Figment vs SIM-Networks: Mac Hosting Compared

If you are comparing SIM-Networks and Figment for Mac hosting, the short answer is: pick SIM-Networks if you need a German data centre and EUR billing on an M2 Mac Mini at €99.75/month; pick Figment if you want US-dollar pricing, a $29 Intel macOS VM for cheap build and verification work, or a managed CI setup from $249/month. The currencies and hardware tiers differ, so compare like-for-like inside your own workflow before signing a term.

SIM-Networks Published Plans

SIM-Networks lists four Mac Mini plans from Germany on its Mac OS server page:

Billing cycles are 1, 3, 6 or 12 months, with −3% at 6 months and −8% at 12 months on Intel plans; longer cycles are also offered on the M2 and M2 Pro rows. Installation is free, activation takes 1–4 business days, and prices exclude VAT and fees as stated in the offer. Access is via VNC and SSH. SIM-Networks publishes a response-time SLA (within one hour) and 24/7 support; no uptime percentage is published on that page.

Figment Plans (USD)

Figment's current retail plans relevant to Apple toolchain work:

The $29 plan is a virtual Intel macOS environment on Linux/KVM. It runs real macOS and can build, test and sign targets with compatible Intel Xcode releases — Xcode 26 or earlier per Apple's porting guidance. It cannot execute arm64-only binaries, drive GPU workloads, or run Xcode 27 or visionOS tooling; choose the M-series plan for those. Physical i3 and M-series plans collect requests until supply is confirmed, so treat availability as a quote step, not an in-cart purchase.

Toolchain Fit

SIM-Networks' two Intel plans cap at macOS Monterey 12. Per Apple's Xcode system requirements, Xcode 26 needs macOS Sequoia 15.6 at minimum, so neither Intel SIM-Networks plan can run Xcode 26 or 27 against current SDKs — they are useful for legacy maintenance only. The M2 and M2 Pro plans list latest-macOS availability, which covers Sequoia and Tahoe and therefore Xcode 26; Xcode 27 requires macOS Tahoe 26.6 and Apple silicon.

On Figment, the $29 virtual Intel macOS matches the Intel toolchain envelope (cross-compile to arm64 device apps, universal macOS binaries, code signing with supported certs). The M-series plan is the right tier for Xcode 27, visionOS, GPU, audio or arm64 execution. Confirm exact chip, RAM, disk and OS image in the configuration quote — the $95 entry is a starting price, not a published M4/16 GB spec.

12-Month Cost Worksheet

Currencies are kept separate. The ECB reference rate on 2026-11-10 was 1 EUR = 1.1214 USD; any dollar conversion below is approximate and before bank or card fees.

The $95 Figment entry is a lower monthly price than SIM-Networks' M2, but the published Figment spec at that price is not an M4/16 GB configuration — it is the M-series starting rate. Compare entry cost here, and confirm the exact machine Figment quotes you against the 8 GB M2 at SIM-Networks before treating them as equivalent. The Pro tier row is deliberately mixed: SIM-Networks sells hardware access, while Figment's $249 adds managed CI setup and monitoring rather than a larger chip.

Migration Checklist

Before you cancel the SIM-Networks machine:

1. Write down the names of required secrets (API tokens, signing passphrases). Do not export the full shell environment to a file — it can contain private keys.
2. In Keychain Access, export each Distribution and Development certificate with its private key as an encrypted .p12 and store the passphrase in your password manager.
3. Copy .mobileprovision files from ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/ to secure storage. Profiles are files; they do not need Keychain export.
4. Commit your CI pipeline definition, Fastfile and helper scripts to version control if they are not already there.
5. If any customer-controlled allowlist (artifact store, notification webhook, self-hosted runner service) restricts by source IP, record the current SIM-Networks IP and the places that need updating. Do not invent App Store Connect or TestFlight allowlists — Apple does not publish fixed IP ranges for them.

On the new Figment host:

6. Restore secret values through your CI secret manager (GitHub Actions secrets, Vault, 1Password CLI). Do not paste them into shell history.
7. Import the .p12 into a per-job keychain and reference .mobileprovision files from their standard location; fastlane match is a reasonable team-managed alternative.
8. Run a clean build end-to-end before you decommission the old host. Use a real scheme from your project; do not hard-code one from an example.
9. Update CI runner labels or host targets to point at the Figment machine.
10. Confirm the SIM-Networks cancellation date in the customer portal.

A Small Build-Time Check

The snippet below is an unexecuted example, not a benchmark. Run it on your own project on each host, with your real scheme, and compare after a warm run:

set -euo pipefail
START=$(date +%s)
xcodebuild \
  -scheme "$YOUR_SCHEME" \
  -project "$YOUR_PROJECT.xcodeproj" \
  -configuration Release \
  -destination 'platform=macOS' \
  clean build
echo "Build seconds: $(( $(date +%s) - START ))"

set -euo pipefail makes a failed build exit non-zero; a failed run is not a timing sample. Discard the cold run and compare the next two.

Choose a Plan

If you need EUR billing from a German data centre and the M2/8 GB machine fits, SIM-Networks' €99.75/month M2 is a clean fit. If you need a cheap virtual Intel macOS for legacy maintenance, a managed CI pipeline on Apple silicon, or USD billing, request a Figment configuration quote or review the mac-hosting plans.

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