NoMacCirrus Runners alternative
NoMac CI vs Cirrus Runners
Cirrus Runners has taken no new customers since Cirrus Labs joined OpenAI in April 2026. NoMac CI is open: connect GitHub, change runs-on to nomac, and pay per minute with no monthly runner.
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 Cirrus Runners is
Flat-rate GitHub Actions runners from Cirrus Labs, the team behind the Tart virtualization tool: $150 a month per runner with unlimited minutes. On April 7, 2026 Cirrus Labs agreed to join OpenAI and stopped taking new Cirrus Runners customers; existing contracts run to their end.
NoMac CI vs Cirrus Runners at a glance
| NoMac CI | Cirrus Runners | |
|---|---|---|
| New customers | Self-serve, today | Not accepted since April 7, 2026 |
| Price | $0.90/hour per job, billed per minute | $150/month per runner, unlimited minutes |
| Setup | GitHub App, runs-on: nomac | GitHub App, image label |
| Isolation | A fresh VM per job | A fresh VM per job |
Why teams choose NoMac CI
- ✓Open to new customers: connect GitHub and run your first job in minutes.
- ✓Pay for the minutes your jobs run, $0.90 an hour per job, instead of $150 a month per runner.
- ✓A fresh VM for every job, deleted when it ends, as on the runners you have now.
- ✓Move before your contract ends: change the runs-on label and keep the rest of the workflow.
The verdict
Cirrus Runners is closed to new customers. NoMac CI runs the same GitHub Actions jobs on a fresh Mac each time, billed per minute, with no monthly runner to pay for.
Switch in one line
Connect GitHub once, then point your macOS jobs at NoMac:
jobs:
test:
- runs-on: ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-runner:tahoe
+ runs-on: nomac
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v5Steps, actions and secrets stay as they are. The docs cover the machine, the limits and secrets.
Questions
What is the best alternative to Cirrus Runners 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.