App Center CodePush Is Gone — Here's What to Do Next
Microsoft retired Visual Studio App Center, including CodePush, on March 31, 2025. If your app is still pointed at App Center's CodePush servers, the hosted CodePush service is retired — it's no longer serving updates. React Native Stallion is a managed OTA update platform for React Native, offering differential patch updates, crash-aware rollback with release analytics, bundle signing, and full New Architecture support.
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. Microsoft's stated path forward was the standalone, self-hosted CodePush server rather than a hosted replacement — teams that depended on App Center's managed CodePush infrastructure needed to either self-host that server or move to a different OTA provider to keep shipping updates.
Microsoft's standalone CodePush server repository was archived on May 20, 2025. Community forks exist with varying levels of maintenance, and any of them still leave teams responsible for servers, CDN, database, and ongoing security patching.
The situation is more complicated for teams on modern React Native. React Native 0.76 enabled the New Architecture by default, and Microsoft's CodePush client does not support the New Architecture. Teams on RN 0.76+ need to opt out of the New Architecture to keep CodePush working, or move to an OTA provider that supports it.
Teams still relying on App Center's hosted CodePush service need to migrate now, since that service no longer exists. Teams running a self-hosted, standalone CodePush server aren't affected by the shutdown itself, but still face the same New Architecture incompatibility once they upgrade React Native.
App Center CodePush vs React Native Stallion
| Capability | React Native Stallion | App Center CodePush |
|---|---|---|
Hosted service | Actively maintained managed OTA platform | Shut down — App Center CodePush retired March 2025 |
Differential / patch updates | Binary-safe patches between any two versions | Full-bundle updates only; no binary diffing |
Rollouts | Gradual percentage-based rollouts | Percentage-based rollout supported via CLI flag |
Rollback & crash recovery | Automatic + manual recovery with JS and native crash detection | Manual rollback available; automatic native crash rollback was limited |
Rollback analytics | Grouped rollback failures with stack-trace insights | Not a standard capability |
Release adoption analytics | Detailed release, download, adoption and rollback insights | Very limited adoption metrics |
In-app testing & beta | Purpose-built UI to switch to any version in one click — PIN-protected, including production testing | Not a standard capability |
Bundle signing | Customer-managed keys, local signing and on-device verification — all plans | Not supported |
SSO | SAML/OIDC via Okta, Google, Microsoft Entra & OneLogin — Enterprise | Not supported |
Regional data hosting | Choose your data region | No regional hosting option — single Microsoft-managed region |
Enterprise deployment | Managed cloud, regional hosting or self-hosted/on-premise deployment | No on-premise or self-hosted option — Microsoft-managed cloud only |
Infrastructure control | Control hosting, infrastructure and data location | No infrastructure control — fully Microsoft-managed |
SLA & uptime | Enterprise uptime SLA and dedicated support | No SLA — service discontinued |
Bare React Native support | First-class support with no Expo dependency | Supported bare React Native, but failed under the New Architecture's Bridgeless mode (RN 0.76+) |
Free OTA tier | 10K MAU | N/A — service discontinued |
Pricing at 50K MAU | $51/mo Pro — 100K MAU included | N/A — service discontinued |
Active development | Actively maintained and developed | Archived — no further updates since deprecation |
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?
Microsoft archived the standalone CodePush server repository on May 20, 2025. Community forks exist with varying levels of maintenance, and running any of them makes you responsible for the full infrastructure — hosting, CDN, storage/database, monitoring, security, scaling, and ongoing maintenance. See our self-hosted OTA cost breakdown for what that actually costs on AWS.
Does CodePush work with React Native New Architecture?
How long does migration take?
The hosted CodePush service is retired. React Native Stallion is free to start — 10K MAU free tier, no credit card required.
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