Figment vs ALP Hosting: Mac Hosting Compared

Direct verdict

For almost any current iOS or macOS project, pick Figment M-series from $95/month on current Apple silicon and request the exact chip, RAM and disk in your quote. If your work is specifically pinned to an Intel toolchain (older Xcode, legacy Intel-only CI), Figment also offers a virtual Intel macOS VM at $29/month (2 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk) that can run compatible Intel Mac toolchains, including supported Xcode 26-or-earlier versions — confirm the exact Xcode/macOS row for your project against Apple's Xcode system requirements. The VM is Intel on Linux/KVM, with no GPU acceleration or audio; it is not an Apple silicon Mac.

The decisive issue with ALP Hosting's Mac plans is the operating system shown on every tier: OS X El Capitan (macOS 10.11, 2015). Current Xcode releases do not run on El Capitan. If ALP Hosting can provide newer hardware and macOS off-listing, ask them in writing before ordering.

Published plans and effective cost

Values below are taken directly from the ALP Hosting Mac page. All prices are in EUR with VAT included, as stated on-site. The page also toggles to CHF and USD. Setup fees and minimum terms are not published; confirm with the vendor.

Source: alphosting.ch/en/servers/mac/.

Sanity-checks on those numbers:

• S: €51.20 × 12 = €614.40, listed annual €613 — effectively equal.
• M: €68.50 × 12 = €822.00, listed annual €821 — effectively equal.
• L: €68.50 × 12 = €822.00, listed annual €1,133 — the annual rate is higher than 12× monthly. This is not explained on the page; verify before signing.
• XL: €146.40 × 12 = €1,756.80, listed annual €1,757 — effectively equal.

Figment comparison, entry price only (hardware is not equivalent):

• Figment virtual Intel macOS VM: $29/month, $348/year at headline rate. Lower entry cost than any ALP Hosting tier for Intel toolchain work.
• Figment M-series: from $95/month, from $1,140/year at headline rate, on current Apple silicon. Lower annual than the L (€1,133 ≈ $1,235 at $1.09/EUR) and XL rows for modern hardware; higher than S/M, which are 2014-era dual-core Intel.

Treat FX conversions as indicative. Tax and fees apply as stated in each vendor's actual offer; ALP Hosting quotes VAT-inclusive EUR, Figment quotes USD.

Hardware, access and toolchain fit

ALP Hosting listing: dual-core Intel Mac Minis (1.4–2.8 GHz), 4–16 GB RAM, HDD, Fusion Drive or SSD depending on tier, OS X El Capitan. These correspond to late-2014 Mac Mini models. No Apple silicon, no Neural Engine, Intel integrated graphics only.

Figment M-series: Apple silicon Mac Mini provisioned to the quote. This is the right target for current Xcode (per Apple's system requirements, Xcode 26.x and 27.x require macOS versions that ship only on Apple silicon), arm64 Swift, visionOS (Apple silicon required), and Metal 3 workloads.

Figment virtual Intel macOS VM ($29): useful when the job is genuinely Intel — for example, maintaining an older Xcode version against an unchanged deployment target, reproducing an Intel-only build, or running Intel-only tooling. Not suitable for visionOS, GPU-accelerated Metal, audio capture, or Xcode versions that require Apple silicon.

Homebrew no longer ships bottles for El Capitan; package installs on the ALP Hosting listing will often fall back to from-source builds or fail. Moving to any current macOS restores a working package manager.

A worked cost worksheet for your project

Fill this in for a realistic comparison. Example numbers use ALP Hosting MacMini XL vs Figment M-series entry.

A. Monthly price, ALP XL (VAT incl.):    €146.40
B. Annual price, ALP XL:                 €1,757
C. Months you actually need the Mac:     ___ months
D. ALP cost for C months (min A×C, B):   €____

E. Figment M-series entry, monthly:      $95
F. Figment M-series, C months:           $ (95 × C)
G. FX rate EUR->USD on your order day:   ____ (check on the day)
H. ALP cost in USD = D × G:              $____

Delta = H − F.  Positive = Figment is cheaper at entry hardware; negative = ALP entry row is cheaper but on 2014-era Intel.

Two rules when you fill this in: compare equal durations only, and do not treat the ALP S/M monthly rates as an equivalent-hardware win over Figment M-series. They are a cheaper entry price on legacy Intel, not the same machine.

A buyer test before you commit

ALP Hosting publishes no benchmark or uptime numbers on its Mac page, and we did not find a separate SLA document on the source we checked. That is not proof none exists — ask for it. Run these on any trial machine the vendor provides, including a Figment quote machine:

Swift compile time, against a real open-source project you can re-run anywhere:

git clone https://github.com/apple/swift-algorithms
cd swift-algorithms
time swift build -c release
# Record the 'real' value. Re-run after 'swift package clean' to measure a cold build.
# If the build fails, fix the toolchain first — a failed build is not a benchmark.

Disk throughput, relevant because ALP S and M are spinning HDD:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/testfile bs=1m count=1024
dd if=/tmp/testfile of=/dev/null bs=1m
rm /tmp/testfile

Record sequential write and read. Compare to the same test on the Figment quote machine. Keep the project, command and machine identical between runs.

Migration steps if you are moving off ALP Hosting

• Confirm the Xcode row you need from Apple's Xcode system requirements and name it in your Figment request.
• Push every branch and tag to your git remote. Do not rely on anything local to the ALP machine.
• Copy ~/.ssh/*.pub and ~/.ssh/config. Do not export the full environment to plaintext — it can contain secrets. List the secret names your builds read and restore values through your secret manager on the new machine.
• Re-issue signing material from Apple Developer. Export the signing certificate with its private key as an encrypted .p12 from Keychain Access. Provisioning profiles are .mobileprovision files downloaded from Apple Developer or regenerated by Fastlane Match — they are not exported from Keychain.
• Update allowlists only where you actually control them (your artifact store, your CI service, your firewall). Do not add rules for services whose IP ranges you have not verified.
• Request a Figment slot and quote at /mac-hosting. Confirm chip generation, RAM and disk in writing before paying. Physical M-series and i3 inventory is request-based until supply is confirmed.
• Provision fresh on Figment: install the Xcode row you confirmed, then Homebrew, then your tool list. Run a full clean build and at least one simulator test pass before you cancel ALP Hosting.

Choose the Figment plan

ALP Hosting's current Mac listing is a legacy Intel Mac Mini range running a 2015 OS. For most modern iOS and macOS work the right move is a Figment M-series quote; for genuinely Intel work the $29 virtual Intel macOS VM is the cheaper and more honest fit. Start at /mac-hosting/start.

Related reading:

• Figment vs Adminor
• Figment vs AlexHost
• Enterprise Mac Fleet: How to Request a Quote