# Drone vs Semaphore

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Semaphore

| Attribute | Drone | Semaphore |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 52.8 (19% (low)) | 68.4 (71% (medium)) |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Self-service continuous integration platform for automating software build and testing with Docker-containerized pipelines. | An all-in-one continuous integration and delivery system that enables teams to automate testing and deployment workflows. It supports containerized and cloud-native architectures and can be deployed as a managed cloud service or self-hosted. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"both","marketplace":true,"yaml_pipelines":true,"container_native":true,"secrets_management":true,"deploy_environments":true,"self_hosted_runners":true}` | `{"matrix_builds":true,"yaml_pipelines":true,"container_native":true,"self_hosted_runners":true}` |
| integrations.count | 6 | 1 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"GitHub"},{"name":"GitHub Enterprise"},{"name":"Bitbucket"},{"name":"GitLab"},{"name":"Docker"},{"name":"MySQL"}]` | `[{"name":"Flowdock"}]` |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"web":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"free","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.drone.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T18:17:03.047Z"}` | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Compute - Ubuntu ARM","summary":"$0.003–$0.012/min depending on vCPU","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"minute"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.003,"currency":"USD","specification":"2vCPU"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"minute"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.006,"currency":"USD","specification":"4vCPU"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"minute"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.012,"currency":"USD","specification":"8vCPU"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"concurrent_jobs":"20 by default"}},{"free":false,"name":"Compute - Ubuntu x64","summary":"$0.0075–$0.015/min depending on vCPU","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"minute"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.0075,"currency":"USD","specification":"2vCPU"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"minute"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.015,"currency":"USD","specification":"4vCPU"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"concurrent_jobs":"20 by default"}},{"free":false,"name":"Compute - MacOS","summary":"$0.09/min","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"minute"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.09,"currency":"USD","specification":"4vCPU"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"concurrent_jobs":"20 by default"}},{"free":false,"name":"Compute - Self-Hosted","summary":"$0.0025/min","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"minute"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.0025,"currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"concurrent_jobs":"contact for limits"}}],"addOns":[{"name":"Dedicated Cache Server","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":400,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Private Docker Registry","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":400,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Support - Basic","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":50,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Support - Priority Response","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":250,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Support - SLA Standard","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":500,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Support - SLA Premium","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":750,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Success - Visibility","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":125,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Success - Performance","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":300,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Success - Scale","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":1000,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Success - Alliance","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":2000,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Engineering Access","components":[{"kind":"one_time","amount":900,"currency":"USD"},{"kind":"one_time","amount":1250,"currency":"USD"},{"kind":"one_time","amount":2000,"currency":"USD"}]}],"summary":"Pay-per-minute metered compute: $0.0025/min (self-hosted) to $0.09/min (MacOS). Includes 20 concurrent jobs, $15/month free credits, 9.6 GB cache, and free support. Optional modular support and success services.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://semaphore.io/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-03T20:21:00.253Z","startingPrice":{"amount":0.0025,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month","year"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | free | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | - | yes |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.iso27001 | - | yes |
| security.pci | - | yes |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |

## Capabilities (CI/CD Tools)

| Capability | Drone | Semaphore |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | 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 2026-09-01T14:36:53.483Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*