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Blacksmith
CI compute company from YC W24 that runs GitHub Actions jobs on faster bare-metal runners at a lower per-minute price, with Docker layer caching and CI analytics.
Engineering teams on GitHub Actions that want faster, cheaper CI without migrating pipelines or running their own runners.
Teams whose pipelines run on GitLab CI, CircleCI, or Jenkins, or companies that must keep CI compute inside their own cloud account.
Verdict
Blacksmith is worth using for GitHub Actions teams that want faster CI with almost no migration work. It suits startups and scale-ups whose CI bill and wait times are growing with AI-written code. Teams on other CI systems cannot use it as a drop-in.
Score Breakdown
How Blacksmith scores in the categories that matter to its buyers.
Pricing
Blacksmith publishes pay-as-you-go runner prices with 3,000 free minutes a month.
| Plan | Price | What stands out |
|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu x64 (2 vCPU) | $0.004 / minute | 3,000 free minutes a month; larger sizes scale with vCPU |
| Ubuntu ARM (2 vCPU) | $0.0025 / minute | 3,000 free minutes a month |
| Add-ons | $0.50 / GB / month | Docker layer caching and sticky disks; static IPs $100 per IP a month |
| Enterprise | Custom | 99.9% SLA, 24/7 priority support, dedicated Slack channel |
The Field at a Glance
How Blacksmith compares with other AI CI and build acceleration vendors we reviewed, by Overall Score and relative typical engagement cost.
Blacksmith scores 8.0 in AI CI and build acceleration, ahead of Depot (7.9), Namespace (7.9), and WarpBuild (7.8). Relative cost lands lower for this subcategory.
Use-case matrix
| Use case | Fit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub Actions speedup | Strong | Jobs run on faster bare-metal runners. |
| One-line migration | Strong | Teams change the runner label in workflows. |
| Docker layer caching | Strong | Cached layers cut image build time. |
| CI observability | Strong | Dashboards show slow and flaky jobs. |
| Windows and macOS runners | Mixed | Ubuntu runners are the core offer. |
| GitLab, CircleCI, Jenkins | Weak | Built for GitHub Actions. |
Who it’s for
Good fit
- GitHub Actions teams
- Startups with rising CI bills
- Platform engineers
Poor fit
- GitLab CI shops
- Jenkins-based enterprises
- Teams requiring in-account compute
Review Excerpts
Below are excerpts from public reviews. Our team scoured public reviews, forums, and chat rooms to get a balanced view of customers' experience with this company. Paid reviews and pay-for-play sites such as Clutch were excluded.
“Blacksmith was super easy to get started with. All we had to do was change a few lines of code, and boom, our CI was taking half the time it had been. Instant win.”
“Blacksmith was the clear choice for our CI. It delivered faster builds, lower costs, a great dashboard, and greater reliability than any other provider we tested, with responsive support when we needed it.”
Blacksmith runners plug into GitHub Actions, so teams whose pipelines run on GitLab CI, CircleCI, or Jenkins would have to move to GitHub Actions first.
Company Facts
- Founded
- 2024 (Y Combinator)
- Employees
- About 3 (Y Combinator)
- Accelerator
- Y Combinator, Winter 2024 batch (Y Combinator)
- Website
- blacksmith.sh
Key Leadership
Aditya Jayaprakash
Co-founder and CEO
Methodology
This page is an independent evaluation of Blacksmith for buyers comparing options in ai ci and build acceleration. AI Industry Reviews accepts no sponsorships, advertising, or pay-for-placement fees. Blacksmith did not pay for this review.
What we scored
The headline number is an Overall Score on a 0-10 scale. Eight criteria sit under it in two groups.
- Buyer outcomes (for ai ci and build acceleration)
- CI speed on GitHub Actions
- Drop-in migration
- Per-minute cost
- Non-GitHub CI systems
- Company & commercial
- Innovation & product leadership
- Project management & communication
- Pricing
- Contract fairness
Pricing measures whether the price looks fair for the value delivered, including packaging and renewal friction that show up in real buying cycles.
Score Composition
| Input | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 40% | A proprietary read of what practitioners say about likes, complaints, and day-to-day use, including public review sites, forums, and private chat rooms. Paid reviews and pay-for-play sites such as Clutch are out of scope. |
| Product | 35% | Hands-on look at screens and workflows. |
| Pricing | 15% | Whether the price looks fair for what you get. |
| Docs & training | 10% | Docs, tutorials, and training material. |
How we balanced the evidence
The Overall Score is the simple average of the eight criteria. Recommendation language follows that score and the fit pattern described above.
Scope
Blacksmith is graded here as ai ci and build acceleration. Criteria scores can move as more review volume and product checks are added.