Azure Pipelines Agent
A self-hosted Azure DevOps agent from Microsoft’s official recipe - $13/month vs $40/month per hosted parallel job.
One-click deploy, from $13/mo on a Miget plan.
Azure DevOps prices CI by the parallel job: $40/month per Microsoft-hosted pipeline, $15/month per additional self-hosted one - and the free grant for new organizations currently requires a request form. Bringing your own agent is the documented, encouraged escape hatch.
Microsoft ships no agent container image; their docs provide a Dockerfile recipe instead - which is exactly what this template packages. On first boot the agent downloads itself from your organization, registers into the pool with your PAT, and starts taking jobs; on shutdown it deregisters cleanly.
Script, checkout, and task steps run in-container. The usual platform note applies: no Docker daemon, so container jobs and Docker tasks stay on hosted agents or switch to rootless builders.
Upstream project: Azure Pipelines agent
#what you get
- Built from Microsoft’s official Dockerfile recipe - no third-party image
- Auto-registers on boot, deregisters on shutdown (--replace safe)
- Pool-based targeting: pool: Default in your YAML
- Service-principal auth supported upstream if PATs are banned
- Extend the Dockerfile with your toolchains
- Unlimited minutes - the plan is the bill
#topology
| Service | Role | Public |
|---|---|---|
| agent | Azure Pipelines agent, outbound to dev.azure.com | no - no ingress needed |
#miget sizing
// this stack needs
2 GiB RAM · 5 GB disk · 1 service
The agent idles light; .NET and Java builds are the RAM consumers. One agent = one parallel job - add replicas (each with a distinct AZP_AGENT_NAME via prefix) for concurrency.
Hobby - recommended fit
$13/mo
1 vCPU · 2 GiB · 50 GiB disk
Headroom for your own apps: 2 GiB at $19/mo
Professional - production
$22/mo
1 vCPU · 2 GiB · 10 GiB disk
Dedicated resources, production SLOs - plan details
One Miget plan is a fixed pool of compute - the whole stack (managed databases included) deploys inside it, and anything left over runs your other apps. No per-service or per-seat math.
#vs. the managed service
What the hosted equivalents charge, against the flat Miget plan this stack fits on. Prices as of June 2026, sources linked.
| Service | Plan | Monthly | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure Pipelines Agent on Miget ★ | 2 GiB plan | $13 | this whole stack, flat - no usage meters, and room left for your own apps |
| Azure Pipelines | Microsoft-hosted | ~$40 | per parallel job per month; self-hosted parallel jobs $15/mo each (first free) |
#vs. other PaaS
Estimated monthly cost of running this exact stack (2 GiB RAM, 5 GB disk, 1 container) elsewhere, from published June 2026 rates.
| Platform | Est. monthly | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Miget ★ | $13 flat | compose stacks first-class: one deploy, dedicated vCPU, managed Postgres/Valkey, volumes and TLS all included in the plan |
| Heroku | ~$100 | no volumes; nothing between 1 GB ($50) and 2.5 GB ($250) dynos - 2 GB containers cost far more than shown |
| DO App Platform | ~$29 | no persistent volumes - stateful containers need managed DBs/Spaces (base $5 Spaces included here) |
| Render | ~$26 | per-service instances (0.5 GB $7, 2 GB $25) - every container is its own paid service |
| Railway | ~$21 | usage-based ($10/GB RAM-mo); vCPU billed separately at $20/vCPU-mo on top |
| Fly.io | ~$13 | cheapest sticker price - but burstable shared CPUs (1/16 core; dedicated vCPUs cost ~2-3×), no compose deploys (one app per container, manual wiring), managed DBs billed extra |
Estimates assume RAM fully allocated at published on-demand rates - and sticker price isn't the whole comparison: the cheaper rows buy burstable shared CPUs, per-service wiring instead of a compose deploy, and managed databases billed separately. Heroku and DO App Platform have no persistent volumes at all - stateful stacks like this one need workarounds there.
#deploy it
On Miget
- Create a Compose Stack in app.miget.com pointing at the templates repository
- Set the stack path to
azp-agent -
Set the required variables:
AZP_URL, https://dev.azure.com/your-orgAZP_TOKEN, PAT with Agent Pools (read, manage) scope
- Deploy. Miget layers
compose.miget.yaml(RAM, privacy, volumes, managed services) automatically
Locally first?
Every template is portable, vanilla Docker Compose - the Miget overrides are ignored locally:
git clone https://github.com/deployable-sh/stacks
cd miget-compose-templates/azp-agent
docker compose up -dSame files, same behavior. The template README covers connection strings and scaling notes.
#faq
What does this replace, cost-wise?
Each Microsoft-hosted parallel job is $40/month; each extra self-hosted parallel job license is $15/month (the first is free). The agent’s compute here rides the same flat plan as the rest of your stack - so a second and third pipeline cost license fees only, not VM bills.
Why is there no official agent image?
Microsoft deliberately documents a build-your-own Dockerfile (the agent version-locks to your org and updates itself). This template is that recipe, faithfully: ubuntu:24.04, the documented start.sh flow, non-root agent user, clean deregistration trap.
Do classic and YAML pipelines both work?
Yes - the agent is the same for both. Target it via the agent pool. Container jobs and Docker@2-style tasks need a daemon this platform does not expose; everything script- and task-based runs normally.
Ship Azure Pipelines Agent today
One compose stack, 2 GiB of RAM, from $13/month flat, and it runs on your laptop with the same files.