Figment vs Scaleway: Mac Hosting Compared

Verdict: pick by the job, not the headline

If you need ARM‑native CI, Metal or visionOS work, request an M‑series Mac from Figment starting at $95/month and compare against Scaleway's cheapest M4 tier, the M4‑S at €149/month excluding VAT. Scaleway also lists an older Mac mini M1 at €75/month, which is cheaper on the headline than Figment's $95 entry; if an M1 is enough for your build, that is the lower sticker price.

If your toolchain is Intel‑only — supported Intel versions of Xcode 26 or earlier, Intel command‑line SDKs, Homebrew x86_64 work — Figment's virtual Intel macOS at $29/month (2 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk) is the cheapest way to get a macOS userland in this comparison. It is a Linux/KVM virtual Mac; you get a desktop terminal and can install a compatible Xcode release and build tools. It has no GPU acceleration and no audio, and it cannot execute Apple Silicon binaries or visionOS simulators. For those, pick an M‑series plan from either vendor. Verify the exact Xcode/macOS pair on Apple's Xcode system requirements page before you commit a build to any machine.

Figment's physical i3 Mac ($49) and physical M‑series ($95+) plans collect requests until supply is confirmed, so treat the $95 figure as an entry price. The specific chip, RAM and disk at that price are set in the quote, not on a public spec sheet — do not assume M4 or a particular RAM/SSD tier.

Published plans and terms

Scaleway's current Apple Silicon lineup, from its pricing page:

Prices in EUR, excluding VAT. Scaleway enforces a 24‑hour minimum per hourly allocation (Apple's macOS licensing). Annual prepayment discounts, setup fees and uptime SLA are not published on the pricing page we checked; take tax and fees as stated on your actual Scaleway offer.

Figment published retail: virtual Intel macOS $29/month, i3 Mac $49, M‑series from $95, Managed Build Mac $249 (one M‑series Mac, CI setup, backups, monitoring, 30 minutes monthly support), Managed Mac Team $999 (two M‑series Macs, two CI runners, team setup, backups, monitoring, one hour monthly support). Enterprise fleets are quoted. There is no free trial; request a configuration quote or short evaluation before purchase.

A worked cost example (Scaleway hourly vs monthly, M4‑S)

Scaleway's 24‑hour minimum makes hourly billing behave like "day passes." Decide with arithmetic, not intuition.

• One 24‑hour allocation on M4‑S: 24 × €0.22 = €5.28.
• Twelve allocations in a month (three full working weeks of day‑long CI jobs): 12 × €5.28 = €63.36. Hourly wins.
• Breakeven vs €149/month: €149 ÷ €5.28 ≈ 28.2 allocations. If you book the machine on ~28 or more calendar days in a month, the monthly commitment is cheaper.
• A 2‑hour debugging session still bills a full 24‑hour minimum: €5.28, not €0.44.

On Figment, the $95 M‑series entry is a flat monthly commitment and the $29 virtual Intel macOS is the lowest floor if ARM is not required. If a 12‑month rental is on the table, sum twelve months in both currencies at your treasury rate rather than comparing month vs month across EUR and USD. Scaleway's page shows no annual prepay discount at the time of this check, so the 12‑month total for M4‑S is 12 × €149 = €1,788 excluding VAT.

Hardware, access and toolchain fit

Scaleway's Apple Silicon machines ship as dedicated Mac minis with vanilla macOS. You configure SSH, remote desktop, Xcode and your CI runner yourself. There is no Mac Studio or Mac Pro class on the published lineup. Scaleway's support, SLA and credits are governed by its service terms; check your current contract rather than assuming they are absent.

Figment's difference is the specific managed CI work included on the $249 and $999 tiers: CI runner installed and registered, backup schedule, monitoring in place, plus bounded monthly support minutes. On the $29 virtual Intel macOS, you get a shell and can run compatible Intel Mac toolchains (Xcode 26 or earlier, where the OS pair on the Apple Xcode page matches). Intel cannot run Xcode 27, and visionOS development requires Apple silicon.

Scaleway → Figment migration worksheet

Work through this before you cancel Scaleway, and keep the two allocations overlapping for a short window to avoid a blocked release.

Capture on the Scaleway machine:

• brew list --formula > brew-formulas.txt and brew list --cask > brew-casks.txt.
• Export code‑signing certificates with private keys from Keychain Access → My Certificates → Export → encrypted .p12. Store the password in your team's secret manager, not in the file.
• Copy provisioning profile files from ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/. They are files, not Keychain exports.
• Record CI runner registration tokens and the names of required secrets from your CI platform. Do not dump environment variables to a plaintext file; re‑inject each value from your CI vault or secret manager on the new host.
• Save a baseline time xcodebuild clean build -project YourApp.xcodeproj -scheme <your real scheme> -destination 'generic/platform=iOS' wall‑clock and full log. Confirm your scheme first with xcodebuild -list.
• Note the Scaleway billing cycle end date and any unresolved invoice/VAT items as stated on your Scaleway account.

Provision on Figment at /mac-hosting/start:

• Request an M‑series Mac (or the $29 virtual Intel macOS if your build is Intel‑only) with your Xcode/macOS pair stated in the request.
• Replay packages: xargs brew install < brew-formulas.txt then xargs brew install --cask < brew-casks.txt.
• Import the certificate: security import YourCert.p12 -k ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db.
• Copy provisioning profiles back into ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/.
• Register the CI runner on the new host; deregister the Scaleway one only after a green build.
• Update any allowlists you actually maintain (your artifact store, VPN, SSH bastion, CI service IP allowlist) with the new IP. There is no generic App Store Connect or TestFlight IP allowlist to update.
• Re‑run the baseline build and compare wall‑clock and log output before cutting traffic over. A build that exits non‑zero is not a benchmark; fix it first.

Choose the Figment plan

If you are on Scaleway's M4‑S at €149/month and your workload is ARM‑bound CI, start with Figment's M‑series entry and ask for the exact configuration to match your RAM and SSD needs. If your builds will fit on an Intel toolchain, the $29 virtual Intel macOS is the cheapest path.

Begin a request at /mac-hosting/start.

Also see: Figment vs RentAMac · Figment vs Roundfleet · Colocation or Mac Rental?