Quick Answer

Capgo is a cloud platform specifically designed for CapacitorJS applications that enables "over-the-air" (OTA) updates, allowing developers to push HTML, CSS, or JS changes directly to users' devices without App Store approval. Created by Martin Donadieu, it has served over 1 billion updates across 3,500+ companies. Key features include instant live updates, end-to-end encryption, and auto-rollback for broken updates. Pricing: Free tier available, paid plans start around $14/month, with pay-as-you-go options for larger apps. Verdict: If you're building with Capacitor, Capgo is currently the best-in-class solution for live updates. It's built by a developer who understands the ecosystem, more affordable than enterprise alternatives, and the ability to fix a critical bug in 5 minutes instead of 2 days is worth every penny.

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Capgo Review: The Live Update Solution for Capacitor Apps

Building mobile apps with web technologies (Capacitor) is a superpower. But the "App Store Review" process is kryptonite. Waiting 48 hours-or getting rejected-just to fix a typo or ship a small feature is painful.

Capgo promises to bypass this bottleneck completely.

By enabling "Live Updates" (OTA), Capgo allows developers to push changes to their users' devices instantly, without waiting for Apple or Google's approval. But is it reliable enough for production?

What is Capgo?

Capgo is a cloud platform specifically designed for CapacitorJS applications. It allows developers to send "over-the-air" updates to their apps. Essentially, if you change your HTML, CSS, or JS, you can push those changes directly to your users' phones in the background.

It serves as a modern, indie-friendly alternative to Ionic Appflow or the now-defunct Microsoft CodePush. With Capgo, your app checks for updates on launch (or in the background), downloads the new bundle, and swaps it in. No App Store submission required.

The Founder

Capgo was built by Martin Donadieu, a prominent figure in the "Build in Public" community. Martin built Capgo out of his own frustration with existing tools while maintaining his own apps.

His transparency is a core part of the brand. He openly shares the platform's revenue, uptime stats, and roadmap. This "developer-to-developer" trust has helped Capgo grow to serve over 1 billion updates across 3,500+ companies.

Key Features

• Instant Live Updates: Push JS/CSS/HTML changes instantly. You can set updates to apply on the next resume, next launch, or immediately.
• End-to-End Encryption: Unlike some competitors, Capgo offers encrypted updates, ensuring that your code cannot be intercepted or tampered with during delivery.
• Auto-Rollback: If you ship a broken update (we've all been there), Capgo's plugin detects the crash and automatically rolls the user back to the previous working version, preventing a "White Screen of Death."

Pricing

Capgo's pricing is designed to be friendly to indie devs while scaling for enterprise:

• Free Tier: Generous limits that allow you to get started and ship updates to a small user base for free.
• Starter / Pro: Paid plans start around $14/month, unlocking more bandwidth, team features, and longer history retention.
• Pay-as-you-go: For larger apps, it scales based on Monthly Active Users (MAU) and bandwidth, often proving cheaper than Ionic Appflow.

Competitors & Alternatives

1. Ionic Appflow: The "official" solution from the Ionic team. It is robust and enterprise-grade, but can be significantly more expensive for small-to-medium teams.
2. Microsoft CodePush: formerly the standard, but it has been deprecated/moved to App Center (which is also sunsetting features), leaving many devs looking for a replacement like Capgo.
3. Capawesome Cloud: A newer competitor in the Capacitor ecosystem offering similar cloud build and update features.

The Verdict

If you are building with Capacitor, Capgo is currently the best-in-class solution for live updates. It is built by a developer who understands the ecosystem deeply, it is more affordable than the enterprise alternatives, and it just works.

The ability to fix a critical bug in 5 minutes instead of 2 days is worth every penny.

You Bypassed the App Store. Now Secure Your Revenue.

Capgo allows you to ship faster than ever. But speed creates new risks. As your app scales and you potentially take payments (via Stripe on your web dashboard or wrapped views), you face the threat of chargebacks and trial fraud.

Users can subscribe to your service, use the premium features, and then dispute the charge, keeping the value while costing you fees.

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