Self-hosting vs managed

The hidden costs of running your own Mac server.

A Mac mini makes an excellent server. It's quiet, efficient, and powerful enough for most workloads. But running one reliably as production infrastructure takes more than plugging it in:

  • Reliable power. UPS, surge protection, and a plan for extended outages
  • Reliable internet. Business-grade broadband with a static IP, or overlay networking
  • Monitoring. Something has to notice when the machine goes offline, runs out of disk, or stops responding
  • Backups. Time Machine to an external drive isn't a disaster recovery plan
  • Physical access. When it hangs and won't respond to SSH, someone needs to press the power button
  • Hardware replacement. When the SSD fails or the machine dies, you need a spare and a plan

Halfpenny Mac handles all of this. You get a Mac mini that's always on, always monitored, always backed up — for less than the cost of colocation plus the hassle.

Plans

From £39/mo. Everything included.

Budget — £39/mo (£29 annual)
Apple M1, 8GB unified memory, 256GB SSD. Ideal for light automation, dev environments, CI runners.
Starter — £49/mo (£39 annual)
Apple M2, 8GB unified memory, 256GB SSD. Better single-core performance for builds.
Pro — £89/mo (£69 annual)
Apple M4, 16GB unified memory, 512GB SSD. The workhorse for most server workloads.
Max — £129/mo (£100 annual)
Apple M4 Pro, 24GB unified memory, 512GB SSD. For AI inference, heavy builds, and demanding workloads.

All plans: dedicated hardware, Tailscale access, monitoring, nightly backups, UK-based support. No contracts, cancel anytime.

Ready to get started?

Sign up and your Mac mini comes online in minutes when a ready-provisioned machine is waiting, within 48 hours at most. No contracts, cancel anytime.

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