5
- run: |
xcodebuild test -scheme App \
-destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 17 Pro'Add Fastlane, CocoaPods, your scripts or any action as more steps. The docs cover the machine, the limits and secrets.
Questions
What is the best alternative to CircleCI macOS for macOS jobs on GitHub Actions?＋
NoMac CI: change runs-on to nomac and every job runs on a fresh Apple silicon Mac with Xcode, 6 cores and 8 GB, at $0.90 an hour, billed per minute from prepaid credit. No subscription, no seats and no monthly minimum.
How much does NoMac CI cost?＋
$0.90 an hour, billed per minute, from the Mac's start to its stop with a one-minute minimum, from prepaid credit: $10 buys 11.1 hours and never expires. A Mac that never ran a job is credited back. 7-day money-back guarantee on your first purchase.
How do I switch?＋
Sign in at nomac.app, open CI and press Connect GitHub to install the NoMac CI app on your account or organization, on all repositories or the ones you pick. Then change runs-on: macos-latest to runs-on: nomac in the jobs that should run on NoMac. Steps, actions and secrets stay as they are.
What is on the Mac?＋
macOS 26.6.2, Xcode 27.0, iOS 27.0 Simulator, with Homebrew, CocoaPods, Node, Python and Ruby, on 6 cores and 8 GB of an Apple M4 to M6. Every job gets a fresh VM, deleted when the job ends.
How many jobs run at once?＋
Two per account, up to 6 hours each. More jobs wait in GitHub's queue for a free Mac, and teams that need more at once ask for it.
Does it work with GitLab, Bitbucket or Jenkins?＋
NoMac CI runs GitHub Actions jobs, for personal accounts and organizations, private and public repositories. From another CI system, a job can start a NoMac Mac with the NoMac CLI and run its build there.
A fresh Mac for every job, billed per minute.
Change runs-on to nomac. $0.90 an hour, billed per minute, 2 jobs at once, up to 6 hours each. $10 of credit is 11.1 hours of macOS jobs.
Connect GitHub7-day money-back guarantee on your first purchase.