Figment vs Mac Mini Vault: Mac Hosting Compared

Verdict: nothing on the Mac Mini Vault dedicated page is in stock today

Mac Mini Vault publishes a long dedicated Mac mini catalogue, but on 2026-11-10 every row is either Out of Stock or Notify me on the dedicated Mac mini page. The cheaper Intel 2018, M1, M2 and M4 rows carry Out of Stock; the newer M6 and M5 Pro rows carry Notify me in both the Milwaukee (MKE1) and Phoenix (PHX1) data centers. Listed prices are useful for budgeting, but neither status is an immediate-purchase confirmation — your delivery date is whatever Mac Mini Vault quotes back after you click through.

The listed rows most buyers care about:

• Intel 2018 i3 256 GB / 16 GB — $54.99/mo — Out of Stock
• M1 256 GB / 16 GB — $84.99/mo — Out of Stock
• M2 256 GB / 24 GB — $94.99/mo — Out of Stock
• M4 256 GB / 16 GB — $134.99/mo — Out of Stock
• M6 256 GB / 16 GB — $149.99/mo — Notify me (MKE1, PHX1)
• M5 Pro 512 GB / 48 GB — $259.99/mo — Notify me (MKE1, PHX1)

Figment's published monthly retail offers are a $29 virtual Intel macOS VM (2 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk; no GPU acceleration; no audio), a $49 physical i3 Mac, an M-series Mac from $95, a $249 Managed Build Mac (one M-series Mac, CI setup, backups, monitoring, 30 minutes of monthly support) and a $999 Managed Mac Team (two M-series Macs, two CI runners, team setup, backups, monitoring, one hour of monthly support). Figment's physical Intel and M-series rows are also request-based while supply is being confirmed, so neither provider is instant today. The comparison is listed price plus quoted delivery. Where Figment has a priced advantage is managed CI and team bundles — Mac Mini Vault leaves software administration to the customer.

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Listed prices and what each provider actually bundles

Numbers below come straight from each vendor's current pricing page, checked 2026-11-10.

Mac Mini Vault's services page is explicit about the split: "You manage all of the software while the engineers at Mac Mini Vault maintain the networking and hardware." If you want CI setup, runner configuration, backups or ongoing monitoring, that is customer-side work on this plan. Figment's $249 Managed Build Mac and $999 Managed Mac Team are the comparable priced bundles that include the CI-side work — a bundling difference you can line-item against the quote, not a claim that Mac Mini Vault refuses managed engagements.

On the listed Apple silicon entry rows, Figment's $95 is $10.01/month higher than Mac Mini Vault's $84.99 M1 256 GB (Out of Stock) and $54.99 lower than the $149.99 M6 256 GB (Notify me). Over twelve months the M6 gap is $1,799.88 − $1,140.00 = $659.88 lower at Figment's entry price, but only if your Figment quote lands on a configuration that meets the workload, and only if Mac Mini Vault can convert a Notify me on the timeline you need. Price it both ways before you commit.

Hardware, access and toolchain fit

Mac Mini Vault rents a dedicated physical Mac mini with one IPv4 address, redundant network, IPv6 peering, reverse DNS, remote reboot control and business-hour hands-on support. The dedicated catalogue spans 2018 Intel i3, i5 and i7; M1; M2 and M2 Pro; M4 and M4 Pro; M5 Pro; and M6. Chip, RAM and SSD are fixed per row and software administration sits with the customer.

Figment's $29 VM is virtual Intel macOS running on KVM. It is the right pick when you want a cheap, scriptable macOS shell for an Intel-compatible toolchain, a release pipeline that does not need Apple silicon, or long-running agents that reach outward to your CI service. It is not an Apple silicon machine, so Apple silicon-only work — visionOS tooling, anything bound to the M-series GPU, ARM-native test matrices — belongs on the $95 M-series plan or the $249 Managed Build Mac. The $49 physical i3 Mac is the request-based middle ground when you need a dedicated Intel desktop rather than a VM. Verified VM access today is through the browser console with a desktop terminal; inbound public SSH is not currently implemented, while outbound CI agents inside the VM can still reach your service. Admin level, dedicated-resource guarantees and specific software images are confirmed in the quote.

Toolchain boundary, stated once: macOS Tahoe runs on a specific set of Intel Macs (the 2019/2020 MacBook Pro, 2020 iMac and 2019 Mac Pro) listed on Apple's compatible Mac models page — Tahoe is not Apple silicon-only. Xcode 27 is a separate limit: Apple's porting documentation tells Intel users to stay on Xcode 26 or earlier. Pin your exact Xcode/macOS pair before you buy either way, and remember that Figment's VM is being installed with Sequoia today, not Tahoe.

Decision worksheet: price against quoted delivery

Fill in your own answers. Both providers quote back a delivery date; neither is instant today. The point is to stop treating listed price and quoted stock as the same thing.

Q1  Do you need a dedicated Apple silicon Mac mini?        yes / no
Q2  Can you wait on a Notify me or a request-based quote?  yes / no
Q3  Do you need CI setup, backups and monitoring bundled?  yes / no
Q4  Is Intel-compatible macOS enough for the workload?     yes / no
Q5  Target monthly budget per Mac?                         $____

Suggested listed offer:

Q4=yes and Q5<$60:            Figment virtual Intel macOS   $29/mo
Q4=yes, physical required:    Figment i3 Mac (request)      $49/mo
Q1=yes, Q3=no, Q2=yes:        Figment M-series (quote)      from $95/mo
Q1=yes, fixed listed hardware
 and willing to wait on stock: Mac Mini Vault M6 256 GB     $149.99/mo (Notify me)
Q3=yes:                       Figment Managed Build Mac     $249/mo
Two engineers + two runners:  Figment Managed Mac Team      $999/mo

Listed annualised totals at monthly rates, before tax and any one-off fees stated on the final order:

• Figment virtual Intel macOS: 12 × $29 = $348/year
• Figment M-series entry: 12 × $95 = $1,140/year
• Mac Mini Vault M6 256 GB: 12 × $149.99 = $1,799.88/year (contingent on Notify me conversion)
• Figment Managed Build Mac: 12 × $249 = $2,988/year
• Mac Mini Vault M5 Pro 512 GB: 12 × $259.99 = $3,119.88/year (Notify me)

Short migration note. Mac Mini Vault bills month-to-month and leaves software to the customer, so the switch is bounded. Get the Figment quote back with the chip, RAM and disk you need; export signing certificates with their private keys from Keychain Access as an encrypted .p12; copy provisioning profiles from ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/; record secret names only (env | awk -F= '{print $1}' | sort > env-names.txt) and restore values through your own secret manager; re-register CI runner tokens on the new host rather than copying them; and cancel Mac Mini Vault only after one complete signed build and TestFlight upload succeeds on Figment. Update only the allow-lists you actually control.

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