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Developer Tools · head to head

Earthly vs Maestro

Earthly logo

Earthly

Developer Tools

Engineering guardrails for the AI era

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Maestro logo

Maestro

Mobile Development

Open source mobile UI testing with YAML flows, and a cloud priced per concurrent device rather than per test minute

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Earthly pricing model not published; requires sales contact; Maestro cloud pricing is per concurrent device at 250 USD per month, so the cost is driven by how quickly you need the suite to finish rather than by how much you test, and a team wanting a fast pull request gate buys several devices at once.
  • They diverge on capability: Earthly covers Policy as code, Maestro covers YAML test flows.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Earthly and Maestro actually diverge.

Attributes where Earthly and Maestro differ
AttributeEarthlyMaestro
Pricing modelNo pricing published on websitePer concurrent cloud device per month
PlatformsWeb, CLIiOS, Android, Web, macOS, Linux, Windows
CategoryDeveloper ToolsMobile Development
Founded2020Unknown

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 Earthly

  • Policy as code
  • Multi-stage enforcement
  • AI agent governance
  • Repository-wide policies
  • Incident response automation
  • Compliance management
  • Earthfiles build tool
  • Satellites

Only in Maestro

  • YAML test flows
  • Built-in flakiness tolerance
  • Maestro Studio
  • Open source CLI
  • Cloud device runs
  • CI and pull request integration

What people use each for

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

Earthly

  • Enforcing engineering standards across AI and human developersnot Maestro
  • Automating incident response procedures across all repositoriesnot Maestro
  • Embedding compliance requirements into development workflowsnot Maestro
  • Standardizing build processes with Earthfilesnot Maestro

Maestro

  • A mobile team replacing an Appium suite that spends more engineering time on maintenance than on new coveragenot Earthly
  • Running smoke tests on every pull request without buying and maintaining a physical device labnot Earthly
  • Letting a QA specialist who does not write application code author and own the end-to-end suitenot Earthly
  • Reproducing a reported bug by recording the exact flow in Studio and committing it as a regression testnot Earthly

Where each one falls short

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

Earthly

  • Pricing model not published; requires sales contact
  • Earthly Lunar is a recent launch (2025) with limited track record
  • Primarily GitHub-focused; limited integration with other platforms
  • No public documentation on pricing or feature tiers

Maestro

  • Cloud pricing is per concurrent device at 250 USD per month, so the cost is driven by how quickly you need the suite to finish rather than by how much you test, and a team wanting a fast pull request gate buys several devices at once.
  • YAML is deliberately limited, so tests with real conditional logic or data-driven permutations end up in embedded scripting blocks where the readability advantage that justified the format disappears.
  • Maestro drives the app as a black box, so it cannot assert on internal state, mock a network layer from inside the process or inspect application memory the way an in-process framework can.
  • The hosted device catalogue is narrower than dedicated device clouds, so testing against a long tail of specific manufacturer builds and older operating system versions still requires another provider.
  • The project rebranded from mobile.dev to Maestro, so a share of existing tutorials, blog posts and links point at old domains and documentation that no longer match the current tooling.

Pricing, plan by plan

Earthly

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Earthly review.

Maestro

Free
  • LocalFree
    • Free and open source CLI
    • Maestro Studio, Viewer and MCP
    • Runs on your own simulators, emulators and devices
  • Cloud$250/month
    • Per device per month
    • Unlimited hosted test runs
    • Hosted Android, iOS and web devices
  • Enterprise Cloud$undefined/year
    • Quoted
    • SSO and dedicated support
    • Custom contracts

Which should you pick?

Choose Earthly if

  • You need policy as code.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, CLI.
  • You also want multi-stage enforcement.
Earthly review

Choose Maestro if

  • You need yaml test flows.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on iOS, Android, Web, macOS, Linux, Windows.
  • You also want built-in flakiness tolerance.
Maestro review

Questions people ask

Is Earthly or Maestro better?
Neither clearly leads. Earthly starts at Free and Maestro at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Earthly or Maestro?
Earthly starts at Free and Maestro at Free.
Does Earthly or Maestro run on more platforms?
Earthly runs on Web, CLI. Maestro runs on iOS, Android, Web, macOS, Linux, Windows.
Can I use Earthly for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Earthly best used for?
Earthly is most often used for enforcing engineering standards across ai and human developers, automating incident response procedures across all repositories, embedding compliance requirements into development workflows, standardizing build processes with earthfiles. Of those, enforcing engineering standards across ai and human developers and automating incident response procedures across all repositories are not what Maestro is typically brought in for.
What can Earthly do that Maestro cannot?
Earthly covers Policy as code, Multi-stage enforcement, AI agent governance, Repository-wide policies. Maestro covers YAML test flows, Built-in flakiness tolerance, Maestro Studio, Open source CLI.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Earthly: What is the difference between Earthfiles and Earthly Lunar?

Earthfiles is an open-source build tool that reached 12,000 GitHub stars and is used by companies like NVIDIA, Intel, and Databricks. Earthly Lunar is a separate governance platform launched in 2025 for enforcing standards across development workflows.

Source
Maestro: Is Maestro free?

The CLI, Studio and local execution are free and open source. The hosted device cloud is 250 USD per device per month.

Earthly: How does Earthly Lunar enforce standards?

Lunar converts engineering standards, compliance requirements, and processes documented in AGENTS.md files, wikis, and incident postmortems into enforceable guardrails that apply consistently across repositories and development stages.

Source
Maestro: What exactly does per device mean?

It is a concurrency slot. One device runs one test at a time, so suite duration is a function of how many devices you buy.

Earthly: What is the pricing for Earthly Lunar?

Pricing is not published on the website. Interested customers should contact Earthly's sales team for current pricing and feature tiers.

Source
Maestro: How does it compare with Appium?

Tests are YAML rather than code and flakiness handling is built in, which reduces maintenance, at the cost of lower-level control.

Maestro: Can it test web applications too?

Yes, the cloud offers hosted web devices alongside Android and iOS, though the product centre of gravity is mobile.

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