Guide

A Mac for your iOS or Swift course, from a PC or Chromebook

Most iOS courses assume you have Xcode open next to the video. Xcode only runs on macOS. If you own a Windows PC or a Chromebook, you have four real options. Some of them are free. This page sorts out which course needs what, and what a rented Mac costs for the length of a course.

What each course needs

We checked each course on October 19, 2026.

Apple's Develop in Swift Tutorials: free. Every lesson is built in Xcode, so you need a Mac.
Stanford CS193p: free videos, assignments and demo code from the Spring 2025 class, 16 lectures. Stanford notes it was recorded before Xcode 26. It is taught in Xcode, and Stanford offers no support to online viewers.
Hacking with Swift, 100 Days of SwiftUI: free. Day 1 sends you to Xcode on the Mac App Store. The author has said an iPad cannot take you through the whole course.
Swift Playground on iPad: a free app that needs iPadOS 18 or later. It teaches Swift and SwiftUI, and Apple says you can submit an app from it.

The Swift Student Challenge

Apple has not announced the 2027 challenge yet. Last year it was announced on November 6, 2025. Submissions ran from February 6 to 28, 2026. In 2025 they ran from February 3 to 23. So expect a February window again, but check Apple's page.

The entry is an app playground (.swiftpm) in a ZIP file of up to 25 MB. It must work offline and be experienced within three minutes. Apple accepts Swift Playground 4.6 or Xcode 26, or later. You must be a student or a recent graduate, and at least 13 in most countries. Apple says you need a Mac or an iPad. So an iPad alone can be enough for this one.

Your four options

An iPad with Swift Playground. Free if you own one. Good for the Swift Student Challenge and early Swift lessons. It will not cover CS193p or all of 100 Days. For those, you can use a rented Mac from the iPad.
A school or library Mac lab. Free, if your school has one with Xcode. Ask before you buy or rent anything.
A used Apple silicon Mac mini. The best value if you will keep building apps after the course. Check that it runs the macOS version the current Xcode needs.
A rented Mac. A real Mac with Xcode installed, reached from your PC. Good for a course with an end date.

What a rented Mac costs for a course

A MacRun week pass is $59, paid once. You can buy 1 to 4 weeks, and nothing renews. There is also a day pass for $15, which suits one long weekend of lessons. The monthly plan is $104 for the first month, then $139 a month. You can cancel any month.

1 week of passes: $59.
2 weeks of passes: $118.
4 weeks of passes: $236.
First month of the monthly plan: $104.

So be honest with yourself about the length. For one week, a pass is cheaper. For 2 weeks or more, the monthly plan costs less. A 10 week course over 3 billing months comes to $382.

One rule matters more than price. A pass Mac is wiped when the time is up. Push your code to GitHub at the end of every session. You can add time from the portal before the pass ends.

What you get

A dedicated M6 Mac mini with 16 GB of memory, not shared and not virtual.
macOS 27 with Xcode 27.1 installed, plus the iOS 27.1 simulator.
Admin rights with sudo and Homebrew. Anything else, you install yourself.
Ready in under 5 minutes after you pay.

Day 1 from a Windows PC

Install Tailscale on your PC. Open the invite link from our email or your portal.
Open a VNC viewer such as RealVNC Viewer or TightVNC. Connect to the Mac's Tailscale address on port 5900 and log in.
Open Xcode from the Dock. It is already installed.
Click Create New Project. Pick the iOS tab, then App, then Next.
Enter a Product Name. For Organization Identifier, type com.yourname. Keep Interface on SwiftUI.
On the last screen, tick Create Git repository on my Mac. Then click Create.
Pick an iPhone in the toolbar and press Command R. The app opens in the Simulator.

A Simulator that has never run takes longer the first time. In our test, booting it and launching the app took 62 seconds. After that it is quick. Our setup page at /docs/setup covers the Tailscale steps in more detail.

On a Chromebook, Tailscale and a VNC viewer install from the Google Play Store. School managed Chromebooks often block Android apps. Tailscale says there is no other way to install it then.

The same thing from the terminal

You can also build and run over SSH. We ran these commands on a macOS 26 runner. The first line lists the iPhones you can use. Put one of those names in the boot line.

xcrun simctl list devices available
xcodebuild -project HelloCourse.xcodeproj -scheme HelloCourse \
  -sdk iphonesimulator -destination 'generic/platform=iOS Simulator' \
  -derivedDataPath build build CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO
xcrun simctl boot "iPhone 17 Pro"
xcrun simctl install booted build/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/HelloCourse.app
xcrun simctl launch booted com.example.HelloCourse

The build printed BUILD SUCCEEDED in 11 seconds. Early lessons in 100 Days are plain Swift, with no app at all. A small package is enough for those:

swift package init --type executable
swift run

The second command builds the package and prints Hello, world!

Keyboard tips

Your PC has no Command key, so the VNC viewer maps one of your keys to it. It is usually the Windows key or Alt, depending on the viewer. Test it once by copying a word in TextEdit. Command R runs your app. Command B builds. Command period stops the app. Our guide to Xcode from Windows has more on lag and keys.

Save your work to GitHub

In Xcode, open Settings, then Source Control, and add your GitHub account. To make the GitHub copy, open the Source Control navigator. Control-click Remotes and choose New Remote. After each lesson, choose Integrate, then Commit, and pick Commit and Push.

In the terminal, git works the same as anywhere. The commit lines ran in our test. The last three lines come from GitHub CLI's docs, and they need your own login:

git add .
git commit -m "Day 1: Hello SwiftUI"
brew install gh
gh auth login
gh repo create HelloCourse --private --source=. --push

Next session, clone the repository and carry on. That also works on a new pass Mac.

For teachers and bootcamps

A class can rent several Macs for the length of a course. Each student gets a dedicated Mac with Xcode ready. Email support@macrun.dev with the number of students and the dates.

Who should not rent a Mac for this

If you own an iPad and you are entering the Swift Student Challenge, start there. Swift Playground is free and Apple accepts it. If your school has a Mac lab, use it first. If you plan to build apps for a year or more, buy a used Mac mini instead. A year of rent costs more than a new one. For the bigger picture, read our guide to developing iOS apps without a Mac.

Frequently asked questions

Can I learn Swift and SwiftUI on Windows?

You can read and watch the lessons on Windows, but the exercises need Xcode, which only runs on macOS. Use an iPad with Swift Playground for the basics, or reach a real Mac from your PC.

Can I do Stanford CS193p without a Mac?

Not fully. The course is taught in Xcode, and the assignments are Xcode projects. You can watch the free videos anywhere, but you need a Mac to do the homework.

Can I do 100 Days of SwiftUI on an iPad?

Only the early days. The course author, Paul Hudson, has said Swift Playground on iPad cannot take you through the whole course. Plan on a Mac for the later projects.

Can I enter the Swift Student Challenge with only an iPad?

Yes. Apple accepts an app playground built with Swift Playground 4.6 or later, and says you need a Mac or an iPad. The 2027 dates are not out yet. The last two windows opened in early February.

Is a week pass or the monthly plan cheaper for a course?

For one week, the $59 week pass is cheaper. Two weeks of passes cost $118, while the first month of the monthly plan is $104. So for 2 weeks or more, the monthly plan costs less.

What happens to my project when the pass ends?

The Mac is wiped when the pass ends, so anything not pushed is gone. Commit and push to GitHub after every session. You can add time from the portal before the pass ends.