Mac mini M4 · M4 Pro, dedicated build servers
Bare-metal Apple Silicon for CI/CD, Xcode builds and test farms, allocated 1:1, full root access, from $85/month. No virtualization, no noisy neighbours, no up-front hardware.
Technical specifications
Apple's published chip specifications, plus exactly what we provide around the machine.
Configurations
| Configuration | CPU / GPU | Memory | SSD | Network | Monthly | Annual /mo | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mac mini M4 | 10c / 10c | 16 GB | 256 GB | 1 Gbps · 5 Gbps opt. | $85 | $78 | Solo iOS builds & PR checks |
| Mac mini M4 | 10c / 10c | 16 GB | 512 GB | 1 Gbps · 5 Gbps opt. | $99 | $91 | Bigger caches & artifacts |
| Mac mini M4 | 10c / 10c | 24 GB | 512 GB | 1 Gbps · 5 Gbps opt. | $129 | $118 | Parallel simulators, local LLMs |
| Mac mini M4 Pro | 12c / 16c | 24 GB | 512 GB | 1 Gbps · 5 Gbps opt. | $229 | $210 | Heavy Xcode builds, parallel CI |
| Mac mini M4 Pro | 12c / 16c | 48 GB | 1 TB | 10 Gbps | $299 | $274 | Large test farms, 13–34B LLMs |
| Mac mini M4 Pro Max | 14c / 20c | 64 GB | 4 TB | 10 Gbps | $449 | $412 | 70B-class models, ML pipelines |
Running 5 or more Macs? Put them on a private network, optionally behind a single public IP, with volume pricing from 10.
Explore Mac fleet →Benchmarks
From our Mac mini M4 Pro benchmark guide, the same test suite on each chip.
Single-core: M4 Pro 3,850 · M4 3,800 · Intel 1,680.
Incremental build: 8s · 11s · 14s · 32s.
| Model | M4 Pro | M4 |
|---|---|---|
| Llama 3 8B | 48.2 | 35.6 |
| Mistral 7B | 52.7 | 38.9 |
| CodeLlama 13B | 32.1 | 22.8 |
| Llama 3 70B | 8.5 | (needs 48 GB+) |
SwiftPM clean build total: M4 Pro 1m 50s · M4 2m 29s.
What's included
Every Mac Mini ships ready for CI/CD work, with no lengthy setup. Here is what comes standard on every dedicated server, whatever tier you choose.
Servers run the latest macOS, and we can pre-install the specific Xcode versions your project targets, including multiple side-by-side versions for matrix builds.
Connect over SSH and VNC with complete administrator rights. Install Homebrew packages, custom daemons, and any toolchain your pipeline depends on, with no restrictions.
Every Mac ships with 1 Gbps. Upgrade the M4 to 5 Gbps (+$35/mo); the top M4 Pro configurations include 10 Gbps. Fast dependency downloads, container pulls and artifact uploads.
Homebrew, Git, Node.js, Ruby, and the common runtimes that iOS and macOS pipelines rely on are quick to set up, so your runner is productive from day one.
Your Mac Mini is never shared or oversubscribed. One physical machine, allocated to you alone, keeps performance predictable and Apple licensing fully compliant.
Our team works with macOS build infrastructure every day. When you have a question about runners, code signing, or Xcode, you reach people who understand the platform.
Use cases
A Mac Mini build server is the backbone of most Apple development pipelines. Here are the workloads our customers run every day.
Register the Mac Mini as a self-hosted runner for GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, or Buildkite. Pre-install the Xcode versions your project needs and keep your build queue moving without paying per-minute cloud CI rates.
GitHub Actions runner guide →Run XCTest, UI tests, Appium, and Selenium suites in parallel across simulators. Dedicated cores mean test execution time stays predictable, so your nightly and pre-merge test runs finish on schedule.
macOS automated testing →Centralize provisioning profiles and signing certificates on one trusted machine, then ship to TestFlight and the App Store with Fastlane. No more juggling credentials across laptops.
Fastlane on a Mac server →Use the same server as a remote macOS workstation over SSH or VNC, build, debug, and run Xcode from a Windows or Linux machine, or hand a shared build box to a distributed team.
Develop iOS remotely →Install the open-source OpenClaw agent, connect Telegram, Discord or WhatsApp and keep it running with launchd.
Nous Research's self-improving open-source agent: one-line installer, Telegram/Discord gateway, launchd service, optional local Ollama.
Serve Llama, Mistral or Phi with Ollama, llama.cpp and MLX, no per-token API costs.
Xcode build times, Swift compilation, LLM inference and Geekbench scores, measured on real hardware.
Rent vs buy
There are three ways to get a Mac into your build pipeline: rent a dedicated machine, spin up a virtualized cloud instance, or buy hardware outright. A dedicated Mac Mini combines the bare-metal performance of owning hardware with the flexibility and zero-maintenance of the cloud.
| Dedicated Mac Mini | Cloud VM | Buying | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up-front cost | None | None | $1,400+ per machine |
| Performance | Bare-metal Apple Silicon | Virtualized, variable | Bare-metal |
| Maintenance | Fully managed | Managed | Your responsibility |
| Scaling | Add servers on demand | On demand | Buy more hardware |
| Apple compliance | 1:1 dedicated | Often shared | N/A |
Buying means up-front capital, hosting, and hardware support that fall on your team. Shared cloud VMs are convenient but introduce virtualization overhead and unpredictable performance. A rented dedicated Mac Mini avoids both: no CapEx, full bare-metal speed, and you can add or remove servers as your pipeline grows.
Choose your configuration → Start building
Provisioning is fast because every server runs on hardware that is already racked and ready. Most customers connect their first pipeline the same day.
Pick the Mac Mini tier that matches your build load and billing preference, monthly or annual.
Your dedicated machine is allocated 1:1, prepared with the latest macOS, and delivered with SSH and VNC credentials.
Install your CI agent, pull the Xcode versions you need, and register the server with GitHub Actions, GitLab, Jenkins, or Buildkite.
Push a commit and watch your pipeline run on dedicated Apple Silicon with predictable, repeatable build times.
Browse the full documentation for step-by-step setup, configuration references, and troubleshooting.
Open the documentation →FAQ
The M4 handles a single app's PR checks comfortably. Choose the M4 Pro when you run parallel jobs, large monorepos or UI test suites: clean builds are about 30% faster in our benchmarks and memory goes up to 64 GB.
It is a dedicated physical Apple Mac Mini running macOS, used to compile, sign, and test Apple software. Connected to a CI/CD system, it builds your iOS, iPadOS, and macOS apps automatically on every commit.
All of them. Because you have full root access, you can run self-hosted runners for GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Buildkite, and Fastlane, plus any other tooling that runs on macOS.
It is a dedicated physical Mac Mini, allocated 1:1 to you. There is no virtualization and no shared tenancy, which is what gives you predictable, bare-metal performance.
Yes. Higher-tier configurations with more CPU and GPU cores are designed to run multiple build and test jobs in parallel, and you can add more servers as your pipeline grows.
Yes. macOS runs on genuine Apple hardware with strict 1:1 hardware allocation, fully complying with Apple's macOS licensing requirements.
Hardware is already racked and ready, so provisioning is fast. Most customers receive their credentials and connect their first pipeline the same day.
Pricing starts at $85/month for a dedicated Mac Mini M4 with full root access, with M4 Pro and Mac Pro tiers for heavier workloads. Annual billing includes one month free.
"We migrated our Jenkins nodes to dedicated Mac Minis. Build stability improved dramatically, our Xcode builds are fast and the times are finally predictable."
"Full root access on physical hardware let us configure our build environment exactly how we needed. No virtualization quirks, no surprises."
"We replaced an aging office build machine with a rented Mac Mini. It's faster, always online, and we no longer manage hardware."
Deploy a dedicated Apple Silicon build server and connect your CI/CD pipeline in minutes.
Get Started