Buy your own phones or rent facility iPhones — a bill you can actually run
Buying is a one-time outlay plus the lowest long-run unit cost. Renting is zero hardware plus ongoing rent. This splits the two cost structures so you can plug in your own numbers.
“Should I buy phones or rent yours?” is the most common question, and the easiest to dodge. Here’s a model you can plug numbers into.
Two cost structures
Buy (Home Device): Pay for hardware once, then a monthly console seat. You repair; you configure the network. Total = hardware + seat × months + your ops time.
Rent (Cloud Device): No hardware capex. Monthly rent already includes the phone, rack, power, and the default US line. Total = rent × months.
Where they cross
The only lever that matters: how long you will run.
Hardware is a lump sum; over a long enough horizon it gets cheap. Rent accumulates. There is a month count above which buying wins, below which renting wins.
Cross months ≈ unit hardware price ÷ (Cloud Device monthly − Home Device monthly)Example: a used iPhone at ¥800, Cloud Device ¥79/mo, Home Device ¥29/mo. Gap = ¥50/mo. 800 ÷ 50 = 16 months. Plan to run a year and a half or more → buying usually wins. Only a half year → renting usually wins. (USD reference: about $11 vs $4.03 per month; checkout is still CNY.)
The model skips wear, repairs, and your time — those raise the true cost of owning. Owning also has residual value if you sell the phones.
Money is not the only line
Capability. App cloning (AppsManage) and data cleanup live on Home Device, because the hardware is yours. If the flow needs those, buy and use Home Device.
Network. You configure both sides. Cloud Device defaults to a US line, SK5 optional. Your phones use their own network, Shadowrocket optional. You bring the nodes. We don’t sell proxies.
Speed and risk. Buying tens of thousands of hardware before the flow is proven is the expensive order. Rent a few for one cycle, then decide whether to purchase.
What most people actually do
Scaled teams usually own the base and rent the burst. Core work on their phones — lowest cost, full ceiling. When a project needs more, they start Cloud Devices, then stop. No capital stuck in hardware they can’t sell.
Both types mix in one console and one group. The compare table lists the capability split, including things that are not open yet.
