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Mobile Development · head to head

Adapty vs Appcircle

Adapty logo

Adapty

Mobile Development

In-app subscription and paywall platform, free below 5,000 USD of monthly revenue then 1 percent, with add-ons charged separately

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Appcircle logo

Appcircle

Mobile Development

Mobile CI/CD platform for building, testing, and publishing apps

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Adapty the 1 percent headline is only the base rate; Refund Saver at 0.2 percent of revenue, Ads Manager at 3.5 percent of ad spend, Attribution at 0.03 USD per install and Adapty Mail at a 20 percent revenue share stack on top and are individually easy to switch on.; Appcircle the free Starter plan caps builds at 20 per month and 30 minutes per build, limiting use for active teams.
  • They diverge on capability: Adapty covers Visual paywall builder, Appcircle covers Mobile Build Automation.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Adapty and Appcircle actually diverge.

Attributes where Adapty and Appcircle differ
AttributeAdaptyAppcircle
Pricing modelPer month by tracked revenuefreemium
PlatformsiOS, Android, Web, React Native, Flutterweb, ios, android, api

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Mobile Development).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Adapty

  • Visual paywall builder
  • A/B testing on paywalls
  • Cross-platform entitlements
  • Subscription analytics
  • Refund Saver add-on
  • Attribution and Ads Manager add-ons

Only in Appcircle

  • Mobile Build Automation
  • Signing Identity Management
  • Testing Distribution
  • Store Publishing Automation
  • CodePush Updates
  • Enterprise App Store
  • Microsoft Intune Integration

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Adapty

  • A growth marketer who needs to test paywall pricing weekly without an engineering ticket or an app releasenot Appcircle
  • A small subscription app that wants to stay free longer than the 2,500 USD threshold offered by the main competitornot Appcircle
  • Consolidating subscription analytics and paywall experimentation in one place rather than wiring an analytics tool to a billing SDKnot Appcircle
  • Automating Apple refund responses where a measurable share of revenue is lost to refund requestsnot Appcircle

Appcircle

  • Automating mobile app builds and signing for iOS and Androidnot Adapty
  • Distributing test builds to QA and beta testersnot Adapty
  • Pushing over-the-air updates without app store reviewnot Adapty
  • Hosting an internal enterprise app storenot Adapty
  • Self-hosting mobile CI/CD behind a firewallnot Adapty

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Adapty

  • The 1 percent headline is only the base rate; Refund Saver at 0.2 percent of revenue, Ads Manager at 3.5 percent of ad spend, Attribution at 0.03 USD per install and Adapty Mail at a 20 percent revenue share stack on top and are individually easy to switch on.
  • Revenue is calculated before platform fees, so the fee applies to money Apple and Google have already taken a 15 to 30 percent cut of, making the effective rate on received cash noticeably higher than the quoted figure.
  • Adapty Mail at a 20 percent revenue share is a large ongoing cost for a channel most teams would otherwise run through an email platform they already pay a flat fee for.
  • The integration ecosystem, third-party tutorials and hiring pool are smaller than the category leader, so engineers are less likely to have used it before and edge cases have fewer public answers.
  • Paywall configuration and entitlement state live with the vendor, so a migration later means rebuilding both the billing integration and every paywall the marketing team has created.

Appcircle

  • The free Starter plan caps builds at 20 per month and 30 minutes per build, limiting use for active teams.
  • Corporate/on-premises pricing is not published and requires contacting sales.
  • Billing is annual with bank transfer terms, which is less flexible than monthly self-serve billing.
  • Focused specifically on mobile, so it lacks the general-purpose CI/CD features of broader platforms.

Pricing, plan by plan

Adapty

Free
  • Pro under thresholdFree
    • Free until monthly revenue reaches 5,000 USD
    • All core features, no tiers and no fixed costs
    • Paywall builder and A/B testing included
  • Pro$undefined/month
    • 1 percent of monthly revenue above the 5,000 USD threshold
    • Refund Saver adds 0.2 percent of monthly revenue
    • Ads Manager adds 3.5 percent of monthly ad spend
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Quoted
    • White-glove onboarding
    • 24/7 dedicated Slack support and a success manager

Appcircle

Free
  • StarterFree
    • 1 concurrent build
    • 30 minutes max build time
    • 20 builds per month
  • Corporate$undefined/month
    • Customizable limits across all modules
    • Public, private cloud, or on-premises deployment
    • SSO/LDAP support

Which should you pick?

Choose Adapty if

  • You need visual paywall builder.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on iOS, Android, Web, React Native, Flutter.
  • You also want a/b testing on paywalls.
Adapty review

Choose Appcircle if

  • You need mobile build automation.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on web, ios, android, api.
  • You also want signing identity management.
Appcircle review

Questions people ask

Is Adapty or Appcircle better?
Neither clearly leads. Adapty starts at Free and Appcircle at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Adapty or Appcircle?
Adapty starts at Free and Appcircle at Free.
Does Adapty or Appcircle run on more platforms?
Adapty runs on iOS, Android, Web, React Native, Flutter. Appcircle runs on web, ios, android, api.
Can I use Adapty for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Adapty best used for?
Adapty is most often used for a growth marketer who needs to test paywall pricing weekly without an engineering ticket or an app release, a small subscription app that wants to stay free longer than the 2,500 usd threshold offered by the main competitor, consolidating subscription analytics and paywall experimentation in one place rather than wiring an analytics tool to a billing sdk, automating apple refund responses where a measurable share of revenue is lost to refund requests. Of those, a growth marketer who needs to test paywall pricing weekly without an engineering ticket or an app release and a small subscription app that wants to stay free longer than the 2,500 usd threshold offered by the main competitor are not what Appcircle is typically brought in for.
What can Adapty do that Appcircle cannot?
Adapty covers Visual paywall builder, A/B testing on paywalls, Cross-platform entitlements, Subscription analytics. Appcircle covers Mobile Build Automation, Signing Identity Management, Testing Distribution, Store Publishing Automation.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Adapty: How much does it cost above the free threshold?

1 percent of monthly revenue, measured in USD before platform fees, with billing starting once you exceed 5,000 USD in a 30 day period.

Appcircle: What does Appcircle cost?

Appcircle offers an always-free Starter plan with limited monthly builds, and a Corporate plan with tailored, customizable limits priced through annual licensing.

Source
Adapty: Is the free tier really more generous than RevenueCat?

On the base product yes, 5,000 USD against 2,500 USD of monthly revenue, but add-ons are priced separately where the competitor bundles more into its single rate.

Appcircle: Is there a free plan, and what are its limits?

The free Starter plan includes 1 concurrent build, 30-minute max build time, 20 builds per month, 1,000 CodePush updates, and 100 Testing Distribution downloads per month.

Source
Adapty: Can marketing change paywalls without a release?

Yes, that is the main reason teams choose it; paywalls are configured server side and published without going through app review.

Appcircle: How is billing handled on paid plans?

Corporate plans use an annual licensing model with bank transfer payments due within 30 days of invoicing, and usage against limits can be tracked in the billing dashboard.

Source
Adapty: What does Refund Saver actually do?

It responds to Apple refund requests with transaction evidence to contest them, and it costs an additional 0.2 percent of monthly revenue.

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