Figment vs DedicatedMac: Mac Hosting Compared

Quick verdict

Figment's M-series starts from $95/month (pricing), a $44 lower entry price than DedicatedMac's M6 Standard at $139/month (dedicatedmac.io). This is an entry-price gap, not an equal-hardware comparison: DedicatedMac's M6 Standard publishes M6, 16 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD, while Figment's exact M-series chip, RAM and storage are confirmed in the quote. DedicatedMac's M4 line is out of stock and the M6 line shows "Checking availability" on the public page. If you need Apple silicon without joining a waitlist, request a Figment configuration and agree an evaluation before purchase.

What DedicatedMac offers

DedicatedMac (dedicatedmac.io) rents dedicated Apple silicon Mac Minis from a Phoenix, AZ data centre with no setup fee and no long-term contract.

M6 Mac Mini (listed availability: Checking):

M4 Mac Mini (Out of Stock):

The pricing page lists full administrator (sudo) access, 1 Gbps networking, remote desktop and a published 99.9% uptime target. A free demo without credit card is advertised on the same page. No annual prepayment or discount is published.

Plan and effective cost comparison

Entry-price arithmetic: $139 − $95 = $44/month. Over 12 months that is $528 less than DedicatedMac M6 Standard, before any quoted spec adjustment. If Figment's quoted M-series machine ships with less RAM or storage than the 16 GB / 256 GB M6 Standard, treat the gap as entry-cost only.

Short-term work: if you only need a Mac for a few days, DedicatedMac's M4 line publishes a $149 daily rate, which beats a Figment monthly rate for jobs under about seven days. M4 is currently out of stock; the M6 line publishes weekly and monthly only, so there is no verified daily option on available M6 stock today.

Hardware and toolchain fit

Both providers are Apple silicon at the top of the comparison, which matters for current Xcode. Per Apple's Xcode system requirements, Xcode 27.x and Xcode 26.x both require macOS Tahoe 26 and therefore Apple silicon. Xcode 16.4 supports macOS Sequoia 15.3 through macOS Tahoe 26.1.x and runs on both Intel and Apple silicon. visionOS development requires Apple silicon on any provider.

DedicatedMac lists macOS Tahoe 26.1+ by default, with Sequoia and Sonoma available on request. Confirm the exact macOS build for your Xcode version before launching.

Figment's Intel option. Figment's $29 virtual Intel macOS (2 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk) runs on Linux/KVM with no GPU acceleration and no audio. It is a real macOS environment that can run compatible Intel Mac toolchains — including supported Xcode versions that still run on Intel (Xcode 26 or earlier). Access is through the browser console; inbound SSH to the VM is not offered. Use it for CLI builds, Fastlane, scripting, and supported iOS/macOS targets. Choose Apple silicon (Figment M-series or DedicatedMac) for Xcode 27, visionOS, or Metal/GPU work. A physical Figment i3 Mac is listed at $49 but collects requests until supply is confirmed.

Managed CI. DedicatedMac rents hardware with admin access; running a build farm is your job. Figment's Managed Build Mac at $249 includes one M-series Mac plus CI setup, backups, monitoring and 30 minutes of monthly support. Managed Mac Team at $999 covers two M-series Macs, two CI runners, team setup, backups, monitoring, and one hour of monthly support. If you were going to hire or assign engineer time to maintain the runner, price that in before choosing self-managed hardware.

Test before you decide

DedicatedMac advertises a free demo without sign-up. For Figment, request a configuration quote and agree an evaluation before purchase. Use whichever access you have to run your own project — not a benchmark script invented for the comparison:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

# Point these at YOUR project; do not guess a scheme name.
PROJECT="/path/to/YourProject.xcodeproj"
SCHEME="YourRealScheme"

sw_vers
xcodebuild -version

time xcodebuild \
  -project "$PROJECT" \
  -scheme "$SCHEME" \
  -destination "platform=macOS" \
  clean build

set -e makes the script exit on the first failed command, so a broken build cannot be mistaken for a fast one. Record elapsed time only from a run that ends in ** BUILD SUCCEEDED **. Run identical commands on both providers before drawing any conclusion about speed.

DedicatedMac-to-Figment migration checklist

1. Inventory the DedicatedMac host. List CI agents, launchd jobs, cron tasks, custom daemons, local-only tools and the Xcode version installed.
2. Push everything. Commit and push all local branches; pull a fresh clone on the Figment Mac. Don't rely on the old disk after cutover.
3. Signing identities. Export each certificate from Keychain as an encrypted .p12 with its private key. Move the file through your secret manager, not through email or a plaintext repo.
4. Provisioning profiles. Re-download the .mobileprovision files from the Apple Developer portal. They are plain files from Apple; do not import them into Keychain.
5. Secrets. Transfer the names of required environment variables separately, and restore values on the new host through your CI service's secret store. Never env > secrets.txt.
6. Request a Figment configuration. Open /mac-hosting and /mac-hosting/start. Specify chip class, RAM, storage, macOS version and whether you want Managed Build Mac handling the runner.
7. Install the CI agent on the Figment Mac, register it with your CI service, and pull secrets from the manager at runtime.
8. Update allowlists only where you actually configured one — your artifact store, your Git host, your CI service, your VPN. Apple does not publish an App Store Connect or TestFlight IP allowlist for you to add.
9. Parallel run. Build the same tag on both machines. Diff artifact checksums and test results before cutover.
10. Cancel DedicatedMac. Their page states cancel anytime with no contract; do it once the Figment host has handled a full release cycle.

Choose your Figment plan

Start your Figment configuration · Figment vs FELDHOST · Figment vs Flow Swiss · CI minutes or dedicated Mac?