HostMyApple bills by the month and leads with NoMachine. MacRent rents a dedicated Mac Mini M4 or M6 for $15/day, $89/week or $159/month, with SSH, VNC and RustDesk open from the first minute.
See MacRent pricingHostMyApple has hosted Macs since 2009 and sells two things: macOS virtual servers from $24.99/month, which still run macOS Monterey, and dedicated Mac minis from an Intel i7 up to an M6, at $119.99/month for the M4 and $139.99/month for the M6 with 16GB. Billing is monthly, access is advertised through NoMachine, Apple Remote Desktop or VNC, and restarts go through the support ticket system.
Before renting any hosted Mac, four things are worth checking: whether SSH on port 22 and Screen Sharing on port 5900 are reachable from outside the provider's network, whether the preinstalled remote tools are the vendor's own signed builds, how a hung machine gets restarted and how fast, and whether the Mac is wiped between users. Each of these decides whether you can script the machine, run it as a CI runner or trust it with signing keys.
MacRent's answers: SSH, VNC and RustDesk are open on every dedicated Mac Mini M4 or M6 and the ports are printed on your welcome page; the tools are stock Apple-signed builds; our monitoring probes each Mac and repairs a stuck Screen Sharing service on its own, and when a restart is needed we do it; every Mac is wiped and reinstalled before it is handed over. You can rent one online by the day, week or month from $15, and it doubles as a CI/CD build machine.
| Feature | MacRent | HostMyApple |
|---|---|---|
| Plans | $15/day, $89/week, $159/month, M4 or M6 at the same price | Monthly only: M4 16GB $119.99, M6 16GB $139.99, M6 32GB $179.99 |
| Remote access | SSH, VNC and RustDesk open from the first minute, ports listed on your welcome page | NoMachine, Apple Remote Desktop or VNC advertised; check that SSH and VNC reach the Mac from outside |
| Preinstalled tools | Stock, Apple-signed builds | Provider-installed NoMachine |
| Clean handover | Wiped and reinstalled before every rental | Not stated |
| Restarts | Automated monitoring and repair; when a restart is needed we do it for you | Support ticket |
| macOS | Current macOS, ready for the latest Xcode | Dedicated: current macOS. VPS plans: macOS Monterey, too old for current Xcode |
| Locations | US (California, New Jersey) and EU (Paris, Amsterdam) | Atlanta, Denver and Amsterdam |
| Setup time | Ready in minutes, credentials by email | Advertised as instant activation |
HostMyApple details are based on publicly available information and may change, so check their site for current specs and pricing.
A Mac you cannot SSH into is a Mac you cannot script, deploy to or run as a CI runner. MacRent Macs answer on SSH, VNC and RustDesk from day one, and the welcome page lists every port.
HostMyApple bills by the month. MacRent lets you pay $15 for one day of Xcode, $89 for a week-long project, or $159 for a month, and cancel in one click.
Every MacRent Mac is wiped and reinstalled between renters, and the tools we preinstall are the vendor's signed builds. Nothing from the previous user survives.
Our probes check each Mac continuously and repair a wedged Screen Sharing service automatically. When a reboot is needed we do it for you, with the fleet tooling we run every day, not a ticket queue.
A dedicated Mac Mini M4 on every plan. No quotes, no contracts, cancel anytime.
Where should your Mac be?
A whole physical Mac mini, just for you. Bare metal, not a virtual machine.
Delivered automatically, usually in under 5 minutes.
Same price for every model. Your Mac is assigned from what is free, and its model shows in your portal.
1 month of accessonly $5.30 per day
Renews every month until you cancel
Weekly and Monthly renew automatically until you cancel. Daily lets you choose at checkout: 24 hours only, or renew daily. Cancelling takes one click in the billing portal.
It is cheaper, from $24.99/month, but it is a shared virtual machine running macOS Monterey from 2021. Current Xcode needs a recent macOS, so a Monterey VPS cannot build for the latest iOS. MacRent only rents dedicated M4 or M6 hardware on current macOS.
From your own network: ssh to port 22, a VNC client to port 5900, and a reboot request to see how long it takes to come back. Then check the remote desktop app with codesign to confirm it is the vendor's signed build. On a MacRent Mac all three connections are listed on the welcome page and work from the first minute.
Yes. You have full-admin access, so install NoMachine, Jump Desktop or any other remote desktop tool. VNC, RustDesk and SSH are already set up when you receive your credentials.
Our monitoring usually notices before you do and repairs Screen Sharing on its own. If the Mac needs a restart, email info@macrent.cloud and we handle it. Most restarts are done the same hour during European and US daytime.