Depot
79/100The best pick when Docker image builds are the slow part, with Actions runners in the same plan.
Who it suits
Teams whose pipelines are dominated by container builds, and teams that want runners deployable in their own AWS account.
Who should avoid it
You want pure pay-as-you-go with no plan fee, or your slow part is the test suite rather than the image build.
| Criterion (weight) | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Pipeline speed (20%) | ●●●●● | Large runners and builders with persistent cache; the biggest gains are on Docker builds. |
| Caching (10%) | ●●●●● | Persistent cache disks for container builds, a faster Actions cache and a registry with pull-through cache. |
| Parallelism (10%) | ●●●●● | Unlimited concurrency on every plan, but splitting tests is still your matrix. |
| Hosting model (10%) | ●●●●● | Managed in US and EU regions; Business can deploy in your AWS account. Linux, Windows and macOS runners. |
| Pricing transparency (10%) | ●●●●● | Plan prices, included minutes and overage rates are all on the pricing page, with usage caps. |
| Migration effort (15%) | ●●●●● | Runners are a runs-on change; moving image builds or onto Depot CI takes more work. |
| Ecosystem (10%) | ●●●●● | Keeps the GitHub Actions marketplace; integrations such as Datadog CI Visibility listed. |
| Fit for agent-written changes (15%) | ●●●●● | Sells sandboxes and managed agents alongside CI, but CI itself still runs everything on every change. |
Strengths
- Container builds on large builders with persistent cache, which is where it is strongest
- GitHub Actions runners from 2 to 64 vCPUs, Intel or Arm, plus Linux, Windows and macOS
- Business plan can deploy in your own AWS account, with static IPs and PrivateLink
- Clear plan allowances and published overage rates
Limits
- Plans start at $20 a month for one user; the team plan is $200 a month
- Depot CI, its own CI that runs GitHub Actions workflows, is a newer product than its runners
- Like other runner swaps, every change still runs the full suite unless you add selection yourself
- SSO is extra on Startup and audit logging is Business-only
Cost
Developer $20/month (1 user, 2,000 Actions minutes); Startup $200/month (20,000 minutes); extra Actions minutes $0.006 on a 2-vCPU Linux runner; Business is custom. As published on Depot’s pricing page; check there before you budget.
Verdict
Depot is the strongest choice when building container images is what you wait on: its builders keep their cache between runs, and the same plan gives you GitHub Actions runners from 2 to 64 vCPUs. The Business plan's option to deploy in your own AWS account makes it one of the few accelerators that suits teams with data-residency rules. It sits just under Blacksmith on this ranking because its plans carry a monthly fee and seat limits, and just under Graphide CI because each change still runs the whole suite.