Figment vs Sayob: Mac Hosting Compared in 2026

If you want an EU-hosted M4 Mac Mini with German operator and GDPR jurisdiction, Sayob lists dedicated M4/16 GB/256 GB machines from €119/month (tax extra). If you want a cheaper entry point, a USD invoice, or a managed CI runner that Sayob's pricing page does not list, Figment is the direct alternative: M-series from $95/month, a $29/month virtual Intel macOS environment for Xcode 26-and-earlier work, and Managed Build Mac at $249/month with CI setup, backups and monitoring included. Request a Figment configuration quote to confirm the exact M-series spec and delivery before switching.

What Sayob Publishes

Sayob's Apple silicon page advertises bare-metal Mac Mini M4 machines in European partner facilities, including sites in Frankfurt, London, Tallinn and the Netherlands, operated by a German company under EU/UK GDPR jurisdiction. The entry tier published in search-indexed copy is M4 with 16 GB unified memory and 256 GB SSD at €119/month. Higher tiers rise toward roughly €399/month; the exact RAM/SSD steps and any M4 Pro option are on the live pricing page.

Sayob's page did not render full pricing content on direct fetch during this review, so the figures above come from current search-indexed Sayob copy and Sayob's own blog. Reconfirm the live table on sayob.com/apple-silicon/ before ordering, especially annual prepay terms, which Sayob may quote on request.

What Figment Publishes

Figment prices in US dollars and publishes four retail tiers plus enterprise:

The $29 plan is a virtual Intel macOS environment running on Linux/KVM. It is a real macOS runtime and can run Xcode 26 or earlier, which Apple's porting guide identifies as the correct range for Intel processors. It can cross-compile and sign arm64 device apps and universal macOS binaries; what it cannot do is execute arm64-only binaries, run Xcode 27, or provide GPU/audio acceleration. Choose M-series when you need those. No free trial or uptime SLA is published; ask for an evaluation or a configuration quote.

Entry-Price Worksheet (EUR and USD Together)

These are entry prices for different hardware: Sayob publishes M4/16/256; Figment's $95 M-series entry does not specify an M4 or a specific RAM/disk tier. Treat the comparison as entry cost, not spec-matched hardware.

Using the ECB reference rate of 1 EUR = 1.1214 USD on 2026-11-10 (source), approximate conversions, before bank or card fees and before Sayob's tax:

Sayob's tax-extra note means the EUR cash outflow is higher than €119 depending on your VAT status. For Figment, confirm tax and fees as stated in the quote you receive.

Entry savings at the M-series tier are real (roughly $38/month cheaper at the published starts), but Figment's $95 is not a spec-matched M4/16/256 against Sayob's €119. If you require that exact Apple silicon spec, ask Figment to quote it and compare like for like.

Toolchain and Access Fit

Sayob's M4 is Apple silicon, so it covers every current Xcode version and visionOS work. Apple's Xcode system requirements list Xcode 26 needing macOS Sequoia 15.6 or later and Xcode 27 needing macOS Tahoe 26.6 or later. Apple's porting guide explicitly states: to run Xcode on an Intel-based processor, use Xcode 26 or earlier.

Access on Figment's $29 plan is the browser console and the VM's desktop terminal; outbound CI agents can connect to your CI service from inside the VM. Physical M-series access, admin scope and any direct SSH are confirmed in the quote.

A Build-Timing Worksheet You Can Run

Benchmarks neither Sayob nor Figment publishes. The only reliable number is from your own project on your own branch. Run three clean builds, discard the first (cold caches), and compare the median of the next two across both hosts:

set -euo pipefail
# Replace SCHEME/PROJECT/DEST with your real values.
SCHEME="YourScheme"
PROJECT="YourProject.xcodeproj"
DEST='generic/platform=iOS'

for run in 1 2 3; do
  START=$(date +%s)
  xcodebuild \
    -project "$PROJECT" \
    -scheme "$SCHEME" \
    -configuration Release \
    -destination "$DEST" \
    clean build
  END=$(date +%s)
  echo "run=$run seconds=$((END - START))"
done

set -euo pipefail stops the script on a failed build, so a broken configuration cannot be mistaken for a fast run. This is an unexecuted example; verify flags against your installed xcodebuild -help and your project's actual scheme and destination. Xcode schedules independent targets in parallel inside one scheme, so total time is not the sum of per-target times.

Migrating from Sayob to Figment

Do this in order; the first block runs on the Sayob machine before you stop paying.

1. Record only the names of the environment variables your pipeline needs. Do not dump the full shell environment to a file — it can contain API keys and tokens.
2. In Keychain Access, export each Developer ID, Distribution and Development certificate together with its private key as a .p12 protected by a strong passphrase stored in your password manager. Developer ID Application and Developer ID Installer are separate certificates; export both if you ship signed installers.
3. Copy .mobileprovision files from ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/ to secure storage. Provisioning profiles are plain files; they are not imported into Keychain.
4. Commit CI workflow files, Fastfile and helper scripts to version control if they are not already there.
5. If you maintain IP allowlists on resources you control — your artifact store, webhook receivers, VPN, or self-hosted CI service — note the current Sayob egress IP so you can update those entries after cut-over. Do not assume Apple services expose an allowlistable IP range.
6. Pull any build artefacts or local project data off the Sayob machine; EU residency ends when the data leaves.

On the new Figment host:

7. Restore secret values through your secret manager (GitHub Actions encrypted secrets, 1Password CLI, HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager). Do not paste secret literals into interactive shells where they land in history.
8. Import the .p12 into a dedicated signing keychain and copy profiles back to ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/. If you already use fastlane match, run match instead and skip the manual .p12 step.
9. Run one dry-run build on a feature branch before pointing production CI at the new host.
10. Switch runner labels or host addresses in CI; keep the Sayob runner online until the Figment runner has completed at least one full green release pipeline.
11. Cancel Sayob and confirm the final billing date in writing.

If your reason for leaving Sayob is EU data residency rather than price or managed CI, re-check that reason before you move: Figment is not an EU-resident provider, and your DPA with downstream customers may constrain the move. That is a contract question for your legal team, not a technical one.

Which Plan to Pick

• Need EU data residency and EUR invoicing with M4/16/256 hardware: stay on Sayob.
• Need the cheapest working macOS runtime for Xcode 26-and-earlier CI, Intel-compatible builds, or cross-compiled arm64 archives: Figment's $29 virtual Intel macOS.
• Need an M-series Mac at a lower entry than €119 with USD invoicing: Figment M-series from $95; request a quote so the chip, RAM and disk are documented.
• Need the CI runner set up, backed up and monitored for you: Figment Managed Build Mac at $249/month.

Start a Figment Mac order or read the Mac hosting overview to see the full plan list.

Related reading

• Figment vs Scannel IT: Mac Hosting Compared
• Figment vs Server Gigabit: Mac Hosting Compared
• Hourly vs Monthly Mac Rental: Which Billing Model Wins?