我需要TestFlight吗？

Question

As I understand, TestFlight does 2 things:

• Gives me ability to invite testers with their emails
• Automatically enables "send crash report" feature

I do in-home (enterprise) app and distribute it directly, with out of AppStore.

Looks like I do not need TesFlight, and may stay with adhoc provision and install app with our internal portal. Is it true? Does TestFlight have some special features I may need?

Answer 1

I like products like TestFlight and Fabric because they are bit easier to control and distribute compared to direct ad hoc builds. Specially when I add a new device to the portal it's sometimes difficult to see if that device is actually included in the build or not. With Fabric or TestFlight you have your users and your users have their devices. You can see which user has what device and distribute to a selection of users without too much hassle.

Answer 2

Crashlytics

Pros

1. Quick to release as no review process takes place.
2. Integrated crash reporting and analytics's easily viewable using web interface.
3. No limit on lifetime of beta cycle.

Cons

1. Requires you to use a development provisioning profile, where every tester's UDID is known and added.
2. Can be tricky to integrate frameworks into project.

TestFlight

Pros

1. Uses production provisioning profile so no need to manage UDIDs.
2. Release is integrated into Xcode with no 3rd-party frameworks.
3. Crash reporting etc. Not sure about analytics.

Cons

1. Slow (48 hours?) release time as goes through minor review process.
2. App lifetime limited to 30-days per beta release.

There is no clear-cut winner and I went from Crashlytics to TestFlight as it was cleaner and I got to rehearse my release every single time I released a beta.