SoloRack vs AWS EC2 Mac: a dedicated Mac mini from $19 a day

Amazon EC2 Mac and SoloRack both give you a whole physical Mac mini, and both start from the 24-hour minimum that comes with Apple’s macOS licence. Where they differ is everything around the machine: how the price is built, how you connect from a PC, and how the end of a rental works. Every AWS figure below comes from AWS’s own pages and price data.

The short version

A day costs $19. For the same 24-hour minimum, an M4 Mac host on AWS costs $32.47 in Ireland and $29.52 in its US Regions, before tax and storage. A SoloRack 24-hour pass is $19, VAT included where it applies.
One flat price. The SSD, remote desktop access and human support are part of every plan. On AWS, the Mac’s EBS storage has its own price list, and technical support cases need a paid support plan.
A desktop from Windows without building a tunnel. You get access details for a remote-desktop app, plus SSH. On AWS, you reach the desktop through an SSH tunnel and a VNC client that you set up yourself.
Reminders and no copies. We remind you before every renewal, then delete your files when the rental ends and keep no copy. On AWS, stopping or terminating a Mac instance also erases its internal SSD, and any EBS volume you keep stays on your bill.

Side by side

SoloRack and AWS EC2 Mac (mac-m4.metal) from public information. AWS prices are On-Demand rates for the host alone, before tax and storage. Ireland is the cheaper of AWS’s two EU Regions for this host; US means N. Virginia, Ohio and Oregon.

	SoloRack	AWS EC2 Mac (mac-m4.metal)
Price for a day	$19 (24-hour pass)	$32.47 in Ireland, $29.52 in US (24-hour minimum)
Price for a week	$49 (7-day pass)	$227.30 in Ireland, $206.64 in US (168 hours)
Price for a month	$112, cancel anytime	$974.16 in Ireland, $885.60 in US (720 hours)
Machine	Mac mini, Apple M6, 12-core CPU, 16 GB memory, 256 GB SSD	Mac mini (2024), Apple M4, 10-core CPU, 24 GB memory; boots from Amazon EBS storage priced separately
Dedicated or shared	Dedicated: one customer per Mac	Dedicated: one Mac instance per Dedicated Host, bare metal
Access	Remote desktop from Windows, macOS or Linux, plus SSH	SSH with a key pair; desktop through VNC, Apple Remote Desktop or Screen Sharing over an SSH tunnel
Admin rights	Full administrator with sudo	The ec2-user account, with sudo
Where it runs	An EU datacenter	Six AWS Regions: three in the US, plus Frankfurt, Ireland and Sydney
Minimum rental	24 hours	24 hours, then billed per second
Renewal reminders and grace period	Reminders 3 days and 1 day before renewal; passes 2 hours and again 30 minutes before the end; 24 hours to fix a failed payment, with access open and the Mac untouched	No renewals: billing runs until you release the host, invoiced after each month. An unpaid bill can get the account suspended, with 30 days to pay before AWS closes it
Data at the end	Deleted within minutes of the end, no backup or copy kept; you’re warned first, and the whole Mac is erased before the next customer	Stopping or terminating erases the internal SSD; the root EBS volume is deleted on termination by default
Support languages	English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Turkish, Arabic	Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean

Price: a flat rate or metered hours

AWS bills a Mac by the Dedicated Host it runs on. In AWS’s public price data, a mac-m4 host costs $1.23 an hour in its US Regions, $1.353 in Ireland and $1.476 in Frankfurt. The first 24 hours are always charged, a minimum AWS ties to Apple’s macOS licence, and after that you pay per second until you release the host.

Per-second billing works well for a host that only runs while a job needs it. For a Mac you keep for a week or a month, the hours add up: a 30-day month in Ireland comes to $974.16 for the host alone. AWS offers Savings Plans with up to 44% off On-Demand prices on a three-year commitment. Even at that full discount, the same month would still cost more than $540.

The host is also not the whole bill. AWS recommends that Mac instances use Amazon EBS volumes, which have their own price list, and AWS states that its prices exclude applicable taxes.

SoloRack prices are flat: $19 for 24 hours, $49 for 7 days and $112 a month, including the 256 GB SSD and VAT where it applies. You can cancel the monthly plan anytime in the Stripe customer portal.

Getting started from Windows

AWS’s own guide sets out the steps. You allocate a Mac Dedicated Host in a Region that offers it, launch a macOS instance on it with a key pair and a security group that allows SSH, and wait for it to be ready, which AWS puts at roughly 6 to 20 minutes. Then you connect over SSH as ec2-user with your .pem key; password login over SSH is off by default.

For a desktop, you set a password with sudo passwd, switch on Screen Sharing with launchctl, open an SSH tunnel that forwards port 5900, and point a VNC client that supports Apple Remote Desktop at localhost:5900. If you work in AWS every day, that is routine. If you write Flutter or React Native on a Windows PC and need Xcode for an afternoon, it is a fair amount of setup.

With SoloRack, you pay on a checkout page hosted by Stripe, with no sign-up, and your access details are ready in My account a few minutes after payment. Open the remote-desktop app on Windows, macOS or Linux and the Mac’s desktop appears in a window. SSH is included as well, and you can add your own public key.

Renewals and what happens to your data

An AWS Mac host has no renewal date. It keeps billing per second until you release it, which you can do once the 24-hour minimum has passed. AWS bills after use, once a month. If a bill goes unpaid, AWS can suspend the account, and it closes the account if it isn’t reinstated within 30 days of the suspension. When you stop or terminate the instance, AWS runs a scrubbing workflow that erases the Mac’s internal SSD. The root EBS volume attached at launch is deleted on termination by default, and any volume you keep is billed until you delete it. It is clearly documented, and looking after your data is up to you.

Monthly SoloRack customers get reminders 3 days and 1 day before each renewal. Passes get a reminder 2 hours and another 30 minutes before they end. If a payment fails, you get an email with a link to update your card, and 24 hours to fix it, with the Mac untouched and still reachable. Our reminders tell you that everything on the Mac is deleted when the rental ends, so you can download your files and export your signing certificates first. Within minutes of the end, your macOS account and all your files are deleted. We keep no backup or copy, so we cannot get them back, and the whole Mac is erased before the next customer. We never wipe a Mac without warning.

Support and languages

Every AWS account includes Basic Support: customer service, documentation, AWS re:Post and health alerts. Basic Support customers can open customer service and service limit increase cases; technical support cases need a paid plan. The entry plan, Business Support+, costs $29 a month per account or 9% of the first $10,000 of monthly AWS charges, whichever is greater. On a month of one Mac host in Ireland, that is about $88 on top. AWS Support is available in Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean.

SoloRack support is included in every plan. You write by email and a person answers, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Turkish or Arabic.

Who AWS EC2 Mac suits

AWS EC2 Mac fits teams whose infrastructure already runs on AWS. Mac hosts work with AMIs, the AWS CLI and Auto Scaling, and per-second billing after the first day suits hosts that only run while jobs need them. AWS also offers bigger Macs, up to an M3 Ultra with 256 GB of memory in its N. Virginia and Oregon Regions, older Mac types in more Regions, and Savings Plans for teams that can commit long term.

Switching to SoloRack

Moving from AWS? Copy your project and signing files off the host before you release it.

Pick a plan. A 24-hour pass for $19, a 7-day pass for $49 or the monthly plan for $112, paid by card on Stripe’s checkout, with 3D Secure.
Get your Mac in minutes. A few minutes after payment, your access details are ready in My account, and we email you.
Connect. Open the remote-desktop app from Windows, macOS or Linux, or use SSH, then install Xcode with your own Apple Account.