A Code Push Alternative - Ionic Appflow

[mlynch]

A Code Push Alternative - Ionic Appflow

[ludufre]

@mlynch There is free tier without subscription? I'm asking because I can't afford the enterprise pricing only to replace this functionality.

[rex-iotum]

@mlynch Unfortunately looking further at your pricing we cannot use Ionic Appflow.
Our workflow involves automated CLI codepush deployments for >30 apps from one repo and counting, and going from a free product to $2499/month seems outrageous when we only need the Live Update portion.

Ionic Appflow also seems to be missing a mandatory feature we need, target binary versions. Sometimes we need to make sure only a certain binary version and higher gets the codepush due to breaking changes. So they do, but via GUI.

I'll continue to look for alternatives, and in the mean time use that very same binary version targeting to stretch out our existing apps for new clients.
We'll be using the below workaround to get past not being able to create new Cordova codepush apps, but still needing to create new mobile apps with Codepush.

Using the same cordova codepush app, sharing the same codepush deployment key:
white label A app will be binary version 1.0.0, and codepush deploy with -t '>=1.0.0 <2.0.0'
white label B app will be binary version 2.0.0 and codepush deploy with -t '>=2.0.0 <3.0.0' and so forth.

That way we can still do codepush deploys with an existing app, but allow us to continue to create new mobile apps.
Both google play and app store connect allows displaying a store version different than the binary version, so there is no difference to users.

[rex-iotum]

Its horrible that Microsoft decided to drop support for creating new Cordova codepush apps without notice.
6 months notice to deprecate existing apps is fine, we have 6 months time to migrate away.

However zero notice for new codepush apps is unacceptable.

My company is in the middle of building more mobile apps for our white label partners, and now suddenly we're not able to add codepush to it.
We're being forced to immediately find a resolution while in the middle of a contract to provide mobile apps.

If we were told beforehand we would have created 20+ placeholder apps within AppCenter so we can still use codepush for the remaining 6 months.

[mlynch]

@rex-iotum I know it's not a 1-1 alternative but we'd love to help your team migrate to Appflow and our Live Update service. We work with a lot of teams that are using it in white label apps.

I think the migration would be pretty straightforward and we just published a migration guide here: https://ionicframework.com/blog/moving-from-microsoft-app-center-to-ionic-appflow/ (direct link to migration docs: https://ionic.io/docs/appflow/cookbook/appcenter-migration)

[mlynch]

@rex-iotum we do support binary version targeting: https://ionic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003567694-How-to-restrict-Live-Update-by-native-version

As for the price, no, Appflow isn't free. I don't think Code Push pricing is sustainable and probably one reason for this shutdown in the first place. We'd be happy to discuss pricing with you to try to fit your needs. We also have discounted pricing for startups (see startup plan): https://go.ionic.io/community-plan-faq

[Himanshu-Mishr]

Self-hosted alternative : https://github.com/lisong/code-push-server.