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IllusionVK / ReplaceAppCenter

A place to discuss alternatives for CodePush and maybe also the distribution of apps.
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What price do you consider reasonable to pay for the "Code Push" feature? #5

Open brunogc opened 2 years ago

brunogc commented 2 years ago

Hello devs,

I'm doing some surveys and research on an alternative to the AppCenter Code Push feature. Knowing that the only alternative on the market today is the "Ionic AppFlow" for $499/month, and that this service is prohibitive for most developers and companies outside the USA.

So, I would like to know what amount you would be willing to pay monthly per project to get the Code Push functionality (without the other functionality that was in the AppCenter).

With some consensus, we can perhaps present the data to Ionic, or even to an investor interested in investing in a startup for this purpose.

Thanks,

vesper8 commented 2 years ago

I would opt for a self-hosted solution and choose to support (via Patreon or otherwise) anyone helping with this open-source "self-hostable" solution before I ever choose to add yet another monthly subscription fee to my long list of subscription fees for tech solutions.

Only in the event that the self-hosted solution was really problematic would I then consider a subscription service.

raphjutras commented 2 years ago

Different monthly plans based on usage would be interesting. It would also make sure that we have a maintained Cordova plugin. Server-side server doesn't really need to be maintained if the backed tech doesn't change but I see a problem with the cordova plugin that must be constantly maintained.

10$/month for ex: 2500 deploys, would not be a problem for the peace of mind it provides. You could also contact this guy: https://ion.appit-online.de/#pricing who's doing it already (but no monthly cost, usage only).. It looks like its german website (not sure), and I don't know about the 'serious' of his project.. I will consider using his service but i'm also open to alternatives if some gets created.. Pricing will be considered..!

gwhenne commented 2 years ago

I'm one of the engineers working on VoltBuilder, a replacement for Adobe PhoneGap. I've been lurking here since the beginning.

VoltBuilder doesn't currently support Code Push, but we have most the components to do so already. (server storage, upload, building, user management, billing, website, etc.) as well as user support.

I'm very interested in hearing how people use Code Push and how it helps them. What features are important? What would the perfect service look like?

Feel free to reply here, or to me directly at gh@voltbuilder.com.

vesper8 commented 2 years ago

@gwhenne We use Codepush for the purpose of being able to live stream an update without having to deploy a new version to the app stores and wait for the lengthy and tedious approval process. This is great for fixing bugs immediately or rolling out features.

gwhenne commented 2 years ago

@vesper8 - do you run into any pushback from the Stores? I believe Apple, in particular, has restrictions in their agreements about doing this kind of thing.

raphjutras commented 2 years ago

As long as you are not pushing a completly new app code base, that it stays the same app and you really use for pushing new features or bug fixes, they will accept it. I never had any problem with apple approval and am using CodePush since at least 5 years. It's awesome to be able to update the app without having to make a new build each time and go through approval delays each time... Ionic is doing it and also selling a similar service, they would not do that if it was not perfectly accepted by Apple.

If you want to offer this service, you need to take into consideration that CodePush will stop working for all of us very soon, and we need a solution (soon) hehe ;)

I'm convinced there is market for that.. a lot of people got dumped away by this decision from Microsoft..!

brunogc commented 2 years ago

@gwhenne I'm curious to know if VoltBuilder has made available (or has plans) to offer similar functionality to CodePush?

gwhenne commented 2 years ago

We looked hard at it. We had most of the solution as part of VoltBuilder already, and were able to set the rest up on a test bed.

But we got little response from CodePush users. We weren't convinced there was enough interest to build out the actual product. Making something which works is one part; running the servers and support on a serious level would have required a real commitment on our part. We didn't think it made sense from a commercial basis.

riderx commented 2 years ago

Hey guys just in case you didn't see my issue here : https://github.com/IllusionVK/ReplaceAppCenter/issues/7#issue-1175870240 i made an alternative plugin fully open source in December. That mean @vesper8 you can self-host it if needed :)