Bitbucket Runners Comparison
Platform Notice: Cloud Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the cloud platform.
Summary
Bitbucket Pipelines offer users the choice between running their builds on cloud runners, which are hosted on Atlassian's infrastructure, or self-hosted runners, which utilize the user's own infrastructure.
The available self-hosted runners also offer extensive coverage across various architectures and platforms, including MacOS, Windows, Linux Docker, and Linux Shell.
This article aims to be a comprehensive comparison of the characteristics and key feature differences between cloud runners and each type of self-hosted runner. With this knowledge, you should be well-equipped to make the optimal choice for your specific use case in Pipelines.
Solution
Environment
Bitbucket Pipelines
Comparison
The tables below include a comparison of architecture, setup/configuration, and key features included in each type of runners along with their limitations:
Architecture:
Cloud Runner | Self-Hosted Runner | Self-Hosted Runner | Self-Hosted Runner | Self-Hosted Runner | Self-Hosted Runner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Architecture | Linux Docker | Linux Docker | Linux Shell | Windows | MacOS | Linux Docker ARM64 Beta |
Infrastructure | Atlassian infrastructure | User’s own infrastructure | User’s own infrastructure | User’s own infrastructure | User’s own infrastructure | User’s own infrastructure |
Runtime | Docker | Docker | Shell | Powershell | Shell | Docker ARM64 |
Runner's host operational system | N/A | Linux - 64-bit instance with at least 8GB of RAM | Linux - 64-bit instance with at least 8GB of RAM | Windows - 64-bit Windows 10+ or Windows Server 2019+ instance with at least 8GB of RAM | MacOS - 64-bit instance with at least 8GB of RAM | Linux/MacOS ARM64 - 64-bit instance with at least 8GB of RAM |
Setup/Config :
Cloud Runner | Self-Hosted Runner | Self-Hosted Runner | Self-Hosted Runner | Self-Hosted Runner | Self-Hosted Runner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Setup/Config | Linux Docker | Linux Docker | Linux Shell | Windows | MacOS | Linux Docker ARM64 Beta |
Build minutes | Build minutes will be charged from your workspace subscription | You won’t be charged for the build minutes | You won’t be charged for the build minutes | You won’t be charged for the build minutes | You won’t be charged for the build minutes | You won’t be charged for the build minutes |
Pre-requisites | N/A | Linux with ARM architecture and a Linux kernel v4.0.0+ Docker v19.03 and above - Install Docker | ||||
Setup Steps | N/A | Beta |
Feature set :
Cloud Runner | Self-Hosted Runner | Self-Hosted Runner | Self-Hosted Runner | Self-Hosted Runner | Self-Hosted Runner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Feature | Linux Docker | Linux Docker | Linux Shell | Windows | MacOS | Linux Docker ARM64 Beta |
|
ℹ️ Usage of build minutes is based on the step size |
| ℹ️ There is no restriction on memory usage for this runner (limited to the runner’s host resources) | ℹ️ There is no restriction on memory usage for this runner (limited to the runner’s host resources) | ℹ️ There is no restriction on memory usage for this runner (limited to the runner’s host resources) |
|
✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | |
✅ | ✅ | ✅ ⚠️ Docker and the Pipelines pre-defined Docker cache are not supported | ✅ ⚠️ Docker and the Pipelines pre-defined Docker cache are not supported | ✅ ⚠️ Docker and the Pipelines pre-defined Docker cache are not supported | ✅ | |
✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | |
✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | |
✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | |
✅ | ✅ | ✅ ⚠️ Git LFS needs to be installed in the host machine | ✅ ⚠️ Git LFS needs to be installed in the host machine | ✅ ⚠️ Git LFS needs to be installed in the host machine | ✅ | |
✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | |
❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | |
✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
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