Ionic Appflow vs VoltBuilder
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, a much newer product? 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 | 13.0 | 14.2.0 |
| cordova-android | 10.1.1 | 11.0.0 |
| Android API | API 30 (Android 11) | API 31 (Android 12) |
| 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 | log only | Yes |
| Push to App Stores | Yes | Yes |
| Android Build time (secs) | 83 | 51 |
| Android apk size (k) | 305 | 305 |
| iOS Build time (secs) | 179 | 44 |
| iOS ipa size (k) | 358 | 355 |
Data as of Nov 1, 2021.
Interested in finding out more? Check out the Migration Guide.