# SuperCI vs Actions Runner Controller (ARC)

ARC is GitHub's own, and the right choice when you already run Kubernetes. SuperCI needs no cluster: it starts a machine for each job and nothing runs in between.

Sources read on October 9, 2026.

[Actions Runner Controller](https://github.com/actions/actions-runner-controller) (ARC) is, in its own words, "a Kubernetes operator that orchestrates and scales self-hosted runners for GitHub Actions". GitHub calls it its recommended Kubernetes-based way to autoscale runners. SuperCI does the same work without a cluster: it starts a machine in your cloud account for each job.

## Side by side

| What | SuperCI | Actions Runner Controller |
| --- | --- | --- |
| You need | An AWS, Cloudflare or Modal account | A Kubernetes cluster and Helm 3 |
| A job runs in | A machine of its own | A pod in your cluster |
| Between jobs | A small function waits | A controller and a listener for each set of runners, and whatever nodes your cluster keeps |
| One job per runner | Yes | Yes |
| Docker in a job | There, on AWS and Cloudflare | Docker-in-Docker in privileged mode, or Kubernetes mode with limits |
| Works with | GitHub Actions and GitLab CI | GitHub Actions |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Help from | The repository | GitHub Support, for the current version |

## What ARC asks of you

ARC is installed with two Helm charts: the controller, then a set of runners. After that it is yours to run, with the cluster under it. GitHub's support page says so plainly:

> To ensure a smooth adoption of Actions Runner Controller, we recommend that organizations have staff with expert-level knowledge of container orchestration.

It also lists what its support does not cover: the cluster itself, networking, building images in ARC, storage.

Jobs that use containers need a choice. In Docker-in-Docker mode, "the Docker-in-Docker container requires privileged mode". In Kubernetes mode each job needs a job container, and building a container action from a Dockerfile is not supported.

GitHub also recommends against sharing the cluster: "using a shared Kubernetes cluster for production workloads could pose a security risk".

## What SuperCI does instead

There is no cluster. A small control plane in your account (on AWS, a Lambda function) hears from GitHub that a job is queued, starts a machine of the size the job's label asks for, and ends it when the job is done. On AWS that machine is a whole virtual machine with Docker on it, so container jobs, services and `docker build` work as they do on GitHub's own runners.

Nothing but that function runs between jobs, so an idle day costs close to nothing.

## Where ARC is the better choice

- **You already run Kubernetes** and have people who know it. Then runners are one more workload, scheduled and observed like the rest.
- **You want GitHub behind it.** ARC is developed with the GitHub Actions team, and GitHub Support covers its current version.
- **Jobs must run inside the cluster,** beside the services they test or deploy to.

Pick SuperCI if you do not want a cluster to look after for the sake of CI, if you want a fresh virtual machine for each job, or if you also run GitLab CI.

## Sources

Read on 9 October 2026.

- [About Actions Runner Controller](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/concepts/runners/actions-runner-controller): what it is, pods, runners that take one job, the listener.
- [Quickstart for Actions Runner Controller](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/tutorials/use-actions-runner-controller/get-started): what you need, and the two Helm installs.
- [About support for Actions Runner Controller](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/concepts/runners/support-for-arc): the staff it recommends, and what GitHub Support covers.
- [Deploying runner scale sets](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/how-tos/manage-runners/use-actions-runner-controller/deploy-runner-scale-sets): the container modes and their limits, and the advice on shared clusters.
- [Runner container hooks for Kubernetes](https://github.com/actions/runner-container-hooks/blob/main/packages/k8s/README.md): what Kubernetes mode does not support.
- [Self-hosted runners reference](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/runners/self-hosted-runners): ARC as GitHub's recommended Kubernetes-based way.
- [actions/actions-runner-controller](https://github.com/actions/actions-runner-controller): the licence and who maintains it.