Figment vs MacBuild: Mac Hosting Compared

MacBuild rents Apple M4 Mac mini units from CNY 899/month with Claude Desktop, Claude Code and a full iOS toolchain pre-installed, routed through Malaysia and billed in Chinese Yuan (getmacbuild.com). Figment competes directly with M-series Mac hosting from $95/month USD plus a Managed Build Mac tier at $249/month. If you want the AI dev image out of the box and CNY billing, MacBuild fits. If you want USD pricing, managed CI work and a $29 virtual Intel macOS option on the side, Figment fits.

The direct verdict

Pick Figment's M-series plan at $95/month if you are building iOS or macOS apps and want the hardware under a USD contract with optional managed CI. Pick the Managed Build Mac at $249/month if you want CI setup, backups, monitoring and 30 minutes of monthly support included. Pick the $29 virtual Intel macOS VM (2 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk; browser-console access; no GPU, no audio) only if your toolchain works under supported Intel Xcode 26 or earlier and you do not need Apple silicon or Xcode 27. Request a configuration quote at /mac-hosting/start to confirm chip, RAM and disk before paying — physical M-series availability is request-based right now.

Published plans and effective cost

MacBuild lists three rental tiers on its homepage, each in shared-egress and dedicated-egress variants, all on Mac mini M4 (10-core CPU and GPU, 16 GB unified memory, 256 GB SSD). Prepay discounts apply to the Mac rental line only; Claude Max subscription add-ons are billed monthly without the term discount.

Prepayment discounts on the CNY 899 base:

Arithmetic check: 899 × 0.90 = 809.10; 899 × 0.85 = 764.15; 899 × 0.80 = 719.20; 719.20 × 12 = 8,630.40. Taxes and fees are as stated in the actual MacBuild offer; confirm at checkout.

Figment's headline M-series is $95/month USD. A 12-month total at that rate is $1,140 before any negotiated term. The $95 tier is an entry price for an M-series Mac; the exact chip, RAM and disk are confirmed on the quote, so do not read it as an M4/16/256 match to MacBuild's listed configuration. CNY and USD are different currencies: use your bank's current rate for a same-day comparison rather than a stale conversion.

Hardware, access and toolchain fit

MacBuild publishes Apple M4, 16 GB, 256 GB on its base plan and states administrator access with independent per-user data handling. Figment's $29 VM is a virtual Intel macOS environment on Linux/KVM — it runs macOS and compatible Intel Xcode toolchains for cross-compiling and signing supported targets, but it is not Apple silicon, has no GPU acceleration and no audio, and reaches you through the browser console rather than inbound public SSH. For ARM execution, Xcode 27, GPU work or anything that needs real Apple silicon, use the Figment M-series plan.

Current Apple toolchain rows, per Apple's Xcode system requirements and the Apple silicon porting guide:

macOS Tahoe still supports a specific list of Intel Macs (MacBook Pro 2019/2020, iMac 2020, Mac Pro 2019) per Apple support article 122867. Xcode 27 itself drops Intel; use Xcode 26 or earlier if you need an Intel path. MacBuild's M4 units and Figment's M-series both clear every current row once hardware is confirmed in writing.

MacBuild routes through Malaysia. If your developers are in Europe or the Americas, test round-trip time before you commit. Figment does not publish a routing region on this page — request it in the quote.

Software bundle: what you install vs what ships

MacBuild's distinctive value is the pre-installed image: Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Xcode, Command Line Tools, Fastlane, Homebrew, CocoaPods, SwiftLint and Git. Apple licensing and your own Claude subscription remain your responsibility — the base Mac-only plan requires you to bring a Claude account; the Max 5x and Max 20x plans bundle subscription assistance.

Figment does not bundle Claude or Xcode on the M-series plan. You install the toolchain you need and keep your own Apple Developer membership and Claude subscription. The Managed Build Mac at $249/month includes CI setup, backups, monitoring and 30 minutes of monthly support on one M-series Mac; the Managed Mac Team at $999/month covers two M-series Macs, two CI runners, team setup, backups, monitoring and one hour of monthly support.

MacBuild-to-Figment migration

Work top to bottom on the source machine first, then provision at Figment.

1. On the MacBuild Mac, capture packages: brew bundle dump --file=Brewfile --force. Commit the Brewfile.
2. Export signing identities as encrypted .p12 files (private key included) through Keychain Access. Provisioning profiles are files — re-download them from the Apple Developer portal; do not try to export them from Keychain.
3. List the secret names your CI needs (API keys, App Store Connect key IDs, notarization credentials). Do not dump the shell environment to a plaintext file; restore values through your CI secret manager on the new host.
4. Save Fastfile, CI YAML, scheduled jobs and any scripts to your repository, not to the host.
5. Note the MacBuild egress IP. If your artifact store, CI service or self-managed firewall allowlists that IP, update them to the new Figment egress after provisioning. There is no App Store Connect allowlist to change on Apple's side.
6. Request a Figment M-series quote at /mac-hosting/start with the chip, RAM, disk, macOS version and region you need in writing.
7. On the new Mac, install Xcode from the App Store, then brew bundle install --file=Brewfile, then Claude Desktop and Claude Code from their vendors.
8. Import the .p12 into a dedicated keychain for CI; keep the login keychain separate.
9. Run a real build with your own scheme to confirm the environment. Replace the two variables; the script stops on failure so a crashed build cannot be reported as a fast run:

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

SCHEME="YourSchemeName"              # your Xcode scheme
WORKSPACE="path/to/YourApp.xcworkspace"

echo "Host: $(hostname) | Date: $(date -u +%FT%TZ)"
time xcodebuild \
  -workspace "$WORKSPACE" \
  -scheme "$SCHEME" \
  -configuration Release \
  -destination 'generic/platform=iOS' \
  clean build

The time figure is your own worksheet, not a benchmark we publish.

Worked cost worksheet

Use your own term and CNY/USD rate at checkout; the math below is the published list only.

• MacBuild annual, Mac-only shared: 719.20 × 12 = CNY 8,630.40.
• MacBuild annual, Mac-only dedicated: 1,099 × 0.80 × 12 = CNY 10,550.40.
• Figment M-series monthly list: 95 × 12 = USD 1,140.00 before any negotiated term; exact hardware on the quote.
• Figment Managed Build Mac: 249 × 12 = USD 2,988.00, including CI setup, backups, monitoring and 30 minutes of monthly support on one M-series Mac.

The Figment entry price is a lower USD entry, not an equal-hardware swap for MacBuild's listed M4/16/256. If you need that specific configuration, name it in the Figment quote before you commit.

Pick the Figment plan

• Solo iOS/macOS developer on Apple silicon → M-series Mac, from $95/month, request a quote.
• One-team CI with backups and monitoring → Managed Build Mac, $249/month.
• Two developers, two runners, more hands-on support → Managed Mac Team, $999/month.
• Intel-compatible builds, lightweight signing or scripting → $29 virtual Intel macOS VM; confirm Xcode 26-or-earlier fits your targets.

See also: Figment vs macOSabc, Figment vs MacDuty, i3 or M-series Mac.

Start your Figment Mac →

Primary sources checked 2026-11-10: MacBuild pricing and plans; Apple Xcode system requirements; Apple silicon porting guide; Apple support 122867 — macOS Tahoe compatibility.