A Macly alternative for a monthly Mac mini

What Macly sells

We read macly.io, its pricing page, FAQ, billing policy and terms on October 4, 2026. The footer says Macly.io is a brand of Erlion LLC. The About page gives Delaware, USA as its headquarters.

Machine          Mac mini M4
Chip             M4, 10-core CPU
Memory, disk     16 GB, 256 GB (512 GB and 1 TB sold out)
Price            $99.99 a month, or $14.99 a day
Billing          daily, weekly, monthly, 6 months, yearly
Access           SSH, VNC, Screen Sharing, web, AnyDesk, DeskIn
Location         not stated
Stock            "Individual Orders Temporarily Unavailable"

The pricing page shows each cycle as a daily rate. Weekly is $7.14 a day. Six months is $3.01 a day, and yearly is $2.74 a day. It says no setup fees and cancel anytime. The home page promises real hardware with no virtualization and full admin rights. The FAQ says there is no traditional free trial. It offers 10% off with a .edu email. We did not find a country or city for the machines.

A notice sits over the order card. It says Macly is not accepting individual orders and is focusing on bulk orders. Teams that need 10 or more Macs can contact support for custom pricing. Everyone else can leave an email to hear when orders reopen. The same notice was on its OpenClaw page.

What Macly's terms say

Macly's terms were last updated January 1, 2026. Three clauses matter if you plan remote or agent work.

• Section 13: every Mac is managed by MDM. Tampering with it can bring fees of $49 or $699.
• Section 14: FileVault and other disk encryption are banned without written approval. Penalties start at $699 and can reach $2,499 per device.
• Section 15: proxies, tunnels, relays and VPN endpoints are banned. The list names SSH tunnels, WireGuard and OpenVPN endpoints, Cloudflare Tunnel, ngrok and frp. A breach means permanent termination with no refund.

Its billing policy takes refund requests within 7 days, case by case. A setup and processing fee may be deducted. Daily charges are not refundable once incurred.

Daily or monthly?

Short jobs favor Macly when orders are open. At $14.99 a day, up to 9 days cost less than one $139 MacRun month. Against our $69 first month, the line is 4 days. A Macly week at $7.14 a day is about $49.98. For a month or longer, compare the monthly prices and the chip.

Who should choose Macly

• You need a Mac for a few days to a week, and individual orders have reopened.
• You are a team that needs 10 or more Macs and wants a custom quote. That was the only order Macly took on October 4, 2026.
• You want the M4 at the lowest monthly price, and you can wait. Macly lists $99.99. Our M4 is a pre-order at $119.
• You prefer a remote desktop app such as AnyDesk, DeskIn or VNC, or a web portal.
• You want an uptime promise. Macly advertises 99.9% uptime, and its terms mention downtime credits. MacRun has no SLA.

Where MacRun is different

MacRun's base machine is the M6 Mac mini, with a 12-core CPU, 16 GB and 256 GB. It is in stock for single orders. The runner plan is $139 a month. The first month is $69 under the launch offer.

It is set up for builds. Xcode 26.6 is installed and opened once. The iOS 26.5 simulator runtime is installed. The GitHub Actions runner software is preinstalled. You have full sudo.

The agent plan is $169 a month, $84 for the first month. Claude Code and Codex come installed. You sign in with your own Claude or ChatGPT plan, so there is no API key to manage. Macly's OpenClaw page has you add an AI provider API key instead.

Access runs over a private Tailscale network by design. There is no public SSH port. If your own setup relies on a tunnel or VPN, read section 15 of Macly's terms before you order there.

We name our location: our own private facility in New Jersey. Macly did not name one on the pages we read. We also publish speed. A clean build of the Wikipedia iOS app took 86 seconds on our M6. A GitHub-hosted macos-26 runner took 183 seconds.

What happens after you pay

When orders are open, Macly's FAQ says a Mac is ready in 5 to 15 minutes, and up to 30 at peak times. MacRun sets up each Mac after payment. It is ready in 1 to 4 hours, and we email you when it is live. Then you register the runner with GitHub, or click "Open my Mac" on the agent plan.

Who should not use MacRun

• You need a Mac for a day or a week. We bill monthly only.
• You need a public or static IP. We have none.
• You need an SLA. We have none.
• You need a region outside the US.
• You want a free trial. We do not offer one.

Compare tiers on our pricing page. The guide to renting a Mac mini for CI covers setup. For Claude Code and Codex, see the agent plan.