Howdy friends 👋
With App Center scheduled for retirement on March 31, have you already settled on a solid alternative for mobile app builds and managed releases? 🤔
Would love to hear what you're using now and how it compares to App Center—better, worse, or just different? Share your experiences, pros & cons, and any tips for those still looking for a new solution!
(source - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/appcenter/retirement)
Top comments (8)
Actually, there are a few alternatives to consider. The first option is to deploy Microsoft's open-source CodePush server on Azure or another cloud provider and manage it yourself. However, this approach requires time, cost, and maintenance effort.
Another option is using a dedicated CodePush server, and there are several projects in this space. One of them is NextPush, which I’ve been working on. With NextPush, you can migrate your existing App Center CodePush data in just 2 minutes and continue using CodePush without major changes.
All you need to do is migrate from App Center to NextPush and update the
CodePushServerUrlin your Android and iOS projects. Everything else stays the same—1:1 UI dashboard, 1:1 CLI usage. Plus, it's the most cost-effective platform available so far.For a more detailed comparison of alternatives, check out this article:
🔗 App Center Retirement: What Are the Alternatives?
Thanks Yasin for a detailed reply. I will definitely try this one out
Oh, from your experience with NextPush, do you recommend it for a large organisation?
NextPush is my own project. I initially developed it for the company I work for and later made it publicly available. It is a fork of microsoft/code-push-server. The Azure dependency has been removed, allowing it to run on dedicated servers with PostgreSQL instead of Azure. Due to the Azure dependency, high-MAU applications incur significant traffic costs. However, with NextPush, 1,000,000 downloads cost as little as $10.
NextPush is currently being tested in a company with 160 applications and 300k MAU (the company I work for). We are still in public beta. From March 20, you will be able to experience the alpha version without issues.
If cost is not a concern for you and you prefer to have your own server, dedicating time to maintenance, then I recommend using Azure.
If you want to continue from where you left off, with all your applications, releases, and statistics fully migrated within a minute, you can migrate to NextPush in just one minute.
Hi @iammtander Did you tried NextPush ??
Not yet. I got sidetracked with some client work. I promise to try it even so
So I'm working on a platform which replaces the capabilities App Center offered for managing releases, and sharing iOS/Android builds with internal / QA users via in-house distribution.
Wrote up something here reflecting on App Center's history, why it's a loss, and why Buildstash might be a good replacement: dev.to/r0bbie/as-visual-studio-app...
Sounds interesting! I will have a look. Thanks @r0bbie