Mac VM or Dedicated Mac: Choose by Workload and Cost

Start with the VM; upgrade when architecture or compute demands it

The $29 Figment virtual Intel macOS is the right starting point for scripting, outbound CI agents, Linux containers, and Xcode builds that target macOS Sequoia with a Sequoia-compatible Xcode. If you need to execute ARM-only binaries, build for visionOS, or run Xcode 27, you need Apple silicon — the VM and i3 Intel tiers cannot do those jobs at any price.

Decide on architecture first, then price. If Intel can do the job, the VM is usually enough. If Apple silicon is required, skip the Intel tiers and go to M-series.

What separates the VM, i3, and M-series tiers

The $29 plan is a software-virtualised Intel macOS environment on Linux/KVM. It runs compatible Intel Xcode toolchains (Xcode 26 or earlier per Apple's porting guide), cross-compiles arm64 device apps, builds universal macOS binaries, and signs them when the certificates are present. It is not Apple silicon, has no GPU or audio acceleration, and will not execute ARM-only binaries.

The i3 is a physical Intel Mac dedicated to your account. M-series are physical Apple silicon machines; the $95 entry price is the lowest M-series tier, not a specific M4/RAM/disk SKU. Confirm the exact chip, memory, disk, and macOS version in your quote at /mac-hosting/start.

Workload routing matrix

Find the lowest tier that satisfies your workload. An "✗" means the hardware architecture makes the job impossible — a configuration change on the same tier will not fix it.

Intel Macs running an Xcode version that supports iOS can build and run many iOS simulators. The visionOS simulator requires Apple silicon. Tahoe still supports a specific set of Intel Macs listed in Apple's Tahoe compatibility page; confirm whether your requested i3 model is on that list before relying on Tahoe-only Xcode versions.

Check your exact Xcode and macOS pair

Pick the Xcode version your project requires, then read the minimum macOS from Apple's Xcode system requirements. Verified rows on 2026-11-10:

The Figment VM is being installed with macOS Sequoia, so it runs Xcode 16.x and 26.0–26.3. For Xcode 26.4.1 or later you need a Tahoe host, and for Xcode 27 you need Apple silicon.

A short test before you pay for M-series

Before you upgrade from VM or i3 to M-series, prove that you actually need Apple silicon. Run this on a successful build of your own project, from its desktop terminal; it only inspects the compiler output, so it is a worked check, not a benchmark:

# Inspect architectures in your build outputs for YOUR project.
# Point DERIVED at the DerivedData folder for the scheme you just built.
set -euo pipefail
DERIVED="$HOME/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData"
find "$DERIVED" -type f \( -name "*.o" -o -name "*.dylib" -o -perm -111 \) -print0 \
  | xargs -0 -n1 file \
  | awk -F: '/Mach-O/ {print $2}' \
  | sort -u

If every line shows x86_64 only, your current build is Intel-only and the VM or i3 is sufficient. If any line shows arm64 and your app must run on device, or if your Xcode version is 26.4.1 or later, plan an M-series upgrade. Also open your scheme and look for any target with a visionOS or xrOS destination — if one exists, you need M-series.

Migration: VM to M-series on Figment

• Request an M-series quote at /mac-hosting/start. Confirm chip, RAM, disk, macOS version, and estimated provisioning window.
• On the new machine, install Xcode from the App Store or developer.apple.com and the toolchain your build needs (Homebrew, CocoaPods or SwiftPM caches, Fastlane, Ruby/Node versions).
• Move signing material safely: export the signing identity as an encrypted .p12 with its private key; copy provisioning profiles as files to ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/. Do not dump environment variables to a plaintext file. Transfer secret names, then load values from your CI secret manager on the new host.
• Register the CI runner from the new machine's desktop terminal, and only deregister the old runner once the new one has completed a full green build. Update any customer-controlled firewall or artifact-store allowlists to the new host's egress address.
• Run your real build and test suite end-to-end. Compare wall-clock time and artifact SHAs against the VM run before you cancel the old plan.

Choose the Figment plan

Pick the cheapest row that clears your workload's architecture and Xcode requirements. The $29 VM is a lower entry price than physical M-series — it is not the same hardware, and that is the point: use Intel where Intel works, and move to Apple silicon only where the workload requires it.

See plans and request a configuration → · Start a request →

Related reading:

• Figment vs MacStadium
• Figment vs MacinCloud
• Managed Mac hosting vs self-managed: count the work