Figment vs RunMini: Mac Hosting Compared

RunMini rents an M4 Mac mini (16 GB / 256 GB) by the day, week, month, or quarter, published at $19 / $59 / $109 / $299 on runmini.com. Figment's M-series Mac hosting starts at $95/month; the exact chip, RAM, and storage are confirmed in the quote, and physical provisioning is request-based. For short bursts, RunMini's daily rate wins. For steady monthly use, Figment's entry price is lower and includes optional managed CI add-ons that RunMini does not publish.

Start a Figment M-series quote at /mac-hosting/start.

Published Rates and Break-Even Math

RunMini's tiers for the base M4 16/256 configuration, with the higher-spec 24/512 row shown for completeness, from runmini.com:

Figment's $95/month is an entry price for an unspecified M-series configuration, not a confirmed M4 16/256 match. Treat it as entry-cost savings, not an equal-hardware swap; the exact spec is set during the quote.

Three calculations the buyer cares about:

• Daily vs monthly on RunMini. $109 ÷ $19 = 5.74 days. From day 6, the monthly rate is cheaper than paying by the day (6 × $19 = $114 > $109).
• Monthly vs monthly, RunMini vs Figment entry. $109 − $95 = $14/month lower on Figment. Over 12 months that is $168 at entry price.
• Quarterly RunMini vs 3 months Figment. $299 vs 3 × $95 = $285. Figment is $14 lower over the quarter and does not require a prepaid three-month commitment. No Figment annual prepayment or setup fee is published; confirm payment terms, tax, and any fees in the quote.

If your work is a few days per month, RunMini daily is the right tool. If you run builds every week, the flat monthly plans are the decision, and Figment's entry price is lower than RunMini's published monthly or effective-quarterly rate.

Hardware, Access, and What Is Included

RunMini lists an M4 Mac mini with 16 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD on the base tier and a 24 GB / 512 GB tier above it, on runmini.com. Access, uptime terms, and support details on that page are what you should quote back to your team; do not assume features that are not listed.

Figment's catalogue, relevant to this comparison:

• Virtual Intel macOS, $29/month — 2 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk. It is a real macOS environment running on Linux/KVM, with no GPU acceleration or audio. It runs compatible Intel Mac toolchains, including Xcode 26 or earlier, per Apple's porting guide (developer.apple.com). Choose it for Intel-compatible builds, scripted signing of supported targets, or cheap parallel CI shards. Access is the browser console; inbound public SSH is not offered. ARM-only targets and Xcode 27 are not supported on this VM.
• M-series Mac from $95/month — Apple silicon, request-based provisioning. Use this tier for ARM execution, visionOS, Xcode 27, or GPU-sensitive builds.
• Managed Build Mac, $249/month — one M-series Mac, CI setup, backups, monitoring, and 30 minutes of monthly support.
• Managed Mac Team, $999/month — two M-series Macs, two CI runners, team setup, backups, monitoring, and one hour of monthly support.

Figment's difference versus RunMini is the managed CI work on the higher tiers: a CI runner configured against your repo, backups, and monitoring. If you currently spend engineer time on the runner itself rather than on your app, the managed tiers are the useful comparison.

Xcode and Toolchain Fit

Apple's current guidance is explicit: Intel Macs must use Xcode 26 or an earlier release (developer.apple.com). Check the exact Xcode/macOS pair for your release on Apple's system requirements before you upgrade — minor point releases can change the minimum macOS. visionOS and Xcode 27 require Apple silicon.

Mapping that to the two providers:

• RunMini's M4 Mac mini runs any Xcode supported by the installed macOS, including Xcode 27 when the macOS version qualifies.
• Figment's M-series tier covers the same Apple-silicon-only cases; confirm the installed macOS in the quote.
• Figment's $29 Intel VM covers Intel-compatible Xcode 26 or earlier. It is not a substitute for an Apple-silicon host when your target needs one.

A RunMini-Specific Switch Plan

RunMini's short terms make a low-risk switch straightforward. Work through this list in order.

Before you request the Figment machine:

• Pick a switch date aligned to your RunMini term. Daily and weekly: simply stop renewing. Monthly: switch at period end. Quarterly: time the change to end-of-quarter to avoid unused prepaid days.
• Push every branch to your git remote. Download reports, screenshots, and derived data you want to keep from the RunMini host.
• Export signing identities as encrypted .p12 files from Keychain Access with the private key included and a strong passphrase; store the passphrase in a password manager, not in a repo or shell history. Download provisioning profiles as .mobileprovision files from the Apple Developer portal or Xcode. Provisioning profiles are files, not Keychain items.
• List the CI secret names you rely on. Re-enter the values in the new host's secret manager. Do not dump the environment to a text file; it will capture tokens and keys.

After the Figment machine is available:

• Check the installed macOS against Apple's Xcode requirements for your target version.
• Import the .p12, then run security find-identity -v -p codesigning to confirm the identity is usable.
• Clone the repo and run one full clean build end to end before wiring up CI.
• Update only the allowlists you control — your firewall, artifact store, or self-hosted CI service — with the new host. Do not invent third-party IP ranges.
• Run five consecutive green CI builds on Figment before you let the RunMini rental lapse.

A Short Build-Time Worksheet

Use your own project on each host for one apples-to-apples number. This is an unexecuted example of the script shape, not a benchmark:

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

WORKSPACE="YourApp.xcworkspace"
SCHEME="YourScheme"
DESTINATION="generic/platform=iOS"
LOG="build_$(hostname)_$(date -u +%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ).log"

{
  echo "host=$(hostname)"
  xcodebuild -version
  sw_vers -productVersion
  time xcodebuild clean build \
    -workspace "$WORKSPACE" \
    -scheme "$SCHEME" \
    -destination "$DESTINATION" \
    -configuration Release
} 2>&1 | tee "$LOG"

set -euo pipefail means a failed xcodebuild aborts the run; only successful builds produce a timing you can compare. Run three times on each host and take the median. Record the Xcode and macOS versions alongside each number; a build on Xcode 26 and a build on Xcode 27 are not the same measurement.

Choose the Figment Plan

Request a quote at /mac-hosting/start.

Related reading:

• Figment vs Sim-Networks: Mac Hosting Compared
• Figment vs Sayob: Mac Hosting Compared
• Single Host or Two: When to Add a Second Build Machine

Sources checked 2026-11-10: runmini.com for published RunMini pricing and configurations; Apple: Porting your macOS apps to Apple silicon for Intel Xcode guidance.