#24 in Build & DeploymentUpdated 2026-08

Semaphore

by Semaphore · Open-source CI/CD billed per build minute, set up through a coding agent

48.3 — BenchRank score out of 100

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Pricing page

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Overview

Semaphore is a continuous integration and delivery platform that runs pipelines on hosted Ubuntu ARM, Ubuntu x64 and macOS machines, or on self-hosted ones. It is built to be set up and maintained by a coding agent: a CLI install lets the agent configure CI, run checks in a production-identical sandbox before a push, and flag slow or flaky steps. The source is open.

Best for: Teams wanting pay-per-minute CI/CD they can drive from a coding agent, with a self-host option
Pricing: Each organisation gets $15 of free credits a month, then pays per machine minute from $0.003/min (Ubuntu ARM 2 vCPU) up to $0.09/min (macOS 4 vCPU), with optional support plans from $50/month.
Runs on: WebSelf-hosted

Strengths and trade-offs

Strengths

Pay per build minute; $15 of free credits every month
Open source, self-hostable at $0.0025/min on any machine
No per-seat or per-user fees; 20 concurrent jobs by default
SOC 2 Type II, SAML SSO, role-based access and audit logs

Trade-offs

Support beyond basic setup help costs $50–$750/month on top of compute
Annual discount figures are not published; you must contact support
Dedicated cache and private Docker registry are $400/month each
Artifact egress over 20 GB/month is billed at $0.35/GB

Pricing

Published plans from Semaphore’s own pricing page, in USD. Usage charges and add-ons may apply on top.

Semaphore pricing tiers, monthly rates in USD
Plan	Monthly	Includes
Pay-as-you-go	—per machine minute	$15 free credits/month (~2,000 Ubuntu x64 2-vCPU minutes) Ubuntu ARM from $0.003/min; Ubuntu x64 from $0.0075/min; macOS $0.09/min Self-hosted agents $0.0025/min on any machine 20 concurrent jobs, 9.6 GB cache per project, 20 GB/month free artefact egress
Basic	$50per month (support add-on)	Email support Business hours (Mon–Fri, 7am–8pm UTC) No guaranteed response times
Priority Response	$250per month (support add-on)	Email and Slack Best-effort accelerated responses 24/5
SLA Standard	$500per month (support add-on)	Email, Slack and customer portal Guaranteed fast responses 24/5 SLA: P1 4h, P2 1 day, P3 3 days, P4 1 week
SLA Premium	$750per month (support add-on)	Email, Slack and customer portal Priority queue 24/5, optional 24/7 SLA: P1 1h, P2 2h, P3 1 day, P4 3 days
Visbility	$125per month (success add-on)	Annual optimisation session Quarterly group technical Q&A Shared new-feature demos
Performance	$300per month (success add-on)	Everything in Visbility, delivered privately Annual deep-dive technical issue session Guided onboarding for a new key contact
Scale	$1000per month (success add-on)	Everything in Performance, customised Annual business review and continuous account monitoring Customised team training and quarterly technical Q&A
Alliance	$2000per month (success add-on)	Everything in Scale, strategic and customised Roadmap discussion with product; project management of key issues Custom terms, security and risk reviews

How this score is made up

Each dimension is scored out of 100 and combined into the headline score using fixed weights.

MCP support: 0 out of 100
API quality: 10 out of 100
Documentation: 90 out of 100
Agent friendliness: 85 out of 100
Pricing transparency: 100 out of 100
Changelog: 0 out of 100
Marketing site structure: 75 out of 100
Operational trust: 60 out of 100

Measured, but not part of the score

Useful to know, but not a mark for or against the product — so these do not affect the ranking.

Openness: 85 out of 100
Maintenance: 100 out of 100

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