Figment vs kvmmac: Mac Hosting Compared in 2026

Kvmmac lists its M4 16GB / 256GB Mac mini at $95.50/month with the note "All prices ex. tax" (kvmmac.com). Figment's M-series starts at $95/month; the exact chip, RAM and storage are confirmed on the quote at /mac-hosting/start. Before tax the two entry prices differ by fifty cents, so the real comparison is what you get around the machine.

If you only need a bare Mac mini, either provider gets you there. If you also need CI set up, backups, monitoring and a human to call, Figment's Managed Build Mac at $249/month bundles that work on one invoice. kvmmac advertises SSH/VNC access, 99.9% uptime and 24/7 support on the same page; it does not advertise managed CI pipelines.

Published plans and the tax-aware worksheet

kvmmac's published plans (source):

Storage add-ons: +1 TB $15.30/mo, +2 TB $30.80/mo. kvmmac advertises daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly cycles and says annual "saves more" without publishing an annual dollar figure; ask kvmmac sales for the annual number before you compare.

Figment's current plans:

Tax worksheet for kvmmac Starter — fill in the rate that actually applies to your billing address:

Arithmetic: $95.50 × 1.05 = $100.275 ≈ $100.28; × 1.08 = $103.14; × 1.10 = $105.05. Figment quotes a single all-in monthly figure; tax and fees are whatever the signed order states. Treat the Figment $95 as an entry price for an M-series Mac, not a confirmed M4/16GB/256GB spec — kvmmac's Starter and Figment's entry M-series are a price tie, not a hardware tie.

Hardware, access and toolchain fit

kvmmac provides dedicated Mac mini hardware across Singapore, Japan, Seoul, Hong Kong and US East, with SSH and VNC listed as the access methods. Figment M-series machines are also dedicated physical hardware; chip generation, RAM, storage and region are confirmed at quote stage, so put the kvmmac region you need in the request.

Figment also offers a $29/month virtual Intel macOS environment (2 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk) accessed through its browser console. It runs Intel-compatible macOS toolchains — including supported Xcode 26-or-earlier builds — and can cross-compile and sign targets the Intel toolchain supports. Choose M-series when you need Apple silicon execution, Xcode 27, visionOS, or more cores, RAM or GPU.

Xcode and macOS pairing (Apple Xcode system requirements):

macOS Tahoe still runs on the Intel Macs listed in Apple's Tahoe compatibility page (MacBook Pro 2019/2020, iMac 2020, Mac Pro 2019); Xcode 27 is the version that drops Intel. kvmmac's M4 and Figment's M-series both cover visionOS and Xcode 27 work.

Build timing: run it on your own project

kvmmac advertises 99.9% uptime and 24/7 support on its plans page; the full SLA text, remediation and credit policy were not published on the page we checked, so read the current service agreement before you commit. Figment does not publish an uptime SLA — ask for it in writing during the quote.

For build-time comparison, don't rely on either vendor's marketing. Run your own project on each machine and stop on failure so a broken build can't be reported as a fast one:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Build-time comparison. Run on each host with the SAME Xcode and macOS.
# Usage: ./build-timer.sh /path/to/YourProject.xcodeproj YourScheme
set -euo pipefail

PROJECT="${1:?Pass the .xcodeproj path}"
SCHEME="${2:?Pass the Xcode scheme name}"

xcodebuild -version
echo "Host: $(hostname) | $(date -u +%FT%TZ)"

for i in 1 2 3; do
  echo "--- Run $i ---"
  time xcodebuild \
    -project "$PROJECT" \
    -scheme "$SCHEME" \
    -configuration Release \
    -destination 'generic/platform=iOS' \
    clean build \
    CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO
done

Discard the first run (cold caches), compare runs 2 and 3. Keep macOS and Xcode identical on both hosts. Xcode already parallelises independent targets inside a scheme, so wall-clock time is the useful number, not a sum of per-target times.

Switching from kvmmac to Figment

Specific to kvmmac's SSH/VNC, multi-region, tax-extra setup:

Before cancelling kvmmac:

• Record every active instance: region, hostname, tier, billing cycle and next renewal date (daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly).
• List services and schedules on each host: launchctl list, crontab -l, ps aux.
• Export each signing identity as an encrypted .p12 (private key + strong passphrase). Do not dump the shell environment to a plaintext file — it will contain tokens.
• Copy provisioning profile files (~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/*.mobileprovision) off the machine. They are files, not keychain items.
• Write down the names of required secrets; the values should be restored from your team's secret manager, not from the old host.
• Capture pipeline definitions: Fastfile, Matchfile, .github/workflows/, Jenkinsfile.

On the new Figment Mac:

• Request a quote at /mac-hosting/start with chip generation, RAM, storage and the region closest to your kvmmac one.
• After provisioning, confirm the installed macOS and install the exact Xcode version your project targets (table above).
• Re-import .p12 identities into a dedicated keychain, copy provisioning profiles back into ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/, and load secrets from your secret manager.
• Run the timing script above against your own project before you cut over.
• Update only the allowlists you actually control (your CI service, artifact store, your firewall). There is no public Apple App Store Connect or TestFlight IP allowlist to update.

After cutover, keep the kvmmac instance active through one full release cycle, then cancel in the kvmmac console before the next renewal date so you aren't billed another cycle.

Which Figment plan fits

kvmmac at $95.50/month plus tax is a credible bare-M4 option in APAC and US East. If you want a managed CI Mac with backups, monitoring and named support minutes on one line of the invoice, start the Figment quote at /mac-hosting/start or read more at /mac-hosting.

Related reading

• Figment vs kvmsync: Mac Hosting Compared
• Figment vs macmini.tech: Mac Hosting Compared
• Managed or self-managed Mac: which model fits your team?