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Mobile Development · head to head

Adapty vs EAS Build

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
EAS Build logo

EAS Build

Mobile Development

Hosted iOS and Android build service for React Native, with signing credentials managed for you

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.; EAS Build iOS builds run on macOS workers charged at a much higher rate than Linux, so the invoice is dominated by the platform you have least ability to move off.
  • They diverge on capability: Adapty covers Visual paywall builder, EAS Build covers Hosted macOS and Linux workers.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Adapty and EAS Build actually diverge.

Attributes where Adapty and EAS Build differ
AttributeAdaptyEAS Build
Pricing modelPer month by tracked revenuePer month plus build usage
PlatformsiOS, Android, Web, React Native, FlutteriOS, Android

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 EAS Build

  • Hosted macOS and Linux workers
  • Managed signing credentials
  • Bare React Native support
  • EAS Submit
  • Internal distribution
  • Build profiles

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 EAS Build
  • A small subscription app that wants to stay free longer than the 2,500 USD threshold offered by the main competitornot EAS Build
  • Consolidating subscription analytics and paywall experimentation in one place rather than wiring an analytics tool to a billing SDKnot EAS Build
  • Automating Apple refund responses where a measurable share of revenue is lost to refund requestsnot EAS Build

EAS Build

  • A React Native team with no macOS build machine that needs signed iOS buildsnot Adapty
  • Removing signing credentials from individual laptops and putting them under an auditable servicenot Adapty
  • Shipping JavaScript only fixes through EAS Update without waiting on store reviewnot Adapty
  • Distributing internal test builds by link to non technical reviewersnot 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.

EAS Build

  • iOS builds run on macOS workers charged at a much higher rate than Linux, so the invoice is dominated by the platform you have least ability to move off.
  • Lower tiers queue behind higher paying customers, which is invisible until a hotfix build waits in a queue while an incident is running.
  • It is specific to React Native and Expo, so a company with a native Swift or Kotlin codebase alongside gets no benefit and needs a second build system anyway.
  • Deep use of managed credentials and over the air updates makes leaving harder than swapping a continuous integration provider, because the release process itself has been built around the service.
  • Build failures happen on infrastructure you cannot inspect, and reproducing an environment specific failure locally is harder than with a self hosted runner you can log into.

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

EAS Build

Free
  • Free$undefined/month
    • Limited monthly builds that queue behind paying customers
    • Sufficient for evaluation and hobby projects, not for a release cadence
  • Paid tiers$undefined/month
    • Monthly subscription buying build concurrency and included minutes, with overage per minute above them
    • macOS minutes cost several times Linux minutes, so iOS pipelines dominate the bill

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 EAS Build if

  • You need hosted macos and linux workers.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on iOS, Android.
  • You also want managed signing credentials.
EAS Build review

Questions people ask

Is Adapty or EAS Build better?
Neither clearly leads. Adapty starts at Free and EAS Build at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Adapty or EAS Build?
Adapty starts at Free and EAS Build at Free.
Does Adapty or EAS Build run on more platforms?
Adapty runs on iOS, Android, Web, React Native, Flutter. EAS Build runs on iOS, Android.
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 EAS Build is typically brought in for.
What can Adapty do that EAS Build cannot?
Adapty covers Visual paywall builder, A/B testing on paywalls, Cross-platform entitlements, Subscription analytics. EAS Build covers Hosted macOS and Linux workers, Managed signing credentials, Bare React Native support, EAS Submit.

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.

EAS Build: Does it work without the Expo managed workflow?

Yes. Bare React Native projects build fine, which is a common misconception that costs teams an unnecessary evaluation.

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.

EAS Build: Why not just use GitHub Actions macOS runners?

You can, and it is often cheaper. You then own credential management and the Xcode version treadmill, which is the work EAS is actually selling.

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.

EAS Build: Can JavaScript updates skip App Store review?

Yes through EAS Update, within Apple's rules about not changing the app's purpose. Native changes still require a store submission.

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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