Mastering GitHub Actions: Step-by-Step Guide to Using a Self-Hosted Runner | by Jack Roper

In this article, we’ll show how to set up a self-hosted runner for use with GitHub Actions with a step-by-step guide you can follow along. We will discuss why you might want to use a self-hosted runner over a GitHub hosted runner, outlining the pros and cons. Let’s go! 💪

When you setup a GitHub Action, it needs a machine to run on. These are called runners. But GitHub provides hosted runners for use with GitHub Actions, so why host your own? 🤔

GitHub provides several types of hosted runners that you can use for your workflows…

1. Ubuntu Runners: Available in various versions like ubuntu-latest, ubuntu-24.04, ubuntu-22.04, and ubuntu-20.04.
2. Windows Runners: Available in versions like windows-latest, windows-2025 (public preview), windows-2022, and windows-2019.
3. macOS Runners: Available in versions like macos-latest, macos-14, macos-15 (public preview), and macos-13.
4. Larger Runners: For GitHub Team or GitHub Enterprise Cloud plan users, you can provision runners with more cores, or runners powered by a GPU or ARM processor.