Comparison
MacDuty vs AWS EC2 Mac
Comparing MacDuty and Amazon EC2 Mac instances: monthly cost for M1, M2, M4 and M4 Pro, the 24-hour minimum, storage and when AWS is the better fit.
Updated 2026-11-01
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.
What this page says about AWS EC2 Mac, prices included, was read on 1 November 2026.
Price for a Mac running all month
Prices checked on 1 November 2026 on AWS's Savings Plans pricing page: the On-Demand rate of the Dedicated Host for each Mac, in US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio) and US West (Oregon), 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 | €164 (2 TB) | €131 |
| M4 Pro, 48 GB | mac-m4pro.metal: about $1,438 | €240 (2 TB) | €192 |
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; on the one-year, no-upfront plan the saving read 0 to 1% on these hosts on 1 November 2026.
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 rents by the day, with the same 24-hour minimum, on every Mac, at the day price on each build's card.
At a glance
| AWS EC2 Mac | MacDuty | |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware | Mac mini (Intel to M4 Pro), Mac Studio (M1 Ultra, M4 Max, M3 Ultra) | Mac mini, M1 to M6 |
| Bare metal | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Per second on a Dedicated Host, 24-hour minimum | By the day, week, 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, VNC |
| 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 (M1 Ultra, M4 Max or M3 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
In stock today
These are in the rack now. Pick one, see what it comes with, and make your account only when you order.
Checking the racks
A Mac mini of your own
Pick a build. When one is not on the shelf, leave your email and we write the day it is racked.
Questions
- Is MacDuty cheaper than AWS EC2 Mac?
- Based on AWS on-demand prices checked on 1 November 2026, for a Mac that runs all month, yes, by a wide margin, on the builds in the tables above. By the day we rent every Mac, at the day price on its card.
- 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 Mac and everything on it stay in the EU.
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