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Mobile Development · head to head

Appcircle vs Garden

Appcircle logo

Appcircle

Mobile Development

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Garden logo

Garden

Developer Tools

Kubernetes development and testing automation with shared caching, now owned by Incredibuild

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Appcircle the free Starter plan caps builds at 20 per month and 30 minutes per build, limiting use for active teams.; Garden incredibuild acquired Garden in November 2024 and the pricing page now redirects to documentation, so there is no public commercial offer and no published roadmap for a team betting a platform on it.
  • They diverge on capability: Appcircle covers Mobile Build Automation, Garden covers Action graph.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Appcircle and Garden actually diverge.

Attributes where Appcircle and Garden differ
AttributeAppcircleGarden
Pricing modelfreemiumOpen source, no licence fee
Platformsweb, ios, android, apiLinux, macOS, Windows, Kubernetes
CategoryMobile DevelopmentDeveloper Tools

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

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 Appcircle

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

Only in Garden

  • Action graph
  • Shared result caching
  • Remote Kubernetes environments
  • In-cluster builds
  • Same config everywhere
  • Hot reload sync
  • Helm and Kustomize support
  • Templating

What people use each for

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

Appcircle

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

Garden

  • A platform team whose integration test suite takes longer than the coffee break and needs caching to cut the loopnot Appcircle
  • An organisation with thirty or more services on Kubernetes where docker-compose no longer approximates productionnot Appcircle
  • Giving every developer an ephemeral namespace instead of queuing for one shared staging environmentnot Appcircle
  • Running the identical build and test definition locally and in CI so failures reproduce on a laptopnot Appcircle

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Garden

  • Incredibuild acquired Garden in November 2024 and the pricing page now redirects to documentation, so there is no public commercial offer and no published roadmap for a team betting a platform on it.
  • It is tightly bound to Kubernetes, so teams running on ECS, Nomad, plain VMs or serverless get little from it and would need a different tool entirely.
  • The YAML action graph is a real configuration surface: a large monorepo needs someone to own and maintain Garden config as a first-class artefact, which is a standing platform-engineering cost.
  • Shared remote environments mean every developer needs cluster access and a cost allocation model, so cloud spend rises and namespace sprawl becomes a thing you have to police.
  • Caching correctness depends on declaring dependencies accurately; an under-declared action will serve a stale cached pass and hide a genuine test failure, which is a hard class of bug to notice.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Garden

Free
  • Garden open sourceFree
    • Apache 2.0 licensed CLI
    • Full action graph and caching
    • Self-managed clusters
  • Commercial tier$undefined/year
    • Hosted caching and team features
    • Support and onboarding
    • Pricing no longer published since the Incredibuild acquisition

Which should you pick?

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

Choose Garden if

  • You need action graph.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows, Kubernetes.
  • You also want shared result caching.
Garden review

Questions people ask

Is Appcircle or Garden better?
Neither clearly leads. Appcircle starts at Free and Garden at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Appcircle or Garden?
Appcircle starts at Free and Garden at Free.
Does Appcircle or Garden run on more platforms?
Appcircle runs on web, ios, android, api. Garden runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Kubernetes.
Can I use Appcircle for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Appcircle best used for?
Appcircle is most often used for automating mobile app builds and signing for ios and android, distributing test builds to qa and beta testers, pushing over-the-air updates without app store review, hosting an internal enterprise app store. Of those, automating mobile app builds and signing for ios and android and distributing test builds to qa and beta testers are not what Garden is typically brought in for.
What can Appcircle do that Garden cannot?
Appcircle covers Mobile Build Automation, Signing Identity Management, Testing Distribution, Store Publishing Automation. Garden covers Action graph, Shared result caching, Remote Kubernetes environments, In-cluster builds.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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
Garden: Is Garden still maintained?

The open source project remains on GitHub under Incredibuild ownership, but the commercial pricing page redirects to the docs and there is no public paid offer.

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
Garden: Do I need Kubernetes?

Effectively yes. Garden is built around Kubernetes environments and offers little to teams on other runtimes.

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
Garden: Does it replace my CI system?

No. It runs inside GitHub Actions, GitLab CI or similar and speeds up what those pipelines execute.

Garden: What is the actual saving?

It comes from skipping builds and tests whose inputs have not changed, so the benefit scales with how many services you have and how often only a few change.

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