Figment vs Datagram: Mac Hosting Compared

Direct verdict: for iOS/macOS CI on an M-series Mac, request Figment M-series from $95/month at /mac-hosting/start. If you want a pre-wired local-LLM inference stack (Ollama, LM Studio, MLX, llama.cpp) on a specific published Apple silicon tier with a 1-year rate, Datagram's order page lists the matching machines, and its Apple silicon hosting page targets the ML workload directly. The two providers do compete; the right pick depends on hardware class, term length, and the one-time setup fee Datagram charges on top of its headline rate.

What Datagram Publishes

The following plans come from Datagram's order page on 2026-11-10. Columns match the vendor's own table — a monthly rate, a 1-year rate (shown per month), and a separate setup fee.

The setup fee is published next to each row rather than scoped to monthly or annual. Treat it as applicable until Datagram confirms otherwise at checkout. Clusters and colocation are listed separately on the same page.

Datagram's Apple silicon page advertises a day rental "from $49" and the order page mentions day rentals "from $59" on M5 — treat these as entry prices on unspecified tiers, not a published daily rate for every machine. Pre-installed software is listed as Ollama, LM Studio, MLX, llama.cpp, Open WebUI, Claude Code, and Jupyter. No specific uptime SLA, free trial, or benchmark is published on the pages we checked; a free demo on the M4 Max is offered.

What Figment Publishes

The $29 VM is a virtual Intel macOS environment running on a Linux/KVM host. It can run supported Intel-compatible Xcode versions — check the exact Xcode/macOS pair you need against Apple's Xcode system requirements. Xcode 27 does not run on Intel, and visionOS development requires Apple silicon per the same page. The $95 M-series starting price does not identify a specific M4/M5/RAM/disk — confirm those in the quote. Physical i3 and M-series plans collect requests until supply is confirmed.

True Cost: Setup Fee and Annual Prepayment

The Datagram setup fee is where comparisons go wrong. Figure the first-month and 12-month totals explicitly.

First month on a monthly plan (Datagram rate + setup vs Figment headline):

Break-even, Datagram M1 monthly vs Figment M-series monthly:

• Datagram M1 monthly total at month N: $188 + (N−1) × $89
• Figment M-series monthly total at month N: $95 × N
• Solve $188 + (N−1) × $89 = $95 × N → $99 = $6 × N → N ≈ 16.5 months

So the Datagram M1 monthly plan does not catch Figment's $95 entry until about month 17, and only then saves $6/month. This is an entry-price comparison; the two machines are not equivalent hardware (M1/8 GB is a defined 2020 Mac mini, Figment's $95 M-series chip and RAM are confirmed at quote).

12-month total, 1-year prepay on Datagram (setup fee included) vs Figment monthly × 12:

If Datagram waives the setup fee on the annual term (ask at checkout), the M1 1-year total drops to $948, $192 under Figment's 12-month run rate at the $95 entry. That saving assumes M1/8 GB is enough machine. If it is not, you move to the M6/32 GB tier and the comparison changes class entirely.

Taxes and any card fees apply as stated in the actual offer at checkout — do not assume parity between countries.

Hardware, Access and Toolchain Fit

Datagram's Intel Macs. The 2014 mini at 4 GB and the 2018 i5 at 32 GB are listed as dedicated machines. Neither runs ARM-only binaries or visionOS Simulator. Modern Xcode releases also drop Intel support — check the Xcode row you plan to use against Apple's system requirements before committing to an Intel target.

Figment's Intel options. The $29 virtual Intel macOS is a real macOS environment on KVM, usable for Intel-compatible Xcode builds, command-line toolchains, scripted tests, and outbound CI agent connections. Access is through the browser console; there is no public inbound SSH on the VM today. The $49 physical i3 is a request-based Mac mini for Intel-only targets.

Apple silicon workloads. Datagram's M1 through M5 Ultra line is appropriate for visionOS, ARM-native builds, and local LLM inference, and ships with the ML stack already installed. Figment's $95 M-series is self-managed — you install MLX, Ollama, or your own CI runner. Figment's managed plans add specific CI work: Managed Build Mac ($249) is one M-series Mac with CI setup, backups, monitoring and 30 minutes of monthly support; Managed Mac Team ($999) is two M-series Macs with two CI runners, team setup, backups, monitoring and one hour of monthly support. That managed CI configuration is the concrete difference versus a self-managed Datagram box.

Datagram-to-Figment Migration Worksheet

A short, realistic plan. The script is an example, not an executed benchmark.

1. Pin the target plan. Decide between Figment's $29 virtual Intel macOS, physical i3 $49, M-series from $95, Managed Build $249, or Managed Mac Team $999. Open /mac-hosting/start and state your RAM, disk and access needs for physical plans.
2. Export ML state from Datagram. If you keep models in ~/.ollama/models or ~/.cache/huggingface, archive them with tar and move via rsync or scp to a staging host. These directories can be tens of GB.
3. Capture environment, not secrets. Record formulae with brew bundle dump --file=Brewfile. List required secret names in a text file. Do not dump the shell environment to a plaintext file — it will contain API keys. Restore the values on the new host through your secret manager.
4. Export signing material correctly. In Keychain Access, select the signing certificate together with its matching private key and export as an encrypted .p12. Provisioning profiles live in ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/ as files — copy them directly; they are not imported into Keychain.
5. Update your own allowlists. If your firewall, artifact store or CI service pins the Datagram egress IP, add the Figment egress and remove the Datagram one once cut over. There is no public App Store Connect or TestFlight webhook IP allowlist to maintain.
6. Time a representative build on each candidate box using your real project and scheme. Use the example below only as a starting point.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# compare-builds.sh — example only; stops on first failure
set -euo pipefail

: "${REPO_URL:?set REPO_URL}"
: "${SCHEME:?set SCHEME from: xcodebuild -list}"
DEST="${DEST:-platform=macOS,arch=arm64}"   # pick your real destination

sysctl hw.model hw.logicalcpu hw.memsize
xcodebuild -version

WORK="$(mktemp -d)"
trap 'rm -rf "$WORK"' EXIT
git clone --depth 1 "$REPO_URL" "$WORK/src"
cd "$WORK/src"

START=$(date +%s)
xcodebuild clean build \
  -scheme "$SCHEME" \
  -destination "$DEST" \
  CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO
END=$(date +%s)
echo "Build time: $((END - START))s on $(sysctl -n hw.model)"

Only compare times across successful runs; set -euo pipefail ensures a failed build exits non-zero rather than being counted as a fast run.

7. Cancel Datagram cleanly. On monthly, cancel before the next billing date; the setup fee is already spent. On 1-year, confirm Datagram's credit policy for partial cancellation directly with its team.

Choose the Figment Plan

Start the request at /mac-hosting/start. Physical and managed plans are confirmed by quote; the $29 virtual Intel macOS is the published self-service entry point.

Related reading:

• Figment vs Dataplugs: Mac Hosting Compared
• Figment vs Datasource: Mac Hosting Compared
• Monthly vs Annual Mac Hosting: When to Commit