App Center CodePush Is Gone — Here's What to Do Next
Microsoft retired Visual Studio App Center, including CodePush, on March 31, 2025. Any app still relying on App Center's CodePush servers is running on broken infrastructure. React Native Stallion is the modern hosted replacement — with everything App Center CodePush offered plus patch updates, rollback analytics, and active development.
What Happened to App Center CodePush
Microsoft announced the retirement of Visual Studio App Center in March 2025, ending a platform that had served as the default mobile DevOps hub for thousands of React Native teams.
The CodePush hosted service shut down completely on March 31, 2025 — with no sunset period and no migration path provided by Microsoft. Teams that depended on App Center's managed CodePush infrastructure lost their update delivery channel overnight.
The open-source CodePush server code was archived shortly after. Community forks exist, but they are unmaintained and leave teams responsible for servers, CDN, database, and ongoing security patching.
The situation is worse for teams on modern React Native. React Native 0.76+ enabled Bridgeless mode by default — and CodePush's reload mechanism depends on the old JS bridge. In Bridgeless mode, CodePush updates silently fail without surfacing an error.
Teams still using CodePush are either broken already or will be when they upgrade React Native. The time to migrate is now.
App Center CodePush vs React Native Stallion
| Capability | React Native Stallion | App Center CodePush |
|---|---|---|
Hosted service | ✓ Active | ✗ Shut down March 2025 |
Differential / patch updates | ✓ Binary-safe delta | ✗ Full bundle only |
Auto rollback (native crash detection) | ✓ | △ Limited |
Rollback analytics (grouped stack traces) | ✓ | ✗ |
Release adoption analytics | ✓ Day-wise insights | △ Very limited |
In-app testing & beta (PIN-protected modal) | ✓ | ✗ |
Bundle signing (customer-managed keys) | ✓ Free on all plans | ✗ |
SSO (Okta, Google, Microsoft Entra) | ✓ All paid plans | ✗ |
New Architecture support (RN 0.76+) | ✓ | ✗ Fails in Bridgeless mode |
Active development | ✓ | ✗ Archived |
On-premise hosting | ✓ Paid add-on | ✗ |
Migrate From App Center CodePush in 30 Minutes
Switching from App Center CodePush to React Native Stallion is straightforward. The API patterns are intentionally similar to reduce migration effort.
- 1
Install the React Native Stallion SDK and remove CodePush from your project.
- 2
Create an app in the Stallion Console and copy your deployment key.
- 3
Replace CodePush API calls with Stallion equivalents — API patterns are intentionally similar to reduce migration effort.
- 4
Push your first bundle with the Stallion CLI and verify delivery on a test device.
Full step-by-step instructions with code examples are in the migration guide.
View Migration Guide →Frequently Asked Questions
Is App Center CodePush completely shut down?
Can I self-host the open-source CodePush server instead?
Does CodePush work with React Native New Architecture?
How long does migration take?
Stop running on broken infrastructure. React Native Stallion is free to start — 10K MAU free tier, no credit card required.