Comparison
MacDuty vs AWS EC2 Mac
Comparing MacDuty and Amazon EC2 Mac instances: monthly and daily cost for M1, M2, M4 and M4 Pro, the 24-hour minimum, storage and when AWS is the better fit.
Updated 2026-09-15
Amazon EC2 Mac instances are real Mac minis inside AWS, wired into VPC, IAM, S3 and the rest of the platform. MacDuty racks the same Mac minis, without the platform around them, at a flat monthly price.
If your Macs run most of the day, the difference in cost is large. If they have to live inside your AWS account, AWS is the natural choice.
Price for a Mac running all month
Prices checked in September 2026. AWS prices are on-demand, in the lowest-priced region, before storage and data transfer. A month is counted as 730 hours. MacDuty prices exclude VAT.
| Mac mini | AWS EC2 Mac, on-demand | MacDuty, monthly | MacDuty, paid yearly |
|---|---|---|---|
| M1, 16 GB | mac2.metal: about $475 | €75 (256 GB) | €60 |
| M2, 24 GB | mac2-m2.metal: about $641 | €105 (256 GB) | €84 |
| M2 Pro, 32 GB | mac2-m2pro.metal: about $1,139 | €165 (512 GB) | €132 |
| M4, 24 GB | mac-m4.metal: about $898 | €131 (2 TB) | €105 |
| M4 Pro, 48 GB | mac-m4pro.metal: about $1,438 | €214 (2 TB) | €171 |
AWS M4 and M4 Pro hosts include a 2 TB local disk, so we compare them with MacDuty's 2 TB builds. On AWS, M1 and M2 Macs boot from EBS volumes, which are billed separately. AWS Savings Plans lower the hourly rate in exchange for a one- or three-year commitment.
Price for a single day
On AWS, a Mac Dedicated Host can be released only after 24 hours, so the first day is always a full day. MacDuty also has a 24-hour minimum, at the monthly price divided by thirty, plus a fifth.
| Mac mini | AWS, first 24 hours | MacDuty, one day |
|---|---|---|
| M4, 24 GB | about $29.52 | €4.76 (256 GB) |
| M4 Pro, 48 GB | about $47.28 | €8.20 (512 GB) |
At a glance
| AWS EC2 Mac | MacDuty | |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware | Mac mini (Intel to M4 Pro), Mac Studio M1 Ultra | Mac mini, M1 to M6 |
| Bare metal | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Per second on a Dedicated Host, 24-hour minimum | By the day, month or year |
| Storage | EBS volumes, billed separately; 2 TB local disk on M4 and M4 Pro | The Mac's own SSD, in the price |
| Remote access | SSH, Apple Remote Desktop, AWS Systems Manager | SSH, macOS screen sharing, browser console |
| Setup | VPC, security groups, key pairs, AMIs | Pick a Mac, add your SSH key, log in |
| Regions | Many AWS regions; newer chips in fewer of them | Romania, EU |
When AWS is the better choice
- Your pipeline already lives in AWS. Macs in the same VPC as your artifacts, secrets and build services, with IAM roles instead of keys.
- You scale up and down through an API. Add a dozen hosts for a release week and release them afterwards.
- You have committed AWS spend to use. Savings Plans and enterprise agreements can bring the hourly price down.
- You need a Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, or a region outside Europe.
When MacDuty is the better choice
- Your Macs run most of the month. A full month on MacDuty costs about as much as a few days on AWS.
- You need a Mac for a day or two. Testing a release, reproducing a bug, trying a new Xcode. No 24-hour bill at cloud rates.
- You want a simple bill. The disk is part of the price, and next month's invoice is the same as this month's.
- You want the newest chips first. M5 Pro and M6, racked as Apple ships them.
- You do not want to run cloud networking for one Mac. No VPC, no security groups, no AMIs. SSH in and start working.
Moving from AWS EC2 Mac
- 1Order the matching Mac on MacDuty and log in over SSH.
- 2Rebuild your environment with the scripts you use for your AMI, or copy project files with rsync.
- 3Register your CI runner on the new Mac. Replace IAM roles with scoped access keys, stored as CI secrets.
- 4Run one pipeline on both, then release the AWS Dedicated Host once its 24 hours are up.
- Self-hosted GitHub Actions runner on a Mac mini, if you are setting one up from scratch
Questions
- Is MacDuty cheaper than AWS EC2 Mac?
- For a Mac that runs all month or for a single day, yes, by a wide margin. See the tables above.
- Are AWS EC2 Mac instances real Macs?
- Yes. They are physical Mac minis connected to AWS through Thunderbolt, like MacDuty's are bare metal.
- Can I connect a MacDuty Mac to my AWS account?
- Yes, the same way as any server outside AWS: with access keys, a VPN or a site-to-site connection to your VPC.
- Where is MacDuty hosted?
- In Romania, inside the European Union. Your data and every backup of it stay in the EU.
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