Figment vs UnifiedRack: Mac Hosting Compared

Verdict: lower sticker, but every tier was rented on the day we checked

UnifiedRack's pricing page lists four Apple silicon Mac minis: M1 (8 GB / 256 GB) at $39/month or $2.30/day, M6 (32 GB / 256 GB) at $149/month or $8.50/day, M1 Max (64 GB / 4 TB) at $249/month or $14.26/day, and M5 Max (36 GB / 512 GB) at $329/month or $18.72/day. Every tier was marked Rented when this page was checked on 2026-11-10, with an email-notify option. SSD data is "deleted upon release", so each new rental is a cold machine.

Figment's practical answer depends on the job. If you only need Intel-compatible macOS tooling (Xcode 26 or earlier, scripted builds, test runners, outbound CI agents), the virtual Intel macOS VM is $29/month (2 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM, 80 GiB disk, browser-console access). If you need ARM execution, visionOS, Xcode 27 or on-device GPU work, choose Figment M-series from $95/month (exact chip, RAM and disk are confirmed in the quote). For managed CI setup with backups and monitoring on one M-series Mac, Managed Build Mac is $249/month.

Start at /mac-hosting/start.

Published plan, term and effective cost

UnifiedRack's pricing page shows a 43% headline saving on the M1 (daily $2.30 × 30 = $69 vs $39 monthly). That saving only applies if the machine is actually free when you need it. Setup fees, annual prepay, uptime commitment and support terms are not listed in the pricing we checked; ask UnifiedRack directly. Figment's monthly prices above are the retail offers; taxes and fees apply as stated in the actual quote.

Hardware, access and toolchain fit

UnifiedRack rents dedicated physical Mac minis across four generations. The M1 is from 2020 but still Apple silicon, so it can run supported Xcode 26 and Xcode 27 as long as the installed macOS matches Apple's Xcode system requirements (Xcode 27 needs macOS Tahoe 26.6 or later; Xcode 26.4+ needs Tahoe 26.2; Xcode 26.0–26.3 run on Sequoia 15.6+). visionOS development requires Apple silicon on either side.

Figment's $29 plan is a virtual Intel macOS environment on Linux/KVM. It runs macOS, not an SSH tunnel to another machine: you get a desktop session through the browser console, and you can run xcodebuild, fastlane and outbound CI agents inside it. It is Intel, so Apple's guidance to use Xcode 26 or earlier on Intel applies. Intel Xcode can cross-compile and sign arm64 device apps and universal macOS binaries; executing arm64-only binaries, running Xcode 27, or building visionOS still needs Apple silicon. There is no GPU acceleration or audio on the VM.

For ARM execution, GPU-bound simulators or Xcode 27, pick Figment M-series and confirm the chip, RAM and disk in your quote. Physical M-series supply is request-based; do not count on same-day delivery.

Availability and persistence: the UnifiedRack risk

Because UnifiedRack wipes the SSD on release, every re-rental restarts the derived-data cache, Homebrew tree and simulator caches from scratch. Plan for externalized state regardless of provider.

A worked worksheet: UnifiedRack M6 vs Figment Managed Build

Assume you need one dedicated Apple silicon Mac for a month of CI, with backups and a human to set it up. Compare like-for-term:

• UnifiedRack M6 monthly: $149 for M6/32 GB/256 GB. Backups, CI setup and support are not listed on the pricing page — budget separately or do it yourself. Storage resets on release.
• Figment Managed Build: $249 for one M-series Mac, CI setup, backups, monitoring and 30 minutes of support. Chip and RAM confirmed in the quote.

Entry-price delta: $249 − $149 = $100/month more on Figment Managed Build, which buys the managed CI work and backup coverage. If you do not need those, compare UnifiedRack M6 at $149 to Figment's unmanaged M-series from $95 — a $54/month entry-cost gap in Figment's favour on the headline, with exact hardware set in the quote (do not assume equal chips). If you only need Intel-compatible tooling, the $29 VM is the cheapest Figment entry point and beats every UnifiedRack row, at the cost of ARM execution and GPU.

Migration worksheet

UnifiedRack's wipe-on-release model forces externalized state, which makes the move straightforward.

Before you release the UnifiedRack machine

• Push every branch to version control; tag the last green build.
• In Keychain Access, export each signing identity with its private key as an encrypted .p12 (My Certificates → right-click → Export → .p12, set a strong passphrase, store the passphrase in your password manager). Developer ID Application and Developer ID Installer are separate identities.
• Copy provisioning profiles as files from ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/ to your secure storage. Profiles are files, not Keychain items.
• Record the names of CI secrets and env vars in a checklist. Do not paste values into files, tickets or shell history.
• Snapshot the tool list: brew list --versions > tools-inventory-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt.

On the Figment Mac (M-series or VM, depending on plan)

• Request your configuration at /mac-hosting/start and confirm chip/RAM/disk in the quote.
• Install Homebrew, then reinstall tools by name only: awk '{print $1}' tools-inventory-*.txt | xargs brew install.
• Import each .p12 into a dedicated signing keychain; copy profiles into ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/.
• Restore secret values through your CI platform's secret manager — never a plaintext env export.
• Update allowlists you actually control (your CI service, artifact store, webhook receivers, VPN). Apple's App Store Connect and TestFlight do not publish an IP range to allowlist; do not invent one.
• Run one full build to warm the derived-data cache, then run the sample build command on your own project and scheme to confirm the environment:

# Replace PROJECT and SCHEME with your own values. This is an illustrative command,
# not a benchmark. Failures stop the script; do not record failed runs as timings.
set -euo pipefail
xcodebuild \
  -project "$PROJECT" \
  -scheme "$SCHEME" \
  -configuration Release \
  -destination 'generic/platform=macOS' \
  build

Cutover

• Point CI runners and webhook destinations at the Figment host.
• Keep the UnifiedRack rental until one complete, green CI run on Figment — or, if UnifiedRack is still Rented when you need it, start from your externalized state directly on Figment.

Which Figment plan fits

Start at /mac-hosting/start or see the product overview at /mac-hosting.

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