Comparisons

Tenki vs Depot

How Tenki and Depot compare on price, performance, free tier, macOS support, and migration.

Tenki vs Depot: at a glance

Tenki and Depot both offer faster-than-GitHub CI infrastructure, but solve slightly different problems. Tenki is a full drop-in replacement for GitHub-hosted runners built on bare-metal x64 and Apple Silicon M4 Pro hardware, priced at $0.004 per minute for a 2 vCPU / 4 GB standard runner, with $10 in free credit per month for every workspace. Depot began as a faster Docker-image builder with distributed remote caching and later added GitHub Actions runners; its focus remains Docker-first workflows and build caching.

This page summarises the practical differences so you can choose the right tool for your workload.

How we compared

  • Sources: Tenki numbers come from this site's product, pricing, and docs pages. Depot numbers come from depot.dev/pricing, depot.dev/products/github-actions, and Depot's public documentation, captured on the "Last updated" date shown above the table of contents.
  • Pricing: we cite Tenki's standard 2 vCPU / 4 GB Linux per-minute rate verbatim. Where Depot's pricing depends on profile selection, we link to Depot's pricing page rather than restating a number that may differ across plans.
  • Performance: this page does not run head-to-head perf benchmarks. Tenki's runner numbers are documented separately in Why Tenki with full methodology (hardware, baseline, cache state, sample size). Depot's performance claims are restated from Depot's marketing copy where cited.
  • Updates: we re-verify Depot's pricing and product scope each quarter and on every update to this page. Changes are visible via the dateModified shown above and in this repository's git history.

Quick comparison

DimensionTenkiDepot
Core productFull GitHub Actions runner replacementRemote Docker build cache + GitHub Actions runners
HardwareBare-metal x64 and Apple Silicon M4 ProAWS bare-metal / EC2
Standard runner price$0.004/min (2 vCPU / 4 GB Linux)See depot.dev/pricing
Free tier$10 in free credit per month, renewed monthlySee Depot's current free-tier terms
macOS runnersApple M4 Pro bare-metalLinux-first; check availability
IsolationEphemeral Firecracker microVM per jobBuild-sandbox per job
Primary pitchFull workflow replacement with bare-metal perfFastest Docker builds with shared remote cache
Migration effortOne-line runs-on changeOne-line runs-on change (for runners); separate setup for build cache
AI code reviewIncluded product (Tenki Code Reviewer)Not offered

When to choose Tenki

  • You want to replace GitHub-hosted runners wholesale with bare-metal capacity.
  • You need macOS runners (M4 Pro) alongside Linux and Windows.
  • You care about Firecracker-level isolation between jobs.
  • You want AI-powered pull-request review as part of the same product.
  • You want $10 in free credit every month to evaluate.

When to choose Depot

  • Docker image builds are your bottleneck and you want an optimised remote build cache.
  • You're already invested in Depot's caching layer and want to consolidate runners with it.
  • You need AWS-hosted runners for regulatory or data-gravity reasons.

Migration

Migrating to Tenki takes one line in your workflow YAML:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: tenki-standard-medium-4c-8g # was: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v5
      - run: ./scripts/build.sh

No other workflow changes are required. See the Runners Quickstart for the full walkthrough including the two-click Migration Wizard.

FAQ

Is Tenki cheaper than Depot?

On the standard 2 vCPU / 4 GB Linux profile, Tenki is $0.004 per minute. Depot's current pricing is published at depot.dev/pricing, compare the specific profile you run. Both are substantially cheaper than GitHub-hosted runners.

Can I use Tenki and Depot together?

Yes. Tenki's runners work with any third-party GitHub Action, including Depot's build-cache actions. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Does Tenki support macOS?

Yes. Tenki operates Apple M4 Pro bare-metal macOS runners for iOS, macOS, and cross-platform CI/CD workflows. Depot's macOS availability should be checked on its pricing page.

How does isolation differ?

Tenki runs every job in an ephemeral Firecracker microVM that is destroyed immediately after the job finishes, no persistent state between runs, no noisy-neighbor interference. Depot uses its own build-sandbox per job.

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