FlightStack against the rest.
No fake checkmarks. We have run all four in production, and this is what actually differs.
Where FlightStack fits
Codemagic and Bitrise are hosted only, priced per minute. That is fine when an iOS build finishes in three minutes and painful once it does not. GitHub Actions is general purpose and self-hostable inside GitHub Enterprise, but every Flutter job is something you assemble yourself out of third-party actions. Xcode Cloud is Apple only and assumes your whole stack is Xcode.
FlightStack picks a different point: visual pipelines, a Flutter-specific step library, self-hostable by default, and flat monthly pricing. The agent is a single binary you can download and run anywhere, and on self-hosted installs the data model is yours.
Side by side, no asterisks
| FlightStack | Codemagic Long-time Flutter shop, hosted only, per-minute pricing. | Bitrise General mobile CI, plugin marketplace, per-minute pricing. | GitHub Actions General purpose, free for public repos, paid minutes for private. | Xcode Cloud Apple only, iOS and macOS only, tied to App Store Connect. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Authoring | |||||
| Visual pipeline editor | Yes | Partial | No | No | No |
| YAML pipeline source FlightStack keeps the visual graph and the YAML in sync both ways. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Flutter-native step catalogue | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Marketplace for custom steps | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Hosting | |||||
| Self-hostable control plane Self-hosting GitHub Actions requires GitHub Enterprise. | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Self-hosted build agents on the free tier | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Bring your own Mac, Linux, or Windows | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Pricing model | |||||
| Per-minute meter FlightStack uses flat monthly tiers. | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free tier with unlimited builds GitHub Actions is free for public repositories only. | Yes | No | No | Partial | No |
| Cloud runners, pay as you go | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile shipping | |||||
| Code signing storage built in | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| TestFlight upload | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes |
| Google Play track upload | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | No |
| App Store Connect key vault | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Operating | |||||
| Live run streaming | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pipeline graph drawn at runtime | Yes | Partial | No | No | No |
| REST API for everything | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| First-party CLI | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Remote MCP server | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Open | |||||
| Open source agent FlightStack publishes agent binaries publicly. The source is not open yet. | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| Open data model On self-hosted FlightStack the database is yours. | Yes | No | No | Partial | No |
| Vendor exit plan | Yes | Partial | Partial | Yes | No |
- FS FlightStack
- CM Codemagic
- BR Bitrise
- GA GitHub Actions
- XC Xcode Cloud
Authoring
Visual pipeline editor
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: Partial
- BR Bitrise: No
- GA GitHub Actions: No
- XC Xcode Cloud: No
YAML pipeline source
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: Yes
- BR Bitrise: Yes
- GA GitHub Actions: Yes
- XC Xcode Cloud: No
FlightStack keeps the visual graph and the YAML in sync both ways.
Flutter-native step catalogue
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: Yes
- BR Bitrise: No
- GA GitHub Actions: No
- XC Xcode Cloud: No
Marketplace for custom steps
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: No
- BR Bitrise: Yes
- GA GitHub Actions: Yes
- XC Xcode Cloud: No
Hosting
Self-hostable control plane
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: No
- BR Bitrise: No
- GA GitHub Actions: Yes
- XC Xcode Cloud: No
Self-hosting GitHub Actions requires GitHub Enterprise.
Self-hosted build agents on the free tier
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: No
- BR Bitrise: No
- GA GitHub Actions: Yes
- XC Xcode Cloud: No
Bring your own Mac, Linux, or Windows
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: Yes
- BR Bitrise: Yes
- GA GitHub Actions: Yes
- XC Xcode Cloud: No
Pricing model
Per-minute meter
- FS FlightStack: No
- CM Codemagic: Yes
- BR Bitrise: Yes
- GA GitHub Actions: Yes
- XC Xcode Cloud: Yes
FlightStack uses flat monthly tiers.
Free tier with unlimited builds
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: No
- BR Bitrise: No
- GA GitHub Actions: Partial
- XC Xcode Cloud: No
GitHub Actions is free for public repositories only.
Cloud runners, pay as you go
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: Yes
- BR Bitrise: Yes
- GA GitHub Actions: Yes
- XC Xcode Cloud: Yes
Mobile shipping
Code signing storage built in
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: Yes
- BR Bitrise: Yes
- GA GitHub Actions: No
- XC Xcode Cloud: Yes
TestFlight upload
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: Yes
- BR Bitrise: Yes
- GA GitHub Actions: Partial
- XC Xcode Cloud: Yes
Google Play track upload
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: Yes
- BR Bitrise: Yes
- GA GitHub Actions: Partial
- XC Xcode Cloud: No
App Store Connect key vault
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: Yes
- BR Bitrise: Yes
- GA GitHub Actions: No
- XC Xcode Cloud: Yes
Operating
Live run streaming
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: Yes
- BR Bitrise: Yes
- GA GitHub Actions: Yes
- XC Xcode Cloud: Yes
Pipeline graph drawn at runtime
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: Partial
- BR Bitrise: No
- GA GitHub Actions: No
- XC Xcode Cloud: No
REST API for everything
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: Yes
- BR Bitrise: Yes
- GA GitHub Actions: Yes
- XC Xcode Cloud: Partial
First-party CLI
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: Yes
- BR Bitrise: Yes
- GA GitHub Actions: Yes
- XC Xcode Cloud: No
Remote MCP server
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: No
- BR Bitrise: No
- GA GitHub Actions: No
- XC Xcode Cloud: No
Open
Open source agent
- FS FlightStack: No
- CM Codemagic: No
- BR Bitrise: No
- GA GitHub Actions: Yes
- XC Xcode Cloud: No
FlightStack publishes agent binaries publicly. The source is not open yet.
Open data model
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: No
- BR Bitrise: No
- GA GitHub Actions: Partial
- XC Xcode Cloud: No
On self-hosted FlightStack the database is yours.
Vendor exit plan
- FS FlightStack: Yes
- CM Codemagic: Partial
- BR Bitrise: Partial
- GA GitHub Actions: Yes
- XC Xcode Cloud: No
- Yes
- Partial, or with caveats
- No
Switching? We will help you move.
Bring your YAML, your secrets, and your signing material. There are import scripts for Codemagic and GitHub Actions.