NoMacNamespace alternative
NoMac CI vs Namespace
A quarter of the price of Namespace's 6 vCPU macOS runner, with no plan or unit minutes to track. NoMac CI runs each GitHub Actions job on a fresh Mac for $0.90 an hour.
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 Namespace is
Fast GitHub Actions runners and dev environments. Its macOS runners run mostly on Apple M5 Max and some on M4 Pro; the 6 vCPU, 14 GB shape costs $0.06 a minute of a plan's prepaid unit minutes and $0.09 beyond them, on plans from $0 (pay per use) to $250 a month.
NoMac CI vs Namespace at a glance
| NoMac CI | Namespace | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.90/hour, 1.5¢ a minute | $0.06/min (6 vCPU, plan minutes), $0.09 beyond |
| An hour of macOS | $0.90 | $3.60 on plan minutes, $5.40 beyond |
| Billing | Prepaid credit, billed per minute, never expires | Plans from $0 to $250/month, in unit minutes with a macOS multiplier of 10 |
| Time limit | 6 hours | 3 h (Developer), 5 h (Team) |
| Setup | GitHub App, runs-on: nomac | Connect a GitHub organization, nscloud label |
Why teams choose NoMac CI
- ✓A quarter of the price: $0.90 an hour, against $3.60 for an hour of the 6 vCPU macOS shape on plan minutes.
- ✓No plan, no unit minutes and no multiplier to work out: $0.90 an hour per job, billed per minute from credit that never expires.
- ✓Jobs up to 6 hours on every account, where Namespace's Developer plan stops them at 3.
- ✓One line to switch: runs-on: nomac instead of an nscloud label.
- ✓A fresh VM for every job, deleted when it ends.
The verdict
Namespace sells fast runners through plans and unit minutes, at $3.60 an hour for its 6 vCPU Mac. NoMac CI charges a quarter of that, with jobs up to 6 hours on every account.
Switch in one line
Connect GitHub once, then point your macOS jobs at NoMac:
jobs:
test:
- runs-on: nscloud-macos-tahoe-arm64-6x14
+ 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 Namespace 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.