We're re-evaluating our Semaphore CI setup. The main issue isn't functionality—it works—but the pricing model. As the team grows, the per-user seat cost is becoming prohibitive, and their concurrency tiers feel artificially constrained. We need more predictable scaling.
We've ruled out CircleCI (cost and complexity) and GitHub Actions (governance and hidden runtime costs are a concern for our scale). I'm looking for experiences with alternatives that offer:
* A clear, workload-based or credit-based pricing model, not primarily per-user.
* Strong support for Docker/K8s build environments.
* Comparable pipeline configuration clarity.
Primary candidates on my list to investigate are GitLab CI (if we treat it as a standalone CI tool) and Buildkite. Also considering Codefresh and possibly Harness, but their enterprise focus might be overkill.
Has anyone made a similar move off Semaphore? I'm less interested in feature checklists and more in:
* Actual total cost of ownership at ~50 developers.
* Pain points in migrating pipeline logic and secrets.
* Whether the promised pricing model held up under real scaling.
Your cloud bill is 30% too high