Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Visual Studio App Center VS GetUpdraft.com

Compare Visual Studio App Center VS GetUpdraft.com and see what are their differences

Visual Studio App Center logo Visual Studio App Center

Continuous everything – build, test, deploy, engage, repeat

GetUpdraft.com logo GetUpdraft.com

Updraft is a platform as a service for continuous mobile app distribution and beta testing. Distribute your iOS, Android or Windows Apps to your product team, testers or your employees. It's the Microsoft App Center Alternative!
  • Visual Studio App Center Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-04-24
  • GetUpdraft.com Features
    Features //
    2024-11-29
  • GetUpdraft.com Testers & Groups
    Testers & Groups //
    2024-11-29
  • GetUpdraft.com App versions
    App versions //
    2024-11-29

Updraft is a platform as a service for continuous mobile app distribution and beta testing. Easy distribute your iOS beta, Android beta or Windows apps to your product managers, testers or designers within your organization and get as early as possible feedback to your beta app. Remove bugs and improve your product to get the highest quality. Resign your .ipa with new distribution certificates and provisioning profiles, resign your .aab package, connect your App Store or Play Store. Continuous app distribution and bug reporting has never been easier!

You can integrate Updraft completely in your development workflow with the help of CURL or the API.

Visual Studio App Center features and specs

  • Comprehensive Services
    App Center provides a wide range of services including build, test, distribute, and monitor apps, making it a one-stop solution for app lifecycle management.
  • Multi-platform Support
    Supports iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS apps, allowing developers to manage all their apps in one place regardless of the platform.
  • Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)
    Offers robust CI/CD pipelines that streamline the development process, helping teams release new features, updates, and bug fixes more efficiently.
  • Automated Testing
    Enables automated UI tests on real devices in the cloud, ensuring that apps function correctly on any device before they are released.
  • Crash Reporting and Analytics
    Provides detailed crash reports and user analytics to help developers understand user behavior and improve app performance.
  • Easy Integration
    Integrates seamlessly with popular version control systems like GitHub, Bitbucket, and Azure Repos, simplifying the workflow for developers.
  • Push Notifications
    Supports sending push notifications to users, helping app owners keep their audience engaged with the latest updates and features.

Possible disadvantages of Visual Studio App Center

  • Cost
    While there is a free tier with limited usage, many advanced features require a paid subscription, which can be expensive for small teams or individual developers.
  • Learning Curve
    Though the platform is powerful, it can have a steep learning curve for new users, especially those not familiar with CI/CD practices.
  • Performance
    Some users have reported performance issues, particularly with the build service, which can sometimes be slow or experience downtime.
  • Limited Customization
    The level of customization for certain features and workflows can be limited compared to other CI/CD tools, potentially restricting advanced users.
  • Platform-specific Limitations
    While multi-platform support is a pro, some advanced features might not be available for all platforms or might work differently, causing inconsistency.
  • Dependency on Microsoft Ecosystem
    Tightly integrated with Microsoft's ecosystem, which might not be ideal for teams using other toolchains and platforms, causing partial or complete lock-in.

GetUpdraft.com features and specs

  • Integration Capabilities
    Updraft can be easily integrated with existing CI/CD pipelines and other CI server tools, improve app development and app deployment processes.
  • Over-the-Air App Distribution
    Updraft allows easy over-the-air distribution of iOS, Android and Windows apps, simplifying app distribution and in-app updates
  • Security Features
    Updraft has robust security features like enforced authentication (2FA), app protection, ensuring that apps are distributed only to authorized users.
  • Artifacts management
    Updraft offers the option of storing and managing files and directories for iOS, Android and Windows platforms centrally in a project structure. This means that all files are stored in the same place
  • Data Hosting
    All data is hosted in Switzerland. Updraft's developers are ISO 27001 certified.
  • Resigning
    Resigning with Updraft. You can easily resign iOS and Android files with Updraft using new distribution certificates, provisioning profiles or the keystore.

Visual Studio App Center videos

Visual Studio App Center

More videos:

  • Review - Xamarin University Presents: Ship Better Apps with Visual Studio App Center
  • Tutorial - How to upload a Xamarin.UITest to Visual Studio App Center!

GetUpdraft.com videos

Updraft App Distribution helps your project managers to easily distribute apps

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Visual Studio App Center and GetUpdraft.com)
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Mobile App Distribution
0 0%
100% 100
IDE
100 100%
0% 0
Android App
0 0%
100% 100

Questions and Answers

As answered by people managing Visual Studio App Center and GetUpdraft.com.

What makes your product unique?

GetUpdraft.com's answer:

With Updraft you can save iOS, Android and Windows Artifacts in the same place. Updraft can be integrated into any continuous integration process. You don't need an Apple ID or Google account to use Updraft.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

GetUpdraft.com's answer:

Updraft offers many features to simplify the app development and app distribution processes. Compared to many competitors, Updraft relies on a project hierarchy, which makes it possible to manage app versions from different OS platforms and development environments in one central location. App installation links can be downloaded independently by testers or distributed to larger groups and distribution groups. It is also possible to set permission groups and assign users to groups and app projects, which greatly simplifies user management, especially with SAML and OpenID. Updraft also offers a service for resigning .ipa files with the correct Apple certificates and Provisionig profiles and has an integration to the Play and App Store.

And best of all, the product has all its data in Switzerland.

How would you describe your primary audience?

GetUpdraft.com's answer:

App developers from companies

What's the story behind your product?

GetUpdraft.com's answer:

Updraft is a product of the company appswithlove.com. Apps with love specializes in app and web development and is the most successful app agency in Switzerland. We have been developing Updraft since 2013, initially as an internal service/platform because there were no other services for building and distributing applications, later the tool became multi-client capable and opened to the masses. So we bring over 10 years of experience in app distribution, app signing, app release management and app development.

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Visual Studio App Center seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 24 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Visual Studio App Center mentions (24)

  • Build for IOS
    Appcenter will allow you to build your app for iOS and install on your device without submitting to the App Store. https://appcenter.ms/. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Github file size limits
    We've been using app center for build distribution (https://appcenter.ms/). Source: almost 2 years ago
  • A friend and I have spent way too much time sharing builds so we built this free tool!
    But, https://appcenter.ms/ and others like it are already available with generous free tiers and a lot more features (which you don't have to use, but can grow into), not to mention GitHub actions as others have noted. Does this advantages over existing, standard solutions? Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Is there a service to let us run our app remotely on chosen hardware and monitor logging?
    There are lots of choices. Google android device testing. Offhand https://appcenter.ms comes to mind. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Using React Native for a cross-platform app, without a Mac
    You don t need a mac, use microsofts app center to build it. https://appcenter.ms. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

GetUpdraft.com mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of GetUpdraft.com yet. Tracking of GetUpdraft.com recommendations started around Nov 2024.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Visual Studio App Center and GetUpdraft.com, you can also consider the following products

TestFlight - iOS beta testing on the fly.

Applivery - Mobile Apps distribution system for Continuous deployment, Beta testing, Feedback, Bug reporting & Enterprise App distribution.

Setapp - Your shortcut to prime apps on Mac, an App Store alternative

TestFairy - Painless Beta Testing

Buildstash - Binary build artifact and release management for software teams. For mobile and desktop apps, games, XR, or embedded - never lose a build again, steer through QA and sign-off, and manage your rollouts to stores.

Appcircle.io - Mobile CI/CD Made Easy - Flutter, Android, iOS, and React Native