FAQ
Questions about Release Flight, answered.
What it is, the stores it supports, how self-hosting and per-seat licensing work, how it keeps your credentials secure, and how it compares to tools like fastlane.
What is Release Flight?
- Release Flight is a self-hosted control surface that automates iOS and Android app releases across App Store Connect and Google Play. It handles store metadata, screenshots, app previews, ASO keyword intelligence, and a Bitrise-style build/deploy pipeline that builds signed IPA, AAB, and APK binaries from your source — all from one place, instead of stitching together spreadsheets, dashboards, and release scripts.
Which app stores and platforms does Release Flight support?
- Release Flight supports Apple's App Store (via App Store Connect) and Google Play (via the Google Play Console) as first-class, side-by-side targets. A single workflow manages metadata, screenshots, app previews, ASO, and build-and-deploy for both stores, and the build pipeline can deploy to App Store, Google Play, or Firebase App Distribution.
Is Release Flight self-hosted or cloud-based?
- Release Flight is self-hosted. You install it on your own infrastructure with a Tauri desktop installer that provisions everything in minutes, so your source code, store credentials, and release data stay inside your environment. There is no multi-tenant cloud you upload your data to — your team runs its own instance.
Where does my data live, and who can see it?
- All of your data lives on the infrastructure you self-host Release Flight on; nothing is sent to a Release Flight cloud. Store credentials are AES-256-GCM encrypted at rest and are never returned to the browser, and within a single instance each team is isolated by Postgres row-level security, so one tenant cannot read another's rows even if application code has a bug.
How does licensing and pricing work?
- Release Flight is sold as a subscription billed through Polar, and you self-host the software. There are two plans: Indie at $19/month for solo developers (one seat) and Studio at $39 per active user per month for teams. Your subscription entitles a set number of active member seats; if usage exceeds your seat count the instance moves to a read-only state until you add seats, so you are never silently overcharged.
What counts as a seat?
- A seat is one active member of your Release Flight instance — a distinct user who can sign in and do work across your apps and teams. Seats are counted instance-wide by distinct active user, not per app, so running many apps or tenants does not consume extra seats. You can provision and deprovision members yourself from the team settings.
How is Release Flight different from fastlane?
- fastlane is an open-source set of Ruby "lanes" you write and maintain yourself to automate builds, signing, screenshots, and store uploads. Release Flight covers the same metadata, screenshot, build, and deploy work, but through a visual, self-hosted control surface with a managed build runner and ASO intelligence built in — so you get a maintained product and an audit trail instead of a scripts repo. Teams often adopt Release Flight to replace a tangle of Fastlane lanes and CI glue.
Do I need a Mac to build iOS apps?
- Yes — building and signing iOS apps requires Apple's toolchain, which only runs on macOS, so Release Flight uses a macOS build runner for IPA builds. The runner is a macOS agent that clones your repository, detects the framework, produces a signed binary, and reports back to the control surface. Android builds (AAB/APK) do not require a Mac.
How does Release Flight handle code signing and credentials?
- Release Flight stores App Store Connect and Google Play credentials and signing material encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM, and passes process secrets through restricted-permission files rather than command-line arguments so they never leak into logs. Signing happens on your own build runner, which means your certificates and keys never leave your environment.
How do updates work?
- Because Release Flight is self-hosted, you control when you update. New versions are delivered through the same desktop wizard you used to install, and your encrypted data and credentials are preserved across upgrades. You stay on a version until you choose to move, rather than having changes pushed to you.
Can a whole team use Release Flight together?
- Yes. Release Flight is multi-tenant and built for teams: you can run unlimited apps and tenants, invite members, and restrict each member to specific apps with per-member app scoping. Those access rules are enforced by Postgres row-level security and recorded in an append-only audit log, so access control is enforced in the database, not just in the UI.
What does the ASO intelligence actually do?
- Release Flight's ASO intelligence researches keywords, tracks how your apps rank for them over time, and suggests improvements grounded in real store data. Paired with the metadata editor's character-limit guards for each store, it turns App Store Optimization from a one-time guess into a measurable, repeatable part of every release.
Still have a question?
Browse the glossary for term-by-term definitions, or download Release Flight and connect your stores to see it in action.