What is TestFlight and what are its top alternatives?
TestFlight is a beta testing platform owned by Apple that allows developers to distribute and test their iOS apps before release. Key features include easy app distribution, in-app feedback, crash reporting, and integration with Xcode. However, TestFlight is limited to iOS apps only and requires an Apple Developer account for full functionality.
Firebase App Distribution: Firebase App Distribution is a mobile app distribution platform by Google that offers seamless distribution of iOS and Android apps. Key features include easy distribution to testers, crash reporting, and integration with Firebase services. Pros include support for both iOS and Android apps, while a con is limited support for in-app feedback compared to TestFlight.
HockeyApp: HockeyApp, now integrated into Azure DevOps, is a distribution platform for iOS, Android, and Windows apps. Key features include app distribution, crash reporting, and user metrics. Pros include cross-platform support, but a con is that it is now part of Azure DevOps, so may have different pricing and integration.
Installr: Installr is a platform for distributing ad-hoc builds of iOS apps for testing. Key features include easy distribution to testers, in-app analytics, and integration with popular development tools. Pros include simplicity and ease of use, but a con is limited support for Android apps.
Visual Studio App Center: Visual Studio App Center by Microsoft is a platform for building, testing, and deploying iOS, Android, and Windows apps. Key features include app distribution, crash reporting, and continuous integration. Pros include multi-platform support, but a con is that it may be more complex compared to TestFlight for simple beta testing.
Bitrise: Bitrise is a continuous integration and delivery platform for mobile apps, including support for iOS and Android. Key features include automated build processes, app distribution, and integrations with popular tools. Pros include robust CI/CD capabilities, while a con is that it may be more geared towards development teams rather than beta testers.
Play Console: Play Console by Google is a platform for distributing Android apps to testers and production. Key features include app distribution, user feedback, and performance insights. Pros include seamless integration with Google services, but a con is that it is limited to Android apps.
TestFairy: TestFairy is a platform for app distribution, monitoring, and user feedback for iOS and Android apps. Key features include video recordings of user sessions, crash reporting, and in-app feedback. Pros include comprehensive user feedback tools, while a con is that it may have a steeper learning curve compared to TestFlight.
AWS Device Farm: AWS Device Farm is a mobile app testing service that allows for testing on real devices in the AWS cloud. Key features include automated testing, compatibility testing, and device logs. Pros include integration with other AWS services, but a con is that it may be more focused on testing rather than beta distribution.
Ghost Inspector: Ghost Inspector is a platform for automated browser testing that can also be used for mobile app testing. Key features include test automation, visual regression testing, and test scheduling. Pros include cross-platform support, but a con is that it may not be as specialized for mobile app testing as other platforms.
AWS Amplify: AWS Amplify is a development platform for building mobile and web apps with a focus on full-stack serverless development. Key features include app hosting, CI/CD, and analytics. Pros include robust development tools, but a con is that it may require more setup compared to TestFlight for beta testing.
Top Alternatives to TestFlight
- HockeyApp
HockeyApp is the best way to collect live crash reports, get feedback from your users, distribute your betas, and analyze your test coverage. ...
- TestFairy
When testing apps in the crowd, you never know what exactly was done, and what went wrong on the client side. TestFairy shows you a video of the exact test that was done, including CPU, memory, GPS, network and a lot more. ...
- Crashlytics
Instead of just showing you the stack trace, Crashlytics performs deep analysis of each and every thread. We de-prioritize lines that don't matter while highlighting the interesting ones. This makes reading stack traces easier, faster, and far more useful! Crashlytics' intelligent grouping can take 50,000 crashes, distill them down to 20 unique issues, and then tell you which 3 are the most important to fix. ...
- Fabric
Fabric is a Python (2.5-2.7) library and command-line tool for streamlining the use of SSH for application deployment or systems administration tasks. It provides a basic suite of operations for executing local or remote shell commands (normally or via sudo) and uploading/downloading files, as well as auxiliary functionality such as prompting the running user for input, or aborting execution. ...
- Buddybuild
Buddybuild ties together continuous integration, continuous delivery and an iterative feedback solution into a single, seamless platform. ...
- Firebase
Firebase is a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative applications. Simply add the Firebase library to your application to gain access to a shared data structure; any changes you make to that data are automatically synchronized with the Firebase cloud and with other clients within milliseconds. ...
- Fabric by Twitter
Installing and managing a wide range of SDKs can be cumbersome and complex. Fabric solves this problem by combining all seven of our SDKs under one roof and organizing them into three Kits: the Crashlytics Kit, the Twitter Kit, and the MoPub Kit. ...
- Beta by Crashlytics
A streamlined solution for distributing apps that gives you a single, cross-platform toolset for iOS and Android, and a delightful, effortless onboarding for your testers. ...
TestFlight alternatives & related posts
HockeyApp
- Crash analytics17
- Cross-platform11
- Mobile application distribution5
- JIRA Integration2
- Open source2
- GitHub Integration1
related HockeyApp posts
- Get video rec of the user on your app8
- Landing Page4
- Better design4
- JIRA Integration3
- Cross-platform2
- Supports Enterprise IPA's (TestFlight doesn't/didn't)2
- GitHub Integration2
- Application full Log information1
- In-App Feedback1
- Single Sign-On1
- App Distribution1
related TestFairy posts
Crashlytics
- Crash tracking78
- Mobile exception tracking56
- Free53
- Easy deployment37
- Ios25
- Great ui15
- Great reports11
- Android10
- Advanced Logging8
- Monitor Tester Lifecycle7
- Mac APP and IDE Plugins3
- Great User Experience3
- In Real-Time3
- iOS SDK3
- Security3
- Android SDK3
- The UI is simple and it just works2
- Best UI2
- Light2
- Real-time2
- Seamless2
- Painless App Distribution2
- Crash Reporting2
- Beta distribution2
- Mobile Analytics2
- Deep Workflow Integration2
- IOS QA Deploy and tracking1
- Easy iOS Integration1
related Crashlytics posts
- Python23
- Simple21
- Low learning curve, from bash script to Python power5
- Installation feedback for Twitter App Cards5
- Easy on maintainance3
- Single config file3
- Installation? pip install fabric... Boom3
- Easy to add any type of job3
- Agentless3
- Easily automate any set system automation2
- Flexible1
- Crash Analytics1
- Backward compatibility1
- Remote sudo execution1
related Fabric posts
Buddybuild
- Easy setup12
- Beta testing8
- Crazy easy8
- GitHub Integration7
- Crash reporting3
- Cause it's just great2
- Good support team1
related Buddybuild posts
- Realtime backend made easy371
- Fast and responsive270
- Easy setup242
- Real-time215
- JSON191
- Free134
- Backed by google128
- Angular adaptor83
- Reliable68
- Great customer support36
- Great documentation32
- Real-time synchronization25
- Mobile friendly21
- Rapid prototyping18
- Great security14
- Automatic scaling12
- Freakingly awesome11
- Chat8
- Angularfire is an amazing addition!8
- Super fast development8
- Built in user auth/oauth6
- Firebase hosting6
- Ios adaptor6
- Awesome next-gen backend6
- Speed of light4
- Very easy to use4
- Great3
- It's made development super fast3
- Brilliant for startups3
- Free hosting2
- Cloud functions2
- JS Offline and Sync suport2
- Low battery consumption2
- .net2
- The concurrent updates create a great experience2
- Push notification2
- I can quickly create static web apps with no backend2
- Great all-round functionality2
- Free authentication solution2
- Easy Reactjs integration1
- Google's support1
- Free SSL1
- CDN & cache out of the box1
- Easy to use1
- Large1
- Faster workflow1
- Serverless1
- Good Free Limits1
- Simple and easy1
- Can become expensive31
- No open source, you depend on external company16
- Scalability is not infinite15
- Not Flexible Enough9
- Cant filter queries7
- Very unstable server3
- No Relational Data3
- Too many errors2
- No offline sync2
related Firebase posts
Hi Otensia! I'd definitely recommend using the skills you've already got and building with JavaScript is a smart way to go these days. Most platform services have JavaScript/Node SDKs or NPM packages, many serverless platforms support Node in case you need to write any backend logic, and JavaScript is incredibly popular - meaning it will be easy to hire for, should you ever need to.
My advice would be "don't reinvent the wheel". If you already have a skill set that will work well to solve the problem at hand, and you don't need it for any other projects, don't spend the time jumping into a new language. If you're looking for an excuse to learn something new, it would be better to invest that time in learning a new platform/tool that compliments your knowledge of JavaScript. For this project, I might recommend using Netlify, Vercel, or Google Firebase to quickly and easily deploy your web app. If you need to add user authentication, there are great examples out there for Firebase Authentication, Auth0, or even Magic (a newcomer on the Auth scene, but very user friendly). All of these services work very well with a JavaScript-based application.
This is my stack in Application & Data
JavaScript PHP HTML5 jQuery Redis Amazon EC2 Ubuntu Sass Vue.js Firebase Laravel Lumen Amazon RDS GraphQL MariaDB
My Utilities Tools
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My Devops Tools
Git GitHub GitLab npm Visual Studio Code Kibana Sentry BrowserStack
My Business Tools
Slack
- Real-time analytics1
- Easy BETA distribution + monitoring1
related Fabric by Twitter posts
- Dirt-simple integration8
- Free7
- Easy to distribute4
- Easy setup, Service Hooks3
- Easy setup, multi-platform2
- Cross-platform1
- Crash analytics1