---
description: App Center retired in 2025 — and CodePush with it. Move builds, OTA updates, and distribution to Capawesome for Capacitor, Ionic, Cordova.
title: App Center Replacement After 2025 Retirement - Capawesome
image: https://ogkit.dev/img/ob3tqEF0.jpeg?url=https://capawesome.io&amp;v=3
---

 Partner 

 Recommended by **OpenForge** **Officially recommended** by OpenForge, an Ionic Platinum Partner, as the platform of choice for Capacitor apps. [ Learn more →](https://openforge.io/capawesome-partner-live-updates/)

#  Ready for life after App Center? 

 App Center retired in 2025\. Capawesome brings native builds, OTA live updates, and store publishing back in one modern platform. 

[ Get started ](https://console.cloud.capawesome.io)[ Book a demo ](https://cal.com/team/capawesome/demo)

 More than 1,000 teams build with Capawesome 

## Key Advantages

 A modern, fully supported replacement 

 Why teams left behind by App Center move to Capawesome. 

### Actively Developed

 App Center retired in 2025\. Capawesome ships new features every month, with a public roadmap and a support team that answers. 

### A Real CodePush Replacement

 CodePush died with App Center. Capawesome Live Updates deliver RSA-signed bundles with rollouts, rollbacks, and deltas. 

### Zero-Configuration Builds

 Configure builds from a single form — no YAML pipelines, no build agent to maintain. Attach a signing identity and ship. 

### M4 Pro Apple Silicon

 iOS and Android both run on Apple Silicon M4 Pro. Typical builds finish in 2–5 minutes — 3–5× faster than legacy cloud CI. 

### Transparent Pricing

 Fixed monthly plans bundling builds, live updates, and publishing. No pay-as-you-go minutes, no MAU guesswork, no surprise overages. 

### AI-Native from Day One

 Full CLI, REST API, official AI Agent skills, and an MCP server (coming soon). Plug Claude Code or Cursor straight into your pipeline. 

## Comparison

 Capawesome vs Visual Studio App Center 

 See where Capawesome picks up what App Center left behind. 

| Feature                                       | Capawesome                           | Visual Studio App Center                            |
| --------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------- |
| Platform Status                               |                                      |                                                     |
| Service status                                | Active                               | Retired (March 31, 2025)                            |
| New customer sign-ups                         | Yes                                  | No                                                  |
| Future development                            | Active                               | None                                                |
| Remaining services                            | All                                  | Analytics & Diagnostics only, until March 31, 2027  |
| Pricing                                       |                                      |                                                     |
| Pricing model                                 | Fixed monthly plans                  | Free + pay-as-you-go build minutes (pre-retirement) |
| Live Updates / OTA                            |                                      |                                                     |
| Over-the-air updates                          | Yes                                  | No — CodePush retired                               |
| Gradual rollouts (10 / 25 / 50 / 100%)        | Yes                                  | Limited                                             |
| Automatic rollbacks                           | Yes                                  | No                                                  |
| RSA-signed bundles                            | Yes                                  | No                                                  |
| Delta updates                                 | Yes                                  | Yes (pre-retirement)                                |
| Self-hosted bundles                           | Yes                                  | No                                                  |
| Native Builds                                 |                                      |                                                     |
| iOS build hardware                            | Apple Silicon M4 Pro                 | Intel / older Apple Silicon (pre-retirement)        |
| Android build hardware                        | Apple Silicon M4 Pro                 | Linux / Intel                                       |
| Managed code signing                          | Yes                                  | Yes (pre-retirement)                                |
| Monorepo support                              | Yes                                  | Limited                                             |
| Custom build scripts                          | Hooks at every stage                 | Limited                                             |
| Latest Xcode availability                     | Days after release                   | Weeks–months (pre-retirement)                       |
| Developer Experience & AI                     |                                      |                                                     |
| CLI                                           | Yes                                  | Yes (pre-retirement)                                |
| Public REST API                               | Yes, with JSON output for automation | Yes (pre-retirement)                                |
| MCP server                                    | Coming soon                          | No                                                  |
| Official AI Agent skills                      | Yes                                  | No                                                  |
| Distribution & Publishing                     |                                      |                                                     |
| Internal OTA distribution (QR / install link) | Yes                                  | Yes (pre-retirement)                                |
| TestFlight submission                         | Yes                                  | No                                                  |
| Apple App Store submission                    | Yes                                  | No                                                  |
| Google Play submission (all tracks)           | Yes                                  | No                                                  |
| Firebase App Distribution                     | Yes                                  | No                                                  |
| Multiple destinations per app                 | Yes                                  | No                                                  |
| Platform Support                              |                                      |                                                     |
| Capacitor                                     | Yes                                  | No                                                  |
| Ionic                                         | Yes                                  | No                                                  |
| Cordova                                       | Yes                                  | Yes (pre-retirement)                                |
| Native iOS / Android                          | Yes                                  | Yes (pre-retirement)                                |
| React Native / Xamarin / Unity                | No                                   | Yes (pre-retirement)                                |
| Enterprise SDKs                               |                                      |                                                     |
| Enterprise SDKs                               | Yes                                  | No                                                  |
| Support & Focus                               |                                      |                                                     |
| Migration support                             | Full, free, dedicated engineer       | None (retired)                                      |
| Community & docs                              | Active                               | Archived                                            |
| EU hosting option                             | Yes                                  | No                                                  |

 All information has been researched to the best of our knowledge. While we strive for accuracy, this comparison might not be exhaustive or fully up-to-date. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at [support@capawesome.io](mailto:support@capawesome.io) so we can update it. 💜 

## Success Stories

 See what our customers say 

 Our customers love Capawesome Cloud - find out why 

We had to use an Android and iOS SDK in our Capacitor app, for which no plugin existed. Capawesome was able to **create a fully functional Capacitor plugin for us within a few days**. The communication was excellent and the plugin works perfectly.

![Daniel Ehrhardt](/assets/images/testimonials/daniel-ehrhardt-96.jpg)

 Daniel Ehrhardt  CEO at Codext GmbH 

Capawesome Cloud has become an essential part of our release workflow. We mainly use it for over-the-air updates, allowing us to **fix bugs and release updates quickly without waiting for the app review process**. The integration was incredibly easy — it took us less than a day and felt almost plug-and-play. The support is excellent as well; the team is always helpful, responsive, and quick to reply.

![Sagie Ivan](/assets/images/testimonials/sagie-ivan.jpg)

 Sagie Ivan  Co-Founder at Dibs 

Capawesome Cloud has helped us **reduce our live update costs by more than 90%** while offering more features than our previous provider. The integration took us less than a day and the support is top-notch. We now deliver daily live updates to more than 200,000 devices without any issues.

![Michael Wolz](/assets/images/testimonials/michael-wolz.png)

 Michael Wolz  Head of Development at snapADDY GmbH 

We've been using Capawesome Cloud for CI/CD across our Capacitor apps and couldn't be happier. **Migrating from Appflow was a breeze — we were up and running in no time**, with way less friction than anticipated. The setup was straightforward and the workflow has been rock solid ever since. But what really sets Capawesome apart is the support. The team is incredibly responsive and genuinely helpful. It's great to get that level of personal attention from a SaaS tool. Highly recommend it to any Capacitor team looking to simplify their deployment pipeline.

![Dan Ziv](/assets/images/testimonials/dan-ziv.jpg)

 Dan Ziv  Head of Engineering at Greetings Island 

Capawesome's live updates have been a game changer for our mobile recipe app at King Arthur Baking. We can **quickly deliver improvements without app store delays, saving time and resources** while keeping the experience fresh for our baking community.

![Jordan Kilby](/assets/images/testimonials/jordan-kilby.jpg)

 Jordan Kilby  Digital Marketing Leader at King Arthur Baking 

Capawesome Cloud has been a game-changer for our team. We can now deploy updates to our Capacitor app without pushing to the app stores. This has saved us countless hours and allowed us to iterate faster. It's a **must-have for any modern app development team**.

![Hugo Corta](/assets/images/testimonials/hugo-corta.jpg)

 Hugo Corta  Tech Lead at Vitruve 

We mainly use over-the-air (OTA) updates to deliver critical bug fixes and updates when waiting on the App Store review process is not an option. After dealing with too much down-time and latency from Capgo, we made the decision to switch to Capawesome Cloud and we couldn't be happier. **Capawesome is more stable and the package delivery speeds are significantly faster**, which makes a big difference at scale. Capawesome's team is extremely responsive and professional - thanks for supplying such a great product guys.

![Jedidiah Weller](/assets/images/testimonials/jedidiah-weller.jpg)

 Jedidiah Weller  World Builder at Summon Worlds 

We switched from Capgo to Capawesome Cloud a few months ago and so far we haven't looked back. With Capawesome Cloud, we have **significantly less downtime, updates are delivered faster, and support is literally the best we have ever experienced**. The integration was straightforward, and the documentation is clear and concise. Big thanks to the Capawesome team for creating such an awesome platform!

![Clément Fradet Normand](/assets/images/testimonials/clement-fradet-normand.jpg)

 Clément Fradet Normand  Co-Founder at Clovis 

Moving from Ionic Appflow to Capawesome Cloud has been a fantastic experience. We're very pleased with the product and genuinely impressed with what the team has built. The **builds are significantly faster than Ionic Appflow**, which is a nice improvement. We especially appreciate how the build process is separated from deployment—it has made debugging much easier and streamlined our entire workflow. The support has also been great. We hope to see even more users make the switch!

 Karvan Jay  Technical Director at Our Management Group Pty Ltd 

Our Capacitor app had several unique requirements for running operations in the background. The Capawesome team was able to quickly understand our needs and crafted a **customized Capacitor plugin that exceeded our expectations**.

![Christofer Huber](/assets/images/testimonials/christofer-huber-96.jpg)

 Christofer Huber  CTO at WEBPUNKS GmbH 

We tested and verified several solutions on the market to help us deliver OTA updates for our Apps quickly, securely and, most importantly, that were capable of scaling as we grew and demanded. Capawesome Cloud was our choice! **The integration is super simple, we have automatic rollback and code signing to ensure the security of updates**. The costs are transparent and honest, we are very happy with the platform and looking forward to integrating our future Apps!

![Patrick A. Lima](/assets/images/testimonials/patrick-a-lima.jpg)

 Patrick A. Lima  CEO at Nuinalp 

 Frequently asked questions 

 Have questions about migrating from Visual Studio App Center to Capawesome? We've answered the most common migration questions here. For additional support, reach out to us by [Email](mailto:support@capawesome.io) or via [Discord](https://discord.gg/VCXxSVjefW). 

When was Visual Studio App Center retired?

Microsoft retired most of App Center — including Build, Distribute, Test, Push, and CodePush — on March 31, 2025\. Analytics and Diagnostics continue until March 31, 2027, after which Microsoft recommends migrating to Azure Monitor.

What happened to CodePush when App Center shut down?

CodePush was retired together with App Center on March 31, 2025\. Capawesome Live Updates are a direct, production-ready replacement — with code-signed bundles, gradual rollouts, and per-device automatic rollback that protects users when an update misbehaves on their device.

How easy is it to migrate from App Center to Capawesome?

Most teams complete the migration in under a day — drop in the Live Update SDK, upload your signing identities, and reconnect your git provider. We also ship agent skills that let Claude Code or Cursor port your config automatically, plus a free migration call with a Capawesome engineer.

Is Capawesome built for AI coding agents?

Yes — AI-native from day one. Every Capawesome capability is available through a CLI, a JSON-output REST API, and official AI Agent skills for Claude Code, Cursor, and Copilot. An MCP server is on the way. App Center was designed years before this workflow existed and was retired before it could catch up.

Does Capawesome support React Native, Xamarin, or Unity?

No. Capawesome is focused on Capacitor, Ionic, Cordova, and native iOS and Android apps. If you're on React Native, Xamarin, or Unity, App Center is not the framework fit we optimize for.

Does Capawesome replace App Center Analytics and Diagnostics?

No. Capawesome focuses on build, OTA update delivery, and store publishing. Microsoft recommends Azure Monitor for teams still using App Center Analytics and Diagnostics until March 31, 2027.

What does Capawesome cost compared to App Center?

Capawesome uses fixed monthly plans that bundle build minutes and Live Updates together — no build-minute overage fees, no per-MAU surprises, no pay-as-you-go billing. See our [pricing page](/pricing/) for current plans. App Center's free tier is no longer available since retirement.

## Move on from App Center — in a single day

 Replace builds, OTA updates, and store submissions with one modern platform. 14-day free trial on every plan — cancel anytime. 

[ Get started ](https://console.cloud.capawesome.io)[ Book a demo ](https://cal.com/team/capawesome/demo)

 Questions? [ Join our Discord ](https://discord.gg/VCXxSVjefW) or [ contact us ](/contact/). 

![Capawesome](/assets/logo.svg) Capawesome 

 Ship mobile apps  
the modern  way.

Cloud · Plugins · CLI capawesome.io 

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