---
title: "9apes vs RunsOn - Managed Runners or Your Own AWS"
description: "A managed per-minute runner service compared against RunsOn, which runs in your own AWS account under an annual licence. Costs, operational burden, and isolation."
url: https://9apes.com/compare/runs-on/
---

# 9apes vs RunsOn - Managed Runners or Your Own AWS

These are different products for different teams. RunsOn is software you run in your own AWS account under a flat annual licence, paying Amazon directly for compute. Compare the licence, AWS usage, idle capacity, and operating effort with managed runner costs at your workload volume. 9apes is a managed service billed per minute with nothing to operate. Pick RunsOn if you want control and already run AWS well; pick 9apes if you want the runner to be somebody else's problem.

## Per-minute rates

RunsOn does not sell runner minutes, so there is no per-minute rate to line up against ours. Its annual licence is EUR 300 for fewer than 50,000 runners a month, EUR 900 for fewer than 200,000, EUR 1,800 for fewer than 500,000, and EUR 3,600 for unlimited runners. You also pay AWS directly for spot or on-demand instances, EBS volumes, and an S3 cache bucket in your own account. Compare the full licence, AWS usage, idle capacity, and operating effort against the managed service cost for the same successful workloads.

[RunsOn](https://runs-on.com/pricing/)

## Free minutes

- **9apes** — 3000 free runner minutes every month on every account, no card required.

- **RunsOn** — The licence is free for nonprofits, open-source projects, and personal noncommercial use. AWS infrastructure charges still apply. Commercial use starts at the annual licence fee.

## What each one covers

| Capability | 9apes | RunsOn |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Linux x86_64 runners | Yes | Yes |
| Linux ARM64 runners | On demand | Yes |
| Windows runners | On demand | Yes |
| macOS runners | On demand | No |
| Nothing to operate (RunsOn runs in your AWS account; you own the stack, the alerts, and the upgrades.) | Yes | No |
| No cloud account required | Yes | No |
| Billed per runner minute (RunsOn is an annual licence plus whatever AWS charges you.) | Yes | No |
| Recurring free monthly minutes | Yes | No |
| Code and cache stay in your own cloud account | No | Yes |
| One-line migration | Yes | Yes |
| Ephemeral Firecracker microVM per job | Yes | No |

**On demand** means the platform is not on the public 9apes label list, but the team will arrange it. Email support@9apes.com with your workflow, expected scale, and timing.

## When to choose RunsOn

- You already operate AWS and want CI compute billed directly by AWS. Compare spot capacity, licence fees, idle usage, and operations against a managed service at your expected volume.

- Compliance requires that build machines and cache live inside infrastructure you own and control, rather than a vendor's.

- You want ARM64 or Windows runners, or instance types no managed provider offers, and you are willing to operate the fleet to get them.

## Moving to 9apes

```yaml
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: 9apes
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm test
```

## Common questions

**Which is actually cheaper?**

Compare the full cost for your workload. RunsOn combines its annual licence with AWS compute, storage, networking, idle capacity, and infrastructure operations. 9apes combines billed runner minutes with its recurring allowance. Include all attempts and engineering effort, then compare cost per successful workflow at your expected volume.

**What is the real difference in effort?**

RunsOn is infrastructure you deploy and maintain in your own AWS account, including the cache bucket, networking, and upgrades. 9apes has nothing to deploy: install the GitHub App and change a label.

## Related pages

- [All runner comparisons](https://9apes.com/compare/)

- [9apes pricing](https://9apes.com/pricing/) — every label and rate

- [Quick Start](https://9apes.com/docs/quick-start/) — move your first job