Managed Mac Hosting vs Self-Managed: Count the Work
If your time is worth more than $59/hour, managed pays for itself
Figment's Managed Build Mac is $249/month. A self-managed M-series Mac on Figment starts at $95/month (exact chip, RAM and disk are confirmed in the quote). The managed premium is at least $154/month. At a routine 2.6 hours per month of CI maintenance, the plans break even at an effective admin rate of $59.23/hour. Above that rate, managed is cheaper on total cost; below it, self-managed is.
The rest of this page is the responsibility matrix, the admin-time worksheet, and the exact break-even arithmetic so you can substitute your own numbers.
What Figment's managed tier actually includes
The Managed Build Mac bundles one M-series Mac with CI setup, backups, monitoring, and 30 minutes of monthly support. The Managed Mac Team bundles two M-series Macs with two CI runners, team setup, backups, monitoring, and one hour of monthly support. Self-managed plans give you the machine and a browser console; you configure everything above the OS.
| Item | Self-managed ($29–$95+) | Managed Build ($249) | Managed Mac Team ($999) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mac included | request configuration quote | 1 M-series | 2 M-series |
| CI setup | you configure | Figment sets up | Figment sets up |
| CI runners | you configure | not included | 2 included |
| Backups | you configure | Figment manages | Figment manages |
| Monitoring and alerts | you configure | Figment monitors | Figment monitors |
| Included monthly support | — | 30 min | 60 min |
| Team environment setup | — | — | Figment sets up |
For reference, Mac Mini Vault's dedicated service states that the customer manages all software while the vendor maintains networking and hardware (Mac Mini Vault services). Figment's managed tiers move the software-layer work — CI setup, backups, monitoring — onto Figment, which is the specific difference you are paying for.
Responsibility matrix
Items marked F are Figment's responsibility; items marked C stay yours.
| Task | Self-managed | Managed Build | Managed Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data-centre hardware, power, network | F | F | F |
| Hardware swap on failure | F | F | F |
| macOS updates | C | F | F |
| Xcode and toolchain updates | C | F | F |
| CI pipeline initial setup | C | F | F |
| Build agent reconfiguration after updates | C | F | F |
| Backup configuration and verification | C | F | F |
| Monitoring and alert configuration | C | F | F |
| Signing certificates and private keys | C | C | C |
| Secrets and credentials | C | C | C |
| App Store Connect and provisioning profiles | C | C | C |
| Custom pipeline logic (scripts, jobs) | C | C | C |
Signing material and your App Store Connect account stay with you on every plan. The managed tier removes the infrastructure and toolchain maintenance layer, not your signing responsibility.
Admin-time worksheet
These are reasonable starting estimates for a single-machine CI setup. Measure your own numbers for one or two cycles and replace them.
| Recurring task | Frequency | Est. time each | Monthly minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| macOS point-update + reboot verify | 2–3/mo | 20 min | 50 |
| Xcode update + toolchain re-pin | 1–2/mo | 30 min | 45 |
| CI agent downtime investigation | ~1/mo | 30 min | 30 |
| Backup check | 1/mo | 15 min | 15 |
| Monitoring tuning (amortised) | — | — | 10 |
| Signing cert / profile renewal (amortised annual) | annual | 60 min | 5 |
| Total | ≈ 155 min (2.6 h) |
Xcode updates are not rare. Apple's current Xcode system requirements list several Xcode 26 point releases and Xcode 27.x, each pinned to a specific macOS version range, so toolchain re-pins land throughout the year. Intel Xcode 26 or earlier can cross-compile arm64 and universal binaries; Xcode 27 and ARM execution require Apple silicon.
Break-even worksheet
Managed_premium = Managed_price − Self_managed_entry
= $249 − $95
= $154 / month
Break-even rate = Managed_premium ÷ Admin_hours_per_month
= $154 ÷ 2.6 h
= $59.23 / hour
Effective monthly cost at four admin rates, using the 2.6 h/month estimate:
| Your rate | Admin cost (2.6 h) | Self-managed $95 effective | Managed $249 effective | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $50/hr | $130 | $225 | $249 | −$24 (self-managed wins) |
| $60/hr | $156 | $251 | $249 | +$2 (managed marginally wins) |
| $80/hr | $208 | $303 | $249 | +$54 managed |
| $120/hr | $312 | $407 | $249 | +$158 managed |
The $95 row uses Figment's M-series entry price; your quoted configuration may be higher depending on chip, RAM and disk. Plug your actual quote price into Self_managed_entry and re-run the formula.
For the Managed Mac Team ($999) with two M-series Macs and two CI runners, double the self-managed baseline (two machines plus two runner setups), sum both machines' admin minutes, and apply the same formula with $999 as the managed price.
When self-managed is the right call
- Builds run rarely and you tolerate manual toolchain updates between releases.
- You already employ a DevOps engineer whose capacity covers Mac CI; a managed support allotment duplicates that work.
- Your pipeline logic changes often enough that routing each tweak through a managed provider adds unwanted latency.
- The $154/month premium does not fit the budget this quarter, even if the hourly math favours managed.
Migration steps: self-managed to Managed Build Mac
- Export your pipeline definition (
.github/workflows/*.yml,Fastfile,Makefile,bitrise.yml, or equivalent) to the project repository. This is Figment's handoff input. - List required toolchain versions: Xcode, Ruby (for Fastlane), Node, CocoaPods, Swift Package Manager. Transfer secret names separately and restore values through your CI secret manager — never dump the environment to a plaintext file.
- Export the signing identity as an encrypted
.p12(certificate plus private key) from Keychain. Move provisioning profile files separately; they are files, not Keychain items. - Request provisioning at /mac-hosting/start and attach your toolchain list and pipeline config.
- Run one full build-and-test cycle on the managed machine. Compare duration and artifact hashes against your current build.
- Decommission the old machine only after one green production build on the new one.
Choose the Figment plan
| Situation | Plan | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| You run the CI yourself and want the lowest entry price | M-series self-managed | from $95 |
| Solo or small team, want CI setup, backups and monitoring handled | Managed Build Mac | $249 |
| Team needing two Macs, two CI runners and team setup | Managed Mac Team | $999 |
Run your own hours through the formula. At the $95 entry price and $249 managed price, the cross-over is $59.23/hour at 2.6 h/month. Most professional developer rates sit above that line.
Start a Managed Build Mac request → or see all Mac hosting options.
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