Figment vs Lumio: Mac Hosting Compared in 2026

Lumio rents dedicated Mac minis from Japan with residential-ISP addressing, VNC and SSH. Its M4 Essential is listed at $160/mo but every M4 tier and the M6 Essential currently show Unavailable on the plan page. The cheapest in-stock Lumio option today is the M6 Core at $320/mo. Figment's M-series Mac starts at $95/mo on a configuration request, and Figment also sells a $29 virtual Intel macOS VM and a $249 Managed Build Mac that Lumio does not offer.

The direct recommendation

Pick Lumio only if a residential Japanese IP is a hard requirement — for example, testing geo-restricted App Store or streaming behaviour from inside Japan. For everything else, start with Figment: submit a request at /mac-hosting/start, confirm the exact M-series chip, RAM and disk in the written quote, and compare it against the Lumio tier you would otherwise rent. If your workload is Intel-only Mac tooling (compatible builds on supported Xcode 26 or earlier), the $29 Figment virtual Intel macOS VM is the cheapest entry across both providers.

Published plans, prices and terms

Lumio's current plan page (lumio.sh/client/plans) lists dedicated Mac minis in Japan with full root/sudo access, SSH and VNC, FileVault, a personal Apple ID for Xcode signing, and automatic erasure within 24 hours after expiry. Prices are monthly; no annual term and no setup fee are published on that page.

M4 (10-core, Japan) — all Unavailable on 2026-11-10:

M6 (12-core, Japan):

Figment's published plans for comparison: $29 virtual Intel macOS VM (2 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk, no GPU, no audio); $49 i3 Mac and $95+ M-series Mac on configuration request until supply is confirmed; $249 Managed Build Mac (one M-series Mac, CI setup, backups, monitoring, 30 minutes of monthly support); $999 Managed Mac Team (two M-series Macs, two CI runners, team setup, backups, monitoring, one hour of monthly support). No Figment uptime SLA, trial, speed or stock guarantee is published; ask in the quote.

Cost worksheet tied to Lumio's actual offer

Because every Lumio M4 tier is Unavailable, the comparison is Figment's M-series entry ($95/mo) against the cheapest Lumio plan you can actually buy today — the M6 Core at $320/mo. Figment's $95 is an unspecified M-series entry, so this is an entry-cost comparison, not equal hardware.

Arithmetic: 320 × 12 = 3,840; 3,840 − 1,140 = 2,700. If your real need is a dedicated M4 at $160/mo and Lumio restocks it, the 12-month Lumio cost becomes 160 × 12 = $1,920, still $780 above Figment's $95 entry but on a published hardware spec. Neither total includes bandwidth overage; Lumio bills overage beyond the included data transfer.

If you only need Intel-compatible macOS tooling, 12 months of Figment's $29 VM is $348 — the cheapest path on this page — but it is not Apple silicon and cannot build visionOS or ARM-only targets.

Hardware, access and toolchain fit

Lumio's listed M4 and M6 machines are Apple silicon with the published chip, RAM and disk per tier, dedicated serial, SSH and VNC. Figment's M-series is Apple silicon; the exact chip generation, RAM and disk at the $95 entry are returned in the written quote, so treat $95 as entry price, not an M6 Core equivalent.

Figment's $29 plan is a virtual Intel macOS VM running on Linux/KVM, accessed through a browser console; it has 2 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk, no GPU, no audio, and no public inbound SSH. It can run compatible Intel Mac toolchains, including supported Xcode 26 or earlier versions, and can run outbound CI agents that connect to your service. It is not a full M-series Mac and cannot build ARM-only or visionOS targets.

For exact Xcode and macOS pairings, check Apple's Xcode system requirements and the porting guidance for Apple silicon. Three points matter for a Lumio vs Figment decision:

• Xcode 27 requires macOS Tahoe 26.6 or later and, per Apple's porting guidance, is not supported on Intel; use Xcode 26 or earlier on Intel.
• macOS Tahoe supports a specific set of Intel Macs (per Apple's Tahoe compatibility list: MacBook Pro 2019/2020, iMac 2020, Mac Pro 2019). Xcode 26.x version rows differ — confirm the exact Xcode/macOS pair you need against the Apple page.
• visionOS development requires Apple silicon. If you need it, choose Figment's M-series or a Lumio M-series plan, not the $29 VM.

Lumio's 300 Mbps shared port is enough for most CI pulls but can throttle large artifact uploads. If artifacts regularly exceed a few GB, ask Lumio whether the port is burst or committed and compare against your average sizes.

A short test before you commit

Lumio publishes a 15–30 minute provisioning window; no uptime SLA is published on the pages checked, and Figment has not published one either. Measure the two things that actually drive your decision: Japan round-trip latency and your real build time.

# 1) Round-trip from your workstation to the provisioned Lumio IP
ping -c 20 "${LUMIO_HOST:?Set your assigned Lumio hostname or IP}"

# 2) On the remote Mac, run a timed build of YOUR project.
#    Use -workspace for .xcworkspace, -project for .xcodeproj.
set -euo pipefail
SCHEME="YourScheme"
WORKSPACE="path/to/YourApp.xcworkspace"

time xcodebuild \
  -workspace "$WORKSPACE" \
  -scheme "$SCHEME" \
  -configuration Release \
  -destination 'generic/platform=iOS' \
  clean build

This is an unexecuted example, not a published benchmark. set -euo pipefail stops the script on the first failure, so a broken build will not be timed as a successful run. Run it on both a Lumio trial machine (once restocked) and a Figment M-series quote, with the same scheme and commit, before migrating in either direction.

Lumio-specific migration checklist

Leaving a Lumio machine

• Download the .mobileprovision provisioning profiles you need from the Apple Developer portal.
• Export signing identities from Keychain Access as encrypted .p12 files that include the private keys.
• List the secret names your builds need (API tokens, notarisation keys) and restore each value from your team's secret manager on the new host.
• brew bundle dump --file=Brewfile on the Lumio box; commit it to your repo.
• Copy Fastfile, CI YAML and any local build scripts into version control.
• Record the Lumio IP and update any allowlists your team controls — artifact store, CI service, internal firewall — that reference it.
• Confirm your off-machine backup is complete before the plan expires; Lumio erases the machine within 24 hours of expiry.

Arriving at Figment

• Submit a quote request at /mac-hosting/start with chip, RAM, disk and macOS version you need.
• Confirm the monthly price and hardware in writing before paying.
• brew bundle install --file=Brewfile on the new Mac.
• Import the .p12 into Keychain Access and install .mobileprovision files via Xcode.
• Re-enter secrets into your CI service's vault; do not paste them into shell files on the machine.
• Run the timed build from the previous section and compare against your Lumio baseline.
• If Japan egress or a Japanese IP was part of your testing, replace it with a Japan-based proxy or a short Lumio rental for those specific tests.

Pick the Figment plan

Start the request at /mac-hosting/start. If you still need a Japanese residential IP after reading this, Lumio is the specific fit — check lumio.sh/client/plans for current stock on the M6 Core or Premium.

See also: Figment vs Mac Compute Rentals, Figment vs MacBuild, CI minutes or a Mac.

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