# Buildkite vs Semaphore CI

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Semaphore CI

| Attribute | Buildkite | Semaphore CI |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 59.1 (73% (medium)) | 68.3 (62% (medium)) |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A CI/CD platform providing flexible pipeline orchestration, automated test optimization, and supply chain security. Supports cloud-hosted and self-managed agents with built-in test analytics, package registries, and integrations across development tools. | Semaphore is a metered-pricing CI/CD platform offering cloud, hybrid, and self-hosted deployment options. Separates compute costs from support services, with transparent per-minute pricing starting at $0.0025/min for self-hosted. |
| features.capabilities | `{"caching":true,"hosting":"both","marketplace":true,"matrix_builds":true,"yaml_pipelines":true,"container_native":true,"secrets_management":true,"deploy_environments":true,"self_hosted_runners":true}` | `{"hosting":"both","matrix_builds":true,"yaml_pipelines":true,"container_native":true,"secrets_management":true,"deploy_environments":true,"self_hosted_runners":true}` |
| integrations.count | 35 | 2 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"GitHub"},{"name":"GitHub Enterprise"},{"name":"Bitbucket Server"},{"name":"AWS ECR"},{"name":"AWS S3"},{"name":"AWS CloudFormation"},{"name":"AWS IAM"},{"name":"AWS CloudWatch"},{"name":"Docker"},{"name":"Kubernetes"},{"name":"Jenkins"},{"name":"CircleCI"},{"name":"NPM"},{"name":"PyPI"},{"name":"RubyGems"},{"name":"Maven"},{"name":"Apt"},{"name":"RPM"},{"name":"Helm"},{"name":"Alpine"},{"name":"Jest"},{"name":"Mocha"},{"name":"Cypress"},{"name":"Playwright"},{"name":"Jasmine"},{"name":"Rspec"},{"name":"minitest"},{"name":"pytest"},{"name":"JUnit"},{"name":"Go"},{"name":"Rust"},{"name":".NET"},{"name":"Elixir"},{"name":"Swift"},{"name":"Android"}]` | `[{"name":"GitHub"},{"name":"Flowdock"}]` |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"AU","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"subscription","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Personal","summary":"Free forever","features":["3 concurrent jobs","1 user","90-day build retention","250 managed tests","50k test executions/month","Community support"],"minSeats":1,"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"For individual developers","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"users":"1","storage_gb":"1","managed_tests":"250","concurrent_jobs":"3","build_retention_days":"90","artifact_retention_days":"30","test_executions_monthly":"50k","linux_vcpu_minutes_monthly":"500"}},{"free":false,"name":"Pro","summary":"$30/active user/month","features":["Unlimited concurrent jobs","Unlimited users","All Linux and Mac M4 agent sizes","Cache volumes","Git mirror volumes","SSO","Priority email support"],"components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"active user","amount":30,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"For scaling teams","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"users":"unlimited","storage_gb":"20","managed_tests":"unlimited","concurrent_jobs":"unlimited","build_retention_days":"365","artifact_retention_days":"90","test_executions_monthly":"unlimited","mac_vcpu_minutes_monthly":"3000","linux_vcpu_minutes_monthly":"4000"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing, 30-user minimum","features":["SCIM/SAML/ADFS","Audit logs","Build exports","Pipeline templates","Premium support SLA"],"minSeats":30,"description":"For large organizations","contactSales":true}],"addOns":[{"name":"Additional agents","components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"agent","amount":3.5,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Managed tests (overage)","components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"managed test","amount":0.1,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]}],"summary":"Free tier available. Pro from $30/user/month. Enterprise custom pricing.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://buildkite.com/pricing/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T11:08:03.432Z","freeTrialDays":30,"startingPrice":{"amount":30,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Community Edition","description":"Free and open source under Apache 2.0 license for self-hosted deployment"},{"name":"Semaphore Cloud","description":"Hosted version with free and paid plans"},{"name":"Enterprise Edition","description":"Enhanced version with extra features for larger organizations, commercial license","contactSales":true}],"summary":"Free Community Edition (self-hosted, open source). Paid Semaphore Cloud and Enterprise Edition available.","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://semaphore.io/blog/2013/03/07/semaphore-pricing-update-with-higher-plans.html","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T20:44:47.174Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | mid | low |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.iso27001 | - | yes |
| security.pci | - | yes |
| security.soc2 | yes | yes |

## Capabilities (CI/CD Tools)

| Capability | Buildkite | Semaphore CI |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Cloud + self-hosted | Cloud + self-hosted |
| Self-hosted runners | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Core** |  |  |
| Config-as-code pipelines | ✓ | ✓ |
| Matrix / parallel builds | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Build** |  |  |
| Container-native builds | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Performance** |  |  |
| Build caching | ✓ | - |
| **Security** |  |  |
| Secrets management | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Delivery** |  |  |
| Deployment environments & approvals | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Ecosystem** |  |  |
| Reusable actions / marketplace | ✓ | - |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T17:31:44.251Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*