Ionic Appflow vs VoltBuilder
Important: Ionic have announced new AppFlow sales have ended. The service will be shut off entirely Dec 31, 2027.
Ionic AppFlow is one of the most widely used build tools for mobile apps. Not surprising - it’s been around for a few years.
How does it compare to VoltBuilder? Let’s compare them.
The major difference is that Ionic Appflow is completely an online service: your source certificates and passwords are saved on Ionic’s servers, as well as your source code if you are using Ionic git. A nice user interface lets you maintain your apps on their server. VoltBuilder only stores your app as long as needed1: your project is saved on your local system. Apps are submitted by drag and drop.
Each product has additional features not listed here: Ionic Appflow has GitHub and CI/CD integration and live OTA updates. VoltBuilder has App Hosting, QR Codes for device downloading and iOS/Android Certificate Generation.
Ionic Appflow compared to VoltBuilder
| Ionic Appflow | VoltBuilder | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $492/499 | $15/37 |
| Free Trial | None2 | 15 days |
| Xcode | 16.1 | 15.4 |
| MacOS | 14.6.1 | 14.5 |
| cordova-android | 12.0.0 | 13.0.0 |
| Android API | API 27-35 | API 29-34 |
| Upload from | GitHub | Local System |
| Upload via API | No | Yes |
| Signing keys | Saved on Ionic server | Saved temporarily during build1 |
| Source code | Saved on Ionic server | Saved temporarily during build1 |
| Targets | Android, iOS, web | Android, iOS, Windows |
| Simplified messages | Yes | Yes |
| Push to App Stores | Yes | Yes |
| Android Build time (secs) 3 | 83 | 51 |
| Android apk size (k) 3 | 305 | 305 |
| iOS Build time (secs) 3 | 179 | 44 |
| iOS ipa size (k) 3 | 358 | 355 |
Data as of Feb 14, 2025.
Interested in finding out more? Check out the Migration Guide.