Developer Tools · pricing
Blacksmith pricing
Blacksmith publishes 5 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.
- Entry price
- Free, then $0.004/minute
- Model
- Not recorded
- Tiers
- 5
- Free tier
- Yes
Blacksmith plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu ARM | $0.0025/minute | 5 | Entry tier |
| Ubuntu x64 | $0.004/minute | 5 | +$0.0015/minute, 1 more feature |
| Windows x64 | $0.008/minute | 5 | +$0.004/minute, 1 more feature |
| macOS M4 | $0.08/minute | 5 | +$0.07200000000000001/minute, 1 more feature |
| Enterprise | On request | 6 | Priced on request |
What each tier adds
The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.
Ubuntu ARM
$0.0025/minuteThe entry tier. It covers 3,000 free minutes per month, 2x faster hardware, 4x faster cache downloads, github actions observability, 75% savings vs github.
Ubuntu x64
$0.004/minuteOver Ubuntu ARM, this tier adds:
- 67% savings vs GitHub
Windows x64
$0.008/minuteOver Ubuntu x64, this tier adds:
- 60% savings vs GitHub
macOS M4
$0.08/minuteOver Windows x64, this tier adds:
- 35% savings vs GitHub
Enterprise
On requestOver macOS M4, this tier adds:
- Custom pricing
- 99.9% SLA
- 24/7 priority support
- Dedicated Slack channel
- White-glove onboarding
- CI optimization support
What the product covers
The full Blacksmith feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Core
- Bare metal runners
- Multiple OS support
- ARM support
- Docker layer caching
- Sticky disks
- GitHub Actions observability
- Free tier
- Static IPs
People bring Blacksmith in for replacing github actions runners with faster, cheaper infrastructure, accelerating ci build times for organizations with heavy ci load, reducing cloud spend on github actions by 60% or more, supporting arm architecture builds without github runners. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to Blacksmith are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Developer Tools
Across the 3 developer tools tools in this directory that publish a starting price, the median entry point is $29/month. Blacksmith starts at $0.004/minute, which puts it below the middle of its category.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blacksmith (this page) | Free, then $0.004/minute | - | - | |
| Swagger UI | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs Blacksmith |
| Namespace | Free, then $100/month | - | - | vs Blacksmith |
| Bazel | Free | open-source | - | vs Blacksmith |
| Earthly | Free | No pricing published on website | - | vs Blacksmith |
| Depot | Free, then $20/month | - | - | vs Blacksmith |
| Nx Cloud | Free, then $29/month | credits-based | - | vs Blacksmith |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the Blacksmith badges page.
Before you pay for Blacksmith
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 5 tiers between $0.0025/minute and On request, with the jump itemised above. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.
Blacksmith runs on github actions, linux, windows, macos, and is published by Blacksmith. The full record is on the Blacksmith review, and the rest of the category is under best developer tools tools.
Blacksmith pricing questions
- How much does Blacksmith cost?
- Blacksmith publishes 5 tiers, from $0.0025/minute for Ubuntu ARM up to On request for Enterprise. The entry tier costs nothing.
- Does Blacksmith have a free plan?
- Yes, Blacksmith is recorded as free, so it can be used without paying.
- What is the difference between Ubuntu ARM and Ubuntu x64 on Blacksmith?
- Ubuntu x64 costs $0.004/minute against $0.0025/minute, and adds 67% savings vs github.
- Is the Enterprise plan on Blacksmith worth it?
- That depends entirely on whether you need what it adds, which on the published record is custom pricing, 99.9% sla, 24/7 priority support, dedicated slack channel. It costs On request against $0.0025/minute for Ubuntu ARM. Softwr has not used either tier, so this page can tell you what changes, not whether it is worth the difference to you.
- Is Blacksmith expensive for a developer tools tool?
- It starts below the middle of its category. Across the 3 developer tools tools in this directory that publish a starting price, the median entry point is $29/month; Blacksmith starts at $0.004/minute.
- Which developer tools tools can I use without paying?
- 8 of the 8 developer tools tools listed alongside Blacksmith have a free tier: Swagger UI, Namespace, Bazel, Earthly, Depot.
- What am I actually paying for with Blacksmith?
- The record lists 8 features across 1 area: core. In practice it is brought in for replacing github actions runners with faster, cheaper infrastructure, accelerating ci build times for organizations with heavy ci load, reducing cloud spend on github actions by 60% or more.
- Does Blacksmith charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 5 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these Blacksmith prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare Blacksmith against before paying?
- The closest developer tools tools in this directory are Swagger UI, Namespace, Bazel, Earthly. Each has a side-by-side comparison with Blacksmith covering price, platforms and features.