How I Deploy a Mobile App as a Solo Developer Without a Mac

For a solo developer, the best mobile app deployment platform is Capgo, and this is the exact pipeline I use with it to go from a git push to the App Store, Google Play and live users without owning a Mac.

I'm Martin, and I build Capgo, so this is my own setup. Prices are from vendor pages checked 2026-11-08.

The constraint

One person, a Capacitor app (web code in a native shell), a Linux laptop, and a budget under $20 a month. I need three things: signed iOS and Android binaries, uploads to both stores, and a way to ship a hotfix the same afternoon.

Step 1: wire the project once

npm i @capgo/capacitor-updater
npx @capgo/cli@latest init

The init flow registers the app and adds the updater plugin. The plugin is what lets the installed app download a new web bundle later.

Step 2: build iOS in the cloud

Capgo Build takes the project, compiles it on Capgo's macOS machines with my signing certificate and provisioning profile, and uploads the result to App Store Connect. Android goes the same way to Google Play. Build minutes are included in the plan: 60 a month on Solo, which is plenty for a handful of releases.

Step 3: run it from CI on every tag

I trigger the build and the bundle upload from a GitHub Actions Linux job. Linux runners cost $0.006 a minute versus $0.062 for macOS runners, so keeping the macOS work on Capgo keeps the CI bill tiny.

Step 4: hotfix with a live update

When a bug is in JavaScript or CSS, I do not wait for review:

npm run build
npx @capgo/cli@latest bundle upload --channel production

Users get the new bundle on next launch. I can target a beta channel first, roll out gradually, and roll back in one click. Native code, permission or SDK changes still go through store review, as they should. Details in the live updates docs.

What this costs

Capgo Solo is $14 a month ($12 yearly) with 2,000 monthly active users and 60 build minutes, after a 14-day free trial. If usage is light, prepaid credits valid 12 months skip the subscription. Current plans.

How the alternatives compare for this pipeline

• Expo EAS: the same build, submit and update shape for React Native; free plan has 15 iOS builds a month, Starter $19 a month plus usage.
• Codemagic: 500 free macOS M2 minutes a month, then $0.095 a minute; OTA only for React Native.
• Capawesome Cloud: Capacitor live updates from $9 a month.
• Bitrise: Starter $99 a month, OTA via a CodePush-compatible add-on.
• Fastlane on GitHub Actions: free tooling, but you pay macOS minutes and maintain signing yourself.
• Ionic Appflow: closed to new apps since October 2026, sunset end of 2027.

FAQ

Is this App Store compliant? Yes. Capgo replaces only web assets inside the reviewed binary and never loads native code.

What if I already use Appflow? See the Appflow to Capgo comparison.