MacStadium vs Halfpenny Mac
Same concept, different approach.
MacStadium
- US company (data centres in Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Dublin)
- Starts at ~$99/mo for Mac mini
- Enterprise-focused with Orka virtualisation
- Enterprise certifications and SLAs
- Support via ticket system
- Annual contracts on most plans
- Established since 2012
Halfpenny Mac
- UK-based (Cotswolds)
- Starts at £39/mo (~$49)
- Developer-focused, no virtualisation overhead
- Direct support from the engineers who manage your machine
- Cancel anytime, no notice period
- Built for indie devs and small teams
MacStadium's Orka platform is powerful if you need Kubernetes-style orchestration for macOS VMs. But if you just want a Mac you can SSH into and use, that's a lot of abstraction you're paying for and don't need.
Why UK hosting matters
Data sovereignty and lower latency.
MacStadium has a Dublin site for European customers, which closes some of the distance. If you're a UK team, the differences that remain:
- Jurisdiction: MacStadium is a US company, so your provider answers to US law wherever the hardware sits. Halfpenny Technologies is a UK company under UK law
- Pricing: prices are set in dollars for the US market. The exchange rate and card FX fees typically add 10-15% on top
- Proximity: UK racks keep SSH latency typically under 15ms from anywhere in the UK, and your machine is never assigned to a US region
- Scale: their platform, contracts, and support are shaped for enterprise fleets. Ours are shaped for developers and small teams
Halfpenny Mac is UK-hosted, UK-priced, and UK-supported, by the people who rack the machines.
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