Figment vs Aqua Ray: Mac Hosting Compared

Direct verdict

If you need Apple silicon in Europe with a French-hosted dedicated Mac Mini, Aqua Ray is a credible choice at €109/month HT for the base M4 tier. If you want the lowest entry price, or a managed CI workflow, pick Figment: $29/month for a virtual Intel macOS VM (2 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk) for Intel toolchain work, or M-series from $95/month for Apple silicon. Both Figment offers are request-based today; the physical M-series machine ships once supply is confirmed and the exact chip, RAM and disk are stated in the quote. Request a slot at /mac-hosting/start.

The €109 figure Aqua Ray advertises is HT (hors taxes). With 20% French VAT the invoice reaches €130.80. State your tax situation and ask Aqua Ray to confirm the applicable rate on your quote rather than assuming it; VAT treatment varies by customer. The numbers below show both HT and TTC at 20% so you can apply the figure that matches your actual offer.

Published plans and effective cost

Aqua Ray publishes three M4 Mac Mini tiers on its Apple Mac Mini page. Prices are per month in EUR, HT. Setup fees, minimum contract term and any annual prepayment option are not stated on that page; confirm each with sales before ordering.

USD conversion at ~$1.12/EUR on 2026-11-10; use the rate on your invoice date. If VAT does not apply to your invoice, compare the HT column instead.

Figment's current retail offers for reference:

Entry-price comparison, equal only on "cheapest way in": €109 HT (~$122) vs $29 for the Figment VM is a different hardware class (Intel VM vs dedicated Apple silicon). The fair Apple-silicon-to-Apple-silicon starting-price comparison is €109 HT vs Figment's $95, with the caveat that Figment's exact M-series spec is confirmed at quote time and is not advertised as an M4/16/512 match.

Hardware, access and toolchain fit

Aqua Ray provides dedicated physical Mac Minis in certified Île-de-France data centres. M4 S and M4 M use the base M4 (10-core CPU, 10-core GPU); M4 L uses the M4 Pro (12-core CPU, 16-core GPU). Ordering is sales-contact based; there is no instant self-service provisioning on the public page we checked. No uptime SLA figure is published on that page; ask for the SLA in writing before signing. Absence from the page is not proof none exists.

Figment offers two useful shapes here:

• The $29 virtual Intel macOS VM runs compatible Intel Mac toolchains, including supported Xcode 26-or-earlier versions that still ship Intel builds. It is a full macOS environment. It is not Apple silicon, has no GPU acceleration and no audio; use it for Intel-only builds, scripted test runs or legacy CI, not for visionOS or Metal GPU work.
• The M-series plan is Apple silicon when you need ARM execution, Metal, or visionOS.

Per Apple's Xcode system requirements, Xcode 27.x requires macOS Tahoe 26.6 or later, and developing for visionOS requires a Mac with Apple silicon. Xcode 26.x pairs with macOS Sequoia 15.6 through Tahoe 26.x; verify the exact row for your target before picking an OS and chip. Aqua Ray's M4 and M4 Pro cover every current deployment target including visionOS; Figment's M-series does too. The Figment Intel VM covers Intel-capable Xcode releases only.

A worked cost worksheet for Aqua Ray vs Figment M-series

Use your own numbers; these are the published monthly prices, not a benchmark.

• Aqua Ray M4 S, 12 months, VAT-registered EU business receiving a VAT-inclusive invoice at 20%: €130.80 × 12 = €1,569.60 TTC per year.
• Aqua Ray M4 S, 12 months, HT only: €109 × 12 = €1,308 HT per year.
• Figment M-series, 12 months at the $95 entry price: $95 × 12 = $1,140. At $1.12/EUR that is roughly €1,018.
• Monthly delta at TTC vs Figment entry: €130.80 - ($95 × 0.893) ≈ €130.80 - €84.84 = €45.96/month.

If you then add Figment's Managed Build Mac ($249 × 12 = $2,988/year, ≈ €2,669) you are buying the machine plus CI setup, backups, monitoring and 30 minutes of monthly support, which the Aqua Ray page we checked does not bundle. Compare like with like: Aqua Ray plus your own CI engineer time, vs Figment's managed inclusions.

Migration checklist: Aqua Ray to Figment

Aqua Ray cancellations and Figment provisioning both run through a human, so start a few weeks before cutover.

• Ask Aqua Ray for the required notice period and any minimum term on your contract.
• Request a Figment slot at /mac-hosting/start and state your target chip class, RAM and disk.
• On the Aqua Ray machine, list the secret names you will need on the new host (not their values). Transfer secret values through your own secret manager, never a plaintext env dump.
• Back up ~/.ssh/config entries and known_hosts references. Issue new SSH keys on the Figment machine.
• Capture tooling with brew bundle dump --file=~/Brewfile; replay with brew bundle --file=~/Brewfile on Figment.
• Re-issue signing material: create a new signing certificate at Apple Developer, export it with its private key as an encrypted .p12 from Keychain Access, and download .mobileprovision files directly from Apple Developer. Provisioning profiles are files, not Keychain exports.
• Push every branch and tag: git log --branches --not --remotes in each repo to find anything local-only.
• Update your CI service, artifact store and any customer-managed firewalls with the new Figment host; do not assume a generic Apple or TestFlight allowlist.
• Run a clean build and the full test suite on Figment. Do not send cancellation to Aqua Ray until the Figment machine is green.
• Send written cancellation to Aqua Ray per the notice period and keep the acknowledgement.

A quick latency sanity check once you have the IP:

# Replace "${MAC_HOST:?Set your assigned Mac hostname or IP}" with the Figment or Aqua Ray host after provisioning
ping -c 30 "${MAC_HOST:?Set your assigned Mac hostname or IP}"
# Watch avg and max. For interactive Screen Sharing / Xcode remote work,
# sustained avg > 120 ms gets painful.

This is a reference command, not a measurement we have run.

Choose the Figment plan

For most buyers outside France, Figment's M-series entry at $95/month is a lower starting price than Aqua Ray's €109 HT / €130.80 TTC, with managed CI available as a paid upgrade. Request a configuration quote at /mac-hosting/start.

Related reading:

• Figment vs Balhost
• Figment vs Bohemian Silicon
• Single Mac host or two: how to size your setup