Different types of GitHub runners | GitHub runners various types | Self hosted vs GitHub Hosted runner

A self-hosted GitHub runner is a machine (physical or virtual) that you set up and manage to run GitHub Actions workflows. GitHub Actions is a CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) and automation service provided by GitHub. It allows you to define workflows in your GitHub repositories to automate build, test, and deployment processes. 

• GitHub-hosted runner
• Self-hosted runner
• Larger runner 
• ephemeral self-hosted runners (on-demand)

GitHub-hosted runners:

• These are runners provided by GitHub, and they are hosted on GitHub's infrastructure.
• GitHub provides various virtual machine configurations for different operating systems and environments.
• They are automatically scaled based on the demand, and you don't have to manage their infrastructure.
• GitHub-hosted runners have time and resource limitations, and you may need to consider these limitations based on your project's needs.

Self-hosted runners:

A self-hosted runner differs from the default GitHub-hosted runners in that it runs on infrastructure that you control. Self-hosted runners can be physical, virtual, in a container, on-premises, or in a cloud.

GitHub-hosted large runners:

GitHub offers customers on GitHub Team and GitHub Enterprise Cloud plans a range of managed virtual machines with more RAM, CPU, and disk space. These runners are hosted by GitHub and have the runner application and other tools preinstalled.

Ephemeral self-hosted runners:

GitHub Actions now supports ephemeral (i.e. single job) self-hosted runners to make autoscaling your runners easier. After a job is run, ephemeral runners are automatically unregistered from the service, allowing you to do any required post-job management. Ephemeral runners are a good choice for self-managed environments where you need each job to run on a clean image.