Dagger vs Open Build Service
Dagger
dagger.ioOpen Build Service
openbuildservice.orgSide by side
| Figure | Dagger | Open Build Service |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $50/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 1 |
| Spec score · Container Build Tools | 8.5 (#6) | 8.3 (#9) |
| Purpose | Dagger provides a software stack for CI using a clean API, real code, and a portable DAG execution engine. | OBS automatically builds and distributes binary packages from source code in a consistent and reproducible way. |
| Self-hosting | Dagger documentation includes a self-hosting guide. | OBS can be installed on your hardware or in your data center, keeping the data under your control. |
Plans
In their own words
Dagger
Dagger is a software stack for continuous integration built around an API, executable code, and a portable DAG execution engine. Pipeline logic can run locally or in Dagger Cloud, with automatic caching and end-to-end tracing. Cloud Checks connect a GitHub repository to Dagger Cloud and run checks on Cloud Engines after events such as pushes or pull requests, without a CI workflow file. Official modules cover testing, linting, formatting, type checking, browser tests, and Helm chart validation, and can be extended in a user's preferred language. The CLI has installation instructions for macOS, Linux, and Windows, and the documentation includes a self-hosting guide. Individual is free and allows one user, 1,000,000 monthly events, one month of run history, and community support. Team costs $50 a month after a two-week trial, for up to 10 users, 10,000,000 monthly events, one year of run history, and email support. Enterprise pricing is custom; SSO and managed single-tenant deployment are contact items. The site links to security and compliance information.
Open Build Service
Open Build Service (OBS) builds and distributes binary packages from source code in a consistent, reproducible way. Each package is built in a fresh jailed environment; when a build succeeds, OBS rebuilds packages that depend on it. The service can release packages, updates, add-ons, appliances, and complete distributions for different operating systems and hardware architectures. Documented package formats include RPM, DEB, and Arch, with recipes in formats such as spec, dsc, KIWI, and mkosi. Teams can use access controls, branches, merge requests, and submission reviews to coordinate work. GitHub.com and GitLab.com integrations are supported, as are self-hosted GitHub, GitLab, and Gitea instances when network connectivity works. The API gives clients and external services access to OBS resources, while the osc command-line client can edit sources and metadata, start builds, and gather results. OBS is GPL-licensed free software, available on a reference server for open-source developers or for installation on users’ own hardware or in a data center. The listed plan is free.