Figment vs Honds IT: Mac Hosting Compared

Honds IT rents older Intel Mac minis from Germany starting at €59/month with VAT included, a €89 one-time setup fee, and a 12-month contract requiring six weeks' notice to cancel (honds.de/mac-mini-buchen). Figment competes directly with two relevant offers: a virtual Intel macOS instance at $29/month for Intel-era toolchains, and M-series Macs from $95/month for current Apple silicon work. This page shows the real 12-month cost on each Honds plan, where the Intel toolchain ceiling actually sits, and the exact steps to move a build pipeline across.

Verdict and the Figment plan to buy

If your pipeline still builds against an Xcode version that supports Intel (Xcode 26 and earlier; confirm your exact Xcode/macOS pair against Apple's Xcode system requirements), Figment's $29/month virtual Intel macOS (2 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk, Linux/KVM, no GPU, no audio) runs compatible Intel Mac toolchains and gives you a working macOS environment through the browser console. It is the lowest-friction way to validate Intel-era iOS or macOS CI without a 12-month lease. If you need Apple silicon for Xcode 27, visionOS, or GPU work, choose Figment's M-series Mac from $95/month; the specific chip, RAM and disk are confirmed in the quote and plans currently collect requests until supply is confirmed. For a hands-off build host, the Managed Build Mac at $249/month includes one M-series Mac, CI setup, backups, monitoring, and 30 minutes of monthly support.

Start a request at /mac-hosting/start.

True 12-month cost of Honds IT

Honds IT's headline monthly rate omits the setup fee and the fixed 12-month term. The table below computes the effective monthly cost on each rental and the housing-only option, pulled directly from honds.de/mac-mini-buchen. All prices include VAT as shown on the Honds offer page.

Arithmetic: €59 × 12 = €708; +€89 = €797; ÷12 = €66.42. Same method per row. † Housing-only has a one-month minimum; the 12-month figure is shown for parity with the rental rows.

EUR to USD reference (ECB 2026-11-10, 1 EUR = 1.1214 USD; approximate, before bank/card fees): €59 ≈ $66.16, €797 ≈ $893.76, €1,037 ≈ $1,162.89. Figment's M-series at $95 × 12 = $1,140 before any quoted setup; the $29 Intel VM is $348 across 12 months with no fixed term published. Honds IT's cheapest rental ends up cheaper in dollar terms than a Figment M-series year — but on 2017-era Intel hardware under a one-year commitment. Figment's $29 VM is a lower entry price for Intel-era work; it is not equivalent to a physical Mac mini.

Cancellation window. Rental contracts auto-renew if you miss the six-week notice to the anniversary. If you cancel at month 11 without clearing that window, you pay the full next year. Plan the notice before you sign.

Add-ons published on the Honds offer: external 1 TB backup drive €5.95/month, 24/7 monitoring €77.35/month, Mac mini Club 7-day replacement guarantee €7.45/month. The monitoring add-on alone costs more per month than Figment's $29 VM.

Hardware, access and Xcode fit

Two Honds-specific points matter for toolchain planning. First, Apple's current Xcode row for your target OS pair governs what the Intel hardware can run; confirm the exact version at developer.apple.com/xcode/system-requirements before signing a year. Second, Honds advertises i5-1.4 GHz with 4 GB RAM on the cheapest row — enough for small builds and scripting, light for a modern iOS simulator workload. The i3-3.6 GHz with 8 GB RAM and SSD is the one to measure against if you are keeping Intel builds alive.

A 20-minute test before you sign

Rather than trusting a generic benchmark, run your own project twice: once on a Honds trial or short housing arrangement, once on Figment's $29 VM. Use the same Xcode version and simulator on both. Record wall time only from runs that succeed.

# Intel macOS build-timing worksheet. Run on the candidate host.
set -euo pipefail

PROJECT="YourProject.xcodeproj"         # your file
SCHEME="YourSchemeName"                 # from `xcodebuild -list`
SIM_NAME="iPhone SE (3rd generation)"   # pick one from `xcrun simctl list devicetypes`
DESTINATION="platform=iOS Simulator,name=${SIM_NAME}"

echo "=== Run started $(date -u +%FT%TZ) on $(sw_vers -productVersion) / $(uname -m) ==="
time xcodebuild \
  -project "$PROJECT" \
  -scheme "$SCHEME" \
  -destination "$DESTINATION" \
  clean build
echo "=== Build exited 0; record the 'real' time printed above ==="

set -euo pipefail ensures the script stops on the first failure; a failed xcodebuild never reaches the success echo, so you cannot accidentally count a broken build as a fast run. Run three times, keep the median of the successful runs, and compare side by side.

Migration plan: Honds IT to Figment

Before provisioning. Confirm your Xcode/macOS pair on Apple's requirements page. If any part of the pipeline needs Xcode 27 or visionOS, request an M-series quote. If you can stay on Xcode 26 or earlier, the $29 virtual Intel macOS may be enough. Note the exact Honds anniversary date and schedule the six-week cancellation notice in your calendar.

Export from the Honds machine. From Keychain Access, export each signing identity with its private key as an encrypted .p12; store the password in your secret manager, never in a repo. Download provisioning profiles as .mobileprovision files from the Apple Developer portal — they are files on disk, not objects to export from Keychain. Commit CI pipeline files (.yml, Fastfile, scripts) to your repository. List every secret by name (API keys, tokens, signing identity names) in a plain checklist; do not export the shell environment to a plaintext file, as it typically contains credentials.

Restore on Figment. Install the matching Xcode. Import each .p12 into the login Keychain with its password. Copy .mobileprovision files to ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/. Repopulate secret values through your CI vault or secret manager, keyed by the names in your checklist. Run a clean signed build to confirm.

Allowlists. If you configured your own firewall, artifact store, or CI service to restrict the Honds outbound IP, update those allowlists to Figment's egress. Do not invent an Apple-side IP allowlist — App Store Connect and TestFlight do not publish one.

After cutover. Keep the Honds machine running until Figment has passed a full suite at least once, then submit the six-week notice to Honds before the anniversary.

Pick the right Figment plan

Honds IT is a reasonable Intel-only option for German teams who want VAT-inclusive EUR billing and are comfortable with a one-year term on 2017-era hardware. For anything beyond the Intel-compatible Xcode line, or for teams who want to avoid the 12-month lock and €89 setup, Figment is the direct alternative. Start a configuration at /mac-hosting/start or review the full lineup at /mac-hosting.

Related reading:

• Figment vs HostMyServers
• Figment vs Hostpro
• Cloud Mac or office Mac: choosing your setup