I've been working with Mac hosting for about thirteen years. I tell people about using a Mac mini as a server and they just love the idea of it. There are a lot of great hosting options out there these days, but it's nice to work with a server where the OS is familiar and you know you control the whole stack of hardware and software. Our base Mac mini subscription starts at just $79/mo (that includes the server) so it's much easier to get started.

Five years ago today, I wrote a post about ways you might use a Mac server. I’ve decided to update that list and add some new ones that have come along in the last little while. It’s a mix of Mac apps, open source projects, and iOS tools. Now when you say to yourself “I’d love to try a Mac server but I just don’t know what I’d do with it” then you can take a look at this list. (Have more suggestions? Add them here.)

Ways to use your Mac Server

With our easy-to-install Plex Media Server software and Plex apps on the devices of your choosing, you can stream your video, music, and photo collections any time, anywhere, to whatever you want. Quick Start Video. Xserve is a line of rack unit computers designed by Apple Inc. For use as servers.Introduced in 2002, it was Apple's first designated server hardware design since the Apple Network Server in 1996. In the meantime, ordinary Power Macintosh G3 and G4 models were rebranded as Macintosh Server G3 and Macintosh Server G4 with some alterations to the hardware, such as added Gigabit Ethernet cards.

macOS server is in the middle of a big transition, but I'm still including it here. You'll want to be sure to read up on the future roadmap. It's a first party way to run a Profile Manager and Open Directory.

There are a number of ways to use your Mac as a build server. It’s easily the most popular use here at MacStadium. You might look at Jenkins, Buildkite, Teamcity, Veertu, or Gitlab.

Xcode now includes Xcode Server. We have a guide for setting up Xcode 9 Server that may be helpful.

Resilio is a file sync server built on bit torrent technology. It's very good for large files. Here is a tutorial to setup a file server with Resilio on a Mac mini.

Selfoss is a web based RSS reader that is open source and free.

Screens will let you use a Mac from your iPad or iPhone.

NuoRDS is a scalable terminal server for Mac. Here are some setup instructions.

Hazel is an automation tool that can keep your Mac server clean. (I use it to offload things from Dropbox, make a copy of full resolution images, etc. Just set it up and let it run. It's especially useful for people who use an iOS device full time but want a Mac to do some heavy lifting in the background without much interaction.)

Sendy is a self hosted service to email your newsletters at a significant discount. Similar to MailChimp.

Guacamole is a client-less remote desktop gateway. You can control your machine without needing a client (and just a browser using HTML5.)

Yourls is a self-hosted URL shortener. It provides stats as well.

Pow lets you create a quick environment to build and test Rails apps.

Use Transmit to access your Mac as a file server. Here’s a short tutorial.

Select the adapter you want to change the MAC address. You will get the details of your selection below. In the Information tab, find the Change MAC Address frame. Enter new MAC address in the field and click Change Now! You may even click Random MAC Address button to fill up a randomly selected MAC address from the vendor list available. To change the MAC address, execute the below command while replacing MAC address in it with whatever MAC address you want. If you want a random MAC address then you can use this web tool. Sudo ifconfig en0 ether a1:2d:a9:10:6a:ad. Alternatively, you can use the below command to generate a random MAC address for your system. For example, if you want to change the MAC address to, let's say, 00:b1:b2:b3:b4:b5, then the command will look like this: sudo ifconfig en0 ether 00:b1:b2:b3:b4:b5 Additionally, can use a randomly generated MAC address to change your original one, without having to writing it down and using it later with the above mentioned command, by combining the sudo and the generation command, like this. Here is the way how you can change the MAC address in MacOS: In order to change the MAC address. Step 1) Click 'option' key and then click the Wi-Fi symbol. You can check the interface name. In the below diagram you can see it is 'en0'. Step 2) Go to Terminal, and write the below command: openssl rand -hex 6 sed 's/(.)/1:/g; s/.$//' It will show you a new hexadecimal number that can be used as a MAC. Change mac address for mac os.

Moodle is a CMS for education.

VirtualHostX lets you setup multiple websites quickly on a Mac. It comes with it's own self-contained Apache web server as well.

Owncloud is a replacement for Dropbox, but also provides calendar, contacts and so much more.

Plex lets you stream all your media to your phone/tablet/Macs/etc.

FileMaker is a powerful database server. Very Powerful. Run it for yourself or as a paid service for others.

Kerio is a powerful Mail server. A very good alternative to Exchange.

Run a Minecraft Server of your own.

uTorrent is a simple torrent client.

ServerPilot makes it simple and fast to create and maintain Wordpress installs. Built for DigitalOcean, but works great on a Mac mini with Ubuntu.

MAMP will help you setup a WordPress blog quickly with PHP and mySQL.

The Apple Thunderbolt Cable lets you connect a Thunderbolt-equipped system to a Thunderbolt device. Connect a Thunderbolt-equipped Mac in target disk mode to another Mac for fast data access or system migration, or network two Thunderbolt-equipped computers. The SIIG Thunderbolt 3 Certified Active Cable has some impressive stats – it provides data transfer speeds of 40Gb/s, DisplayPort video output (HBR3), charging up to 100W, and it can connect to a Mac to Thunderbolt 3 docks, hard drives, and displays. Thunderbolt cables for mac. Find cables, charging docks and battery cases for Mac. Charge and sync up your Mac. Buy online with fast, free shipping. About Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) The Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) port is available on some newer MacBook and iMac computers. The port allows data transfer, video output, and charging through the same cable. For information about which adapters work with the Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) port, see About USB-C on Mac. The cable that I received definitely appears to be an authentic Apple product and it certainly is performing exactly as expected. I used this cable to connect a 2013 Mac Pro with Thunderbolt 2 ports to the Apple Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter and then to a Thunderbolt 3 device. Everything worked exactly as expected. I am very pleased!

DNS Enabler lets you run your own DNS server.

Mac Os Servers

BBpress is clean forum software from the makers of WordPress.

Apple Mac Server

Discourse is a platform to build a community. It's modern and free for self hosted. We use Discourse for our own community site.

Simon is an application that will monitor all sorts of servers and services and notify you if they're down.

iStat Server will let you keep an eye on your Mac server.

Asterisk is an open source VOIP server.

Deep Freeze will let you really hack on your machine, and bring it back clean with a restart.

Nagios will keep an eye on your infastructure.

VMware ESXi will let you install and run multiple instances of OS X on the same server (and we'll install it for you when you start a Mac mini subscription.)

Pancake is a seller self hosted app for invoicing and billing clients.

GridRepublic or Warrior will let you put your extra server power to good use.

‍

Tell us how you use your Mac server

Do you have more software suggestions? Feel free to add them as a comment on our community forum. (And don’t be shy about sending your own software. We’re always happy to work with developers.)

macOS Server brings even more power to your business, home office, or school. Designed to work with macOS and iOS, macOS Server makes it easy to configure Mac and iOS devices. It’s also remarkably simple to install, set up, and manage. Add macOS Server to your Mac from the Mac App Store for just $19.99.

Your command center.

macOS Server lets you set up and manage multiple Mac computers and iOS devices, right from your Mac. And it’s so simple to use, you don’t need an IT department.

macOS Server resources.

Everything you want to know about macOS Server, including training, services, and documentation.