Developing Ios Apps Without A Mac

 

Photo by Rodrigo Galindez

Dec 08, 2016  Start Developing iOS Apps (Swift)is the perfect starting point for learning to create apps that run on iPhone and iPad. View this set of incremental lessons as a guided introduction to building your first app—including the tools, major concepts, and best practices that will ease your path. Jan 18, 2019  Depending on the selected provisioning profile type, Codemagic will create a development or a distribution certificate and a development, Ad hoc or App store provisioning profile. This way, you can get signed builds that can be installed on real devices. Apr 27, 2015  When making apps for an Apple device (phone, watch, computer) you need to use Xcode. A free piece of software created by Apple that allows you to design and code up apps. Xcode only works on Apple's operating system OS X. So if you have a Mac, then you can run Xcode no problem.

Do I need a Mac to make iPhone apps? Apple Watch apps? Mac apps? The short answer is no. But there's a lot more to it than just that.

When making apps for an Apple device (phone, watch, computer) you need to use Xcode. A free piece of software created by Apple that allows you to design and code up apps. Xcode only works on Apple's operating system OS X. So if you have a Mac, then you can run Xcode no problem. If you don't have a Mac, there are two work arounds that I know of that you can use. So in total there are three ways you can run Xcode. Here's my thoughts on each of them.

1. Using a Mac

This is by far the best option. Using apple's hardware to run Xcode is going to be your best experience for making apps. You might not have a Mac though and buying one can be expensive. I remember when I wanted to first buy a Mac and couldn't get over the price tag. The MacBook I was looking to buy cost $1,200. A PC with similar parts (RAM, CPU, HardDrive, etc...) cost only $400. Three times the money for a stinking Apple logo! In retrospect, the money was well worth it.

If you are interested in going this route and buying a computer, check out my Mac Buying Guide for developers.

Also be on the lookout of place where you could use a Mac for free. Maybe your library has a machine you can use.

2. Using a Cloud Service

This is my second favorite option. It's a really creative solution for helping people make apps who don't have Macs. There are few companies that own a bunch of Mac computers and allow you to access them via the web and control them remotely. It's kind of like renting a Mac month to month. All you need is a web browser to access your machine. The downside to this is you have to pay a monthly fee and you must be connected to the internet to do your work. Here are links to two companies that do this: macincloud.com and xcodeclub.com

3. Virtual Machine

This option involves creating a virtual machine on your computer, installing Apple's OS X operating system, and then running Xcode on that virtual machine. I don't like this option for two reasons.

  1. It's complicated. It takes a lot of work and technical know how to get your virtual machine set up.
  2. It's illegal. Apple doesn't sell OS X by itself as a stand alone product. They sell computers with OS X on them. For this reason, you can't buy a copy of OS X and run it on your computer. You would have to download it illegally. Some people argue that Apple would never come after you for doing this but I don't think it's worth the risk and besides, you're going to have a MUCH better experience with an actual Mac. Here's a good summary of the legality.

If you got the budget for it, buy a Mac. I know it's crazy expensive but I believe you'll fall in love with your Mac. If you end up using a cloud service, let me know in the comments what your experience has been. I'd love to hear more.

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Developing Ios Apps Without Mac

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Distribution

App Store

Developing Ios Apps Without A Mac

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Apple Business Manager and Apple School Manager

All apps on the App Store are also available in volume for businesses and educational institutions in select countries and regions.

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Ad Hoc

A limited number of users can install your app directly on their Apple devices for testing and internal distribution.

  • iPhone (100 per membership year)
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Ios Development Without Mac

Developer ID

Distribute your Mac apps, plug-ins, and installer packages outside of the Mac App Store by signing them with a Developer ID certificate and having them notarized by Apple. This lets Gatekeeper on macOS verify that your software is from a trusted developer and is safe to install.

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Developing Ios Apps Macbook Air

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