Buy your own Mac Mini or rent from Macyou?
The sticker price of a Mac Mini looks cheap — until you add electricity, internet, depreciation, maintenance, and your time. See the real numbers.
TCO Calculator
Compare the total cost of ownership over time.
Buy your own — cost breakdown
The hidden costs of buying your own
Apple's price tag is just the beginning. Here's what you're really paying for.
Electricity
~$15/moMac Mini draws 5–60W. At average US electricity rates ($0.16/kWh), running 24/7 costs $10–20/month.
Internet & Static IP
$20–50/moBusiness-grade internet with static IP and sufficient upload bandwidth for remote access and serving.
Depreciation (30%/yr)
$25–55/moApple hardware loses ~30% of value each year. A $2,199 M4 Pro is worth $1,539 after year 1.
Hardware failure risk
UnpredictableApple warranty is 1 year. After that, any failure (SSD, logic board) costs $300–800+ to repair.
Your time (setup & maintenance)
4–8h initial + ongoingNetwork config, macOS updates, monitoring, backups, security hardening — you do it all yourself.
No redundancy
Downtime riskA single machine has no failover. Power outage, ISP issue, or hardware death = total downtime.
Side-by-side comparison
What you get with your own hardware vs. Macyou Cloud.
Buying makes sense when…
- You only need it occasionally (hobby project)
- You already have fast, reliable internet
- You don't need remote access or uptime SLA
- You enjoy hardware tinkering and maintenance
- Your use case is purely local (no team access)
Renting makes sense when…
- You need 24/7 uptime for CI/CD or production
- Your team needs remote access from anywhere
- You want to avoid upfront capital expense
- You need backups, monitoring, and support
- You want to scale up/down without buying hardware
- Security and physical access control matter