Xcode Cloud Subscriptions Now Available for Developers

[MacRumors]

Apple today announced that developers can purchase subscriptions to Xcode Cloud, a continuous integration and delivery service that's built into the Xcode app. Apple designed Xcode Cloud to provide cloud-based tools to developers for building apps, running automated tests, providing apps to testers, and managing user feedback.

Xcode Cloud has been available to all developers since June after several months of beta testing, but subscriptions were not able to be purchased until now. There are a total of four monthly plans that developers can choose from, which vary based on the total number of compute hours needed.

25 compute hours per month is free at the current time, but will later cost $15 per month. 100 computer hours per month is priced at $50/month, 250 compute hours per month is priced at $100/month, and 1000 compute hours per month is priced at $400/month.

Apple says that developers can get started by configuring a workflow in Xcode and will receive 25 compute hours per month at no cost until the end of 2023. As mentioned above, pricing for this plan will be $15 when the introductory period ends.

A compute hour is an hour of time that is used to execute a task in the cloud, like building an app or running tests. Compute hour usage can be tracked in App Store Connect and the Apple Developer app. Additional information can be found on Apple's Xcode Cloud website.

Article Link: Xcode Cloud Subscriptions Now Available for Developers

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

Still buggy af but now buggy af in the cloud

 

[timmy_apple]

I don't understand, Apple is now charging us developers to just use Xcode?

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

I don't understand, Apple is now charging us developers to just use Xcode?

Nah its for CI

 

[ja']

at the very least there ought to be a free tier so people can try it out. :c

 

[ios-dan]

at the very least there ought to be a free tier so people can try it out. :c

They do, but it expires. They should have a free forever tier… honestly the whole thing should be free forever. They’ve got enough money, and our yearly dev fee. Just give it away and make a nice goodwill gesture to the dev community

 

[applicious84]

at the very least there ought to be a free tier so people can try it out. :c

They're taking their lead from Heroku

 

[crees!]

I don't understand, Apple is now charging us developers to just use Xcode?

Probably because they see the writing on the wall where at some point they will be forced to not take any percentage of sales and then they’re gonna need some other way to recoup that cost. What comes around goes around

 

[chkay]

Probably because they see the writing on the wall where at some point they will be forced to not take any percentage of sales and then they’re gonna need some other way to recoup that cost. What comes around goes around

They'll make pittance from charging for CI, it's not something a wide audience has a need for Apple to provide them.

 

[nutmac]

They do, but it expires. They should have a free forever tier… honestly the whole thing should be free forever. They’ve got enough money, and our yearly dev fee. Just give it away and make a nice goodwill gesture to the dev community

I am not sure about free forever, but it would be nice if... say, 10 hours a month is included with $99/year Apple Developer Program membership.

 

[tomovo]

I don't understand, Apple is now charging us developers to just use Xcode?

It's just the cloud CI system. But consider this: from now on, when the Swift compiler gets slower, they get to charge more compute hours. What a great motivation for them to improve it... /s

 

[temende]

Seems like Tim Cook has identified *spins roulette wheel* developers as the next big services revenue boost.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

So, all developers currently developing using Xcode already have their own solutions set up. That’s a LOT of developers. This is just going to get the developers that don’t have the skills to set their own solutions up… and if you’re a developer that can’t set up your own CI solution… well that’s another problem.

It’s like a mechanic that doesn’t know how to pump gas into the car..

 

[thenahon]

What is the purpose of this? How is having a cloud service better than what was available before this?

 

[mdriftmeyer]

What is the purpose of this? How is having a cloud service better than what was available before this?

Distributed Builds, automated testing in various stages on server instances that you don't have to tax your system to use or teams to buy an expensive in-house NAS/SAN and infrastructure, when you can just join a business account and the farm in the cloud offers all these needs for a lot less money, not to mention the security and guaranteed files not getting lost because someone in-house did something w/o first having the skills to do so, thus trashing a lot of work.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

What is the purpose of this? How is having a cloud service better than what was available before this?

This one has an Apple logo on it for developers with nullumaluphobia.

 

[ian87w]

What is the purpose of this? How is having a cloud service better than what was available before this?

Cloud computing like this is nothing new for developers. It's just now Apple offers the service first party.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

They do, but it expires. They should have a free forever tier… honestly the whole thing should be free forever. They’ve got enough money, and our yearly dev fee. Just give it away and make a nice goodwill gesture to the dev community

That’s one of those things that would actually be anti-competitive.

 

[TracesOfArsenic]

I don't understand, Apple is now charging us developers to just use Xcode?

They already did when they decided Xcode wouldn't be platform agnostic.

 

[springsup]

I'll stick with GitHub.

Has great support everywhere, integrates with everything, people know how to use it, it has a generous free allowance and is totally free for open-source, etc. We already host our code on GitHub, so it's already part of our workflow.

This is built in to the Xcode UI, but has no support for other IDEs, lacks GHA's extensive collection of plugins, is unfamiliar to non-developers, and the free tier is only a temporary marketing promotion. No thanks.

 

[Cromulent]

Well, it will undoubtedly be cheaper than buying multiple Apple devices to test on a wide variety of hardware from different generations.

 

[eoblaed]

I don't understand, Apple is now charging us developers to just use Xcode?

If you don't understand, this service isn't for you. It won't change the way you use Xcode, nor will you be charged for anything you aren't already being charged for if you don't use it.

 

[jdb8167]

They already did when they decided Xcode wouldn't be platform agnostic.

Wait, are you suggesting that Apple should use something cross-platform like Electron for Xcode? Please no. There are enough garbage Electron apps already. Or are you arguing that Microsoft should also port Microsoft Visual Studio to macOS? In general, OS vendors don't support other operating systems with their proprietary development environments.

Edit: Disregard this. @Cromulent corrected me below and pointed out that Microsoft does make Visual Studio for macOS.

 

[Cromulent]

Wait, are you suggesting that Apple should use something cross-platform like Electron for Xcode? Please no. There are enough garbage Electron apps already. Or are you arguing that Microsoft should also port Microsoft Visual Studio to macOS? In general, OS vendors don't support other operating systems with their proprietary development environments.

Actually Microsoft did port visual studio to the Mac.

Edit. And no I am not talking about visual studio code.

 

[jdb8167]

Actually Microsoft did port visual studio to the Mac.

VSCode but not Microsoft Visual Studio. Different products and VSCode is an Electron app. No thanks.

I should research before making blanket statements. You are correct. I had no idea that they did port Visual Studio to the Mac.

Thanks for the correction.