The problem with AWS EC2 Mac

EC2 Mac instances weren't built for small teams.

AWS launched EC2 Mac instances in 2020, and they're genuinely capable. But they were designed for enterprises with dedicated DevOps teams and large CI/CD pipelines.

For indie developers, small iOS teams, and AI engineers, the friction is real:

  • 24-hour minimum allocation. You're billed for a full day even if you need the machine for 20 minutes. A quick Xcode build shouldn't cost you £20.
  • Complex setup. VPC configuration, security groups, Dedicated Hosts, AMI management — it's a lot of infrastructure work before you can even run xcodebuild.
  • US-hosted. EC2 Mac instances are only available in US, EU (Ireland), and Asia-Pacific regions. If you want UK-hosted infrastructure with data sovereignty, AWS doesn't offer it.
  • No persistent state by default. EBS volumes persist, but the host itself is ephemeral. You're rebuilding your environment regularly.
How Halfpenny Mac is different

Dedicated hardware. Flat monthly price. No DevOps required.

AWS EC2 Mac

  • 24-hour minimum billing
  • ~£0.80–£1.60/hr (£580–£1,150/mo if always-on)
  • You manage networking, storage, AMIs
  • US/Ireland/APAC regions only
  • Shared tenancy Dedicated Host model
  • No included monitoring or support

Halfpenny Mac

  • Flat monthly rate from £39/mo
  • Annual plans from £29/mo (save ~25%)
  • We manage everything — hardware, networking, backups
  • UK-hosted (Cotswolds)
  • Dedicated hardware, single-tenant
  • Monitoring, backups, and support included

You get SSH and VNC access via Tailscale — a private, encrypted connection with no public IP exposed. Your Mac is always on, always yours, and always managed.

Ready to get started?

Sign up and we'll have your Mac mini provisioned and online within 24 hours. No contracts, cancel anytime.

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