Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

GitHub Follow Bot VS RunsOn

Compare GitHub Follow Bot VS RunsOn and see what are their differences

GitHub Follow Bot logo GitHub Follow Bot

Open-source follow and unfollow GitHub bot

RunsOn logo RunsOn

Access the fastest and cheapest self-hosted runners on the market with a one-line change. Easily installable in your own AWS account. x64 and arm64 architectures supported.
  • GitHub Follow Bot Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-09
  • RunsOn 10x cheaper GitHub Action runners
    10x cheaper GitHub Action runners //
    2024-01-23
  • RunsOn Cheaper AND faster than BuildJet / Warpbuild / GitHub
    Cheaper AND faster than BuildJet / Warpbuild / GitHub //
    2024-01-23

Cheap runners are just one part of the equation: nobody likes slow runs, even if it's cheap.

RunsOn gives you access to some of the fastest machines on the market, thanks to AWS extensive hardware selection.

Which makes RunsOn the fastest provider of self-hosted, fully ephemeral runners on the market.

We automatically build and publish copies of the official runner images at most 24h after their official release, so that you can be certain that your workflows will always work on either GitHub runners, or your own RunsOn runners.

GitHub Follow Bot

Website
github.com
Pricing URL
-
$ Details
-
Platforms
-
Release Date
-
Categories

RunsOn

$ Details
freemium โ‚ฌ300.0 / Annually
Platforms
AWS GitHub
Release Date
2024 January

GitHub Follow Bot features and specs

  • Increased Visibility
    By following multiple users, there is a chance that some users will check out your GitHub profile, thereby increasing your visibility in the GitHub community.
  • Discover New Projects
    Following a variety of GitHub users can help you discover new and interesting projects that you might not have come across otherwise.
  • Network Expansion
    Helps build a larger network of developers and contributors, potentially opening up collaboration opportunities.
  • Automation Convenience
    The bot automates the process of following users, which saves time compared to manually following people on GitHub.

Possible disadvantages of GitHub Follow Bot

  • Violation of GitHub's Terms of Service
    Automated bots may violate GitHubโ€™s policies, leading to possible suspension or banning of your account.
  • Low Engagement Quality
    Following a large number of users might not lead to meaningful interactions or engagement, reducing the quality of your network.
  • Potential for Spam
    Mass following can be perceived as spammy behavior by others in the GitHub community, potentially damaging your reputation.
  • Security Risks
    Using third-party scripts or bots can pose a security risk, especially if the source code has not been thoroughly vetted.

RunsOn features and specs

  • Ephemeral self-hosted runners
  • Autoscaling
  • Pricing
    10x cheaper than competition

Analysis of GitHub Follow Bot

Overall verdict

  • GitHub Follow Bot services that automate following users to gain followers are generally not recommended, as they violate GitHub's Terms of Service and can lead to account suspension while providing little genuine value.

Why this product is good

  • Automated following can violate GitHub's Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policies, risking account restriction or permanent ban
  • Followers gained through bots are typically low-quality and not genuinely interested in your work or projects
  • Real professional reputation on GitHub comes from meaningful contributions, quality repositories, and authentic community engagement
  • Bots can compromise your account security if they require access tokens or credentials
  • Inflated follower counts can damage your credibility with recruiters and collaborators who value authentic activity

Recommended for

  • No legitimate use case is genuinely recommended, as authentic engagement is far more valuable
  • Those seeking to grow their GitHub presence should instead focus on open-source contributions, documentation, and networking
  • Developers wanting visibility are better served by writing quality code and engaging honestly with the community

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GitHub Follow Bot and RunsOn)
GitHub
38 38%
62% 62
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Followers
100 100%
0% 0
Bot
100 100%
0% 0

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing GitHub Follow Bot and RunsOn.

What makes your product unique?

RunsOn's answer:

10x cheaper than GitHub official runners. Runs in your own AWS account. More secure than sharing your secrets with other third-party tools like BuildJet or Warpbuild.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

RunsOn's answer:

Cheap, fast, on-premise alternative to maintaining self-hosted runners.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

RunsOn's answer:

CTO / Senior developers

What's the story behind your product?

RunsOn's answer:

Built a similar product for one of my clients, reduced CI build cost by 10 times, and improve build speed from 1h to 20min.

User comments

Share your experience with using GitHub Follow Bot and RunsOn. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, RunsOn seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 12 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

GitHub Follow Bot mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of GitHub Follow Bot yet. Tracking of GitHub Follow Bot recommendations started around Mar 2022.

RunsOn mentions (12)

  • GitHub Is Experiencing Difficulties
    > they really aren't cheap if you compare to hosting it yourself Our company has been using https://runs-on.com/ for larger runners and it is significantly cheaper. Equivalent On-demand AWS instances have similar per-minute pricing but AWS instances are generally faster, and moreso when using the S3 cache. The instances are more configurable than Github's runners so you can optimize for costs that way as well. If... - Source: Hacker News / 9 days ago
  • Surprise Pay $1000
    If you want a 'fixed' cost option for GitHub self hosted runners on your AWS I can't recommend https://runs-on.com/ enough. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • GitHub Actions down again today
    There are a couple and have very good reputation - though I've never used them https://www.blacksmith.sh/ They also say that they're much cheaper than github. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • GitHub Actions is the weakest link
    My team has been using https://runs-on.com/ for AWS instance runners, had a few glitches but largely been great for using AWS instances for runners. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • GitHub Actions Is Slowly Killing Your Engineering Team
    > You know how I know GitHubโ€™s runners are bad? Because thereโ€™s an entire cottage industry of companies whose sole product is โ€œGitHub Actions, but the runners donโ€™t suck.โ€ Namespace, Blacksmith, Actuated, Runs-on, BuildJet He's not wrong. Buildjet just announced they were shutting down though, citing recent improvements to the GitHub Actions platform. For the record I maintain the Runs-on [1] he's talking about,... - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing GitHub Follow Bot and RunsOn, you can also consider the following products