Blacksmith vs WarpBuild Comparison - 2025 May
Blacksmith features, performance, pricing, and how it compares to WarpBuild.
Blacksmith provides Github Actions runners that you can start using by just changing one line in the Github actions workflow file. This post provides a detailed comparison between Blacksmith and WarpBuild to help you make an informed decision.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Blacksmith | WarpBuild | WarpBuild Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPUs | Server class (AMD EPYC, ARM Ampere) | x86-64 (Desktop Class Ryzen 7950X3D), arm64 (Graviton 4) | arm64: 40% more powerful but ~20% more expensive than Blacksmith; x86-64: same performance; Better networking, more disk options |
| Architecture | x86-64, arm64 | x86-64, arm64 | arm64: 40% more powerful but ~20% more expensive than Blacksmith; x86-64: same performance; Better networking, more disk options |
| Concurrency | Unlimited | Unlimited | |
| OS Support | Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04 only | Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04, MacOS 13/14/15 with M4 Pro, Windows Server 2022 | Latest Linux, MacOS, Windows, custom images through app |
| Caching | 25GB per repo | Unlimited; 7-day retention; Scales to 100+ jobs with no throttling | Unlimited storage, better scaling, container layer caching |
| Infrastructure | EU and US | Cloud (EU), BYOC (AWS, GCP, Azure any region) | Multiple providers/regions, reduced data transfer costs |
| Sticky Disks | Available | Not available | Cache stored on sticky disks is instantly available to runners, but concurrency is limited |
| Remote Docker Builder | Only x86-64 | x86-64 and arm64 multi-arch builds | Multi arch support for fast, native builds. |
| SSO support | Not available | SSO supported | SSO supported for Microsoft Entra ID, Google, Okta, Auth0, JumpCloud etc. |
| Static IPs | Available as paid feature | Available at no cost (BYOC only) | |
| Pricing | 50% of GitHub cost | x86-64: Same as Blacksmith; arm64: 40% more powerful, 20% more expensive | |
| Snapshots | Not available | Available | Save and restore runner state for persistence and incremental builds. Provides 10x improvement in build times by eliminating dependency installation time. |
| Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) | Not available | Available | Cloud-hosted control plane with runners in user's cloud account. Provides maximum flexibility, zero management overhead, and is 10x cheaper than Blacksmith. Users can leverage preferential pricing with their cloud providers. |
| Compliance | SOC2 Type2 | SOC2 Type2 | |
| Global Regions | Limited to EU and US | Cloud (EU), Support for 29+ regions globally (BYOC) | Minimizes data transfer costs, improves performance, and supports data residency regulations essential for sensitive workloads. |
| Configurable Disks | Fixed 80-160GB | Configurable sizes, IOPS, and throughput | Optimized for ML/AI workloads, large container builds, monorepos, game and mobile app development. |
| Advanced Dashboard | Richer dashboard | Rich dashboard | Blacksmith has more insights on metrics like cost saved, and analytics on cache usage. |
| Security | Bot requires read-write access to code and build logs. | Bot requires minimal permissions and no code or build logs access. | This is crucial for Enterprises and security conscious teams. |
Conclusion
Blacksmith provides fast Github Actions runners. WarpBuild provides equally fast x86-64 runners, and even faster arm64 runners.
For enterprises, WarpBuild delivers 10x faster builds with SSO, snapshots, multi-arch docker builder cloud. WarpBuild also provides BYOC for improved security and more customization at a fraction of the cost (~5x cheaper compared to Blacksmith).
Get Started Today
WarpBuild is committed to providing you with the tools you need to build faster, smarter, and more cost-effectively. Join us in this new era of development.
For detailed technical documentation, visit WarpBuild Docs. For any errors in this post, please contact us at [email protected].
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