Figment vs RentAMac: Mac Hosting Compared

Verdict: Figment is the cheaper entry; RentAMac publishes an M4 spec

If you want the lowest sticker price for Apple-silicon Mac hosting, Figment M-series starts at $95/month (pricing on request). RentAMac publishes a specific M4 Mac mini (10-core, 16 GB, 256 GB SSD) at $119/month on its pricing page. Over twelve months that is $1,140 vs $1,428 — a $288 entry-tier gap.

That gap compares entry prices, not identical hardware. Figment's $95 tier does not publish a specific M-series chip generation, RAM or SSD; confirm the exact configuration in a quote before treating the two as like-for-like. Physical Mac plans at Figment currently collect requests until supply is confirmed.

If your workflow targets Intel-supported toolchains, Figment also offers a $29/month virtual Intel macOS (2 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk) that runs on a Linux/KVM host with no GPU acceleration and no audio. It is a macOS instance you log into, suitable for Xcode 26 or earlier builds that still support Intel. Choose Figment M-series or a RentAMac M4/M6 for ARM-only binaries, Metal GPU work, or visionOS (which Apple requires on Apple silicon).

Plan and price comparison

Sources: Figment facts (internal, approved offers); RentAMac pricing read 2026-11-10. Taxes and any fees apply as stated in each provider's actual offer.

12-month worked worksheet

The $288/year Figment-vs-RentAMac-M4 delta is an entry-price figure. If Figment quotes you a smaller-RAM or older-chip machine for $95, compare that configuration against what you actually need, not the M4 line. If you want managed CI work, the comparison is Figment's Managed Build Mac at $249/month (one M-series Mac, CI setup, backups, monitoring, 30 minutes of monthly support — exactly those inclusions) against a bare RentAMac rental plus the hours your team spends on runner setup, image refreshes and secret plumbing.

Hardware, access and toolchain fit

RentAMac's pricing page states the M4 ships with Xcode pre-installed, DeskIn for graphical remote desktop plus SSH with root privileges, dedicated (non-virtualized) hardware, and a 1 Gbps down / ~200 Mbps up link. SIP customization is listed as available only on 6-month plans. If your pipeline needs SIP relaxed for kernel-extension signing or low-level automation, that is a 6-month commitment at RentAMac; confirm Figment's SIP posture in your provisioning quote.

Xcode / macOS pairings. Per Apple's Xcode system requirements checked 2026-11-10, Xcode 27 requires macOS Tahoe 26.6 or later; Xcode 26.x pairs with macOS Sequoia 15.6 through Tahoe 26.x depending on the exact point release. Check Apple's row for the exact version you plan to run. The $29 virtual Intel macOS can run compatible Intel Mac toolchains including supported Xcode 26-or-earlier releases; it cannot run Xcode 27 and it cannot build visionOS targets. For anything ARM-only, use an M-series Mac at either provider.

Reliability and a test you can actually run

Neither the Figment offer nor the RentAMac pricing page we checked publishes an uptime SLA or an independently audited build benchmark for these machines. Do not infer reliability from the absence of a number on a marketing page. The useful move is a short, bounded test on the candidate machine before you migrate production CI:

# Bounded sanity test. Fails loud; a failed xcodebuild is not a "fast" build.
set -euo pipefail

PROJECT="YourApp.xcodeproj"     # your file
SCHEME="$(xcodebuild -list -project "$PROJECT" | awk '/Schemes:/{flag=1;next} flag{print $1; exit}')"
test -n "$SCHEME" || { echo "No scheme found"; exit 1; }

# 1. Cold build (record wall-clock)
time xcodebuild clean build -project "$PROJECT" -scheme "$SCHEME" \
  -destination 'generic/platform=iOS'

# 2. Warm build (same command, no clean)
time xcodebuild build -project "$PROJECT" -scheme "$SCHEME" \
  -destination 'generic/platform=iOS'

# 3. Network sanity to your artifact store
dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1m count=200 of=/tmp/artifact.bin
time curl -fsS -T /tmp/artifact.bin "$ARTIFACT_PUT_URL"

This is an unexecuted example, not a reported benchmark. Record the two time results and the upload throughput; compare the same script between your current RentAMac and a provisioned Figment Mac.

RentAMac-to-Figment migration checklist

On the RentAMac machine:

• brew list --formula > brew-formulas.txt and brew list --cask > brew-casks.txt.
• Export signing certificates with private keys as encrypted .p12 via Keychain Access → My Certificates → Export; store the password in your secret manager, not alongside the file.
• Copy provisioning profile files from ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/ to a secure location (profiles are files; do not import them into Keychain).
• Write down the names of secrets your builds need; re-inject values through your CI secret manager. Do not env > secrets.txt — it will contain API keys.
• Deregister your CI runner from GitHub Actions / Buildkite / CircleCI / etc.
• Note your RentAMac renewal date so you do not pay for an overlap month.

On the Figment Mac:

• Request provisioning at /mac-hosting/start with the chip, RAM, SSD and macOS version you need.
• Install Homebrew, then xargs brew install < brew-formulas.txt and xargs brew install --cask < brew-casks.txt.
• security import YourCert.p12 -k ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db -P "$P12_PASSWORD" for the signing cert.
• Copy provisioning profile files back into ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/.
• Install the Xcode version matched to your target macOS per Apple's requirements page, then sudo xcodebuild -license accept.
• Register the new CI runner; re-inject secret values from your vault.
• Update your own firewall, artifact-store and CI-platform allowlists for the new egress IP. (There is no published App Store Connect or TestFlight inbound allowlist to add.)
• Run the test script above; compare timings to the RentAMac baseline before cancelling.

Choose the Figment plan

Start a Figment request at /mac-hosting/start.

Also see: Figment vs Roundfleet · Figment vs OakHost · Shared or private Mac hosting?