Skip to content
Patch Docs

How Patch compares

Patch, CodePush, Expo EAS Update and Shorebird all ship code to an installed app without a new store binary, and they differ in one decisive way: which stack each one can patch. Patch patches native Swift and SwiftUI. CodePush and EAS Update patch a React Native JavaScript bundle. Shorebird patches Dart in a Flutter app.

The table

Section titled “The table”

Every row below is taken from the vendor’s own documentation, linked in the section for that tool. A dash means the value was not verified against the vendor’s own docs while this page was written — it is not a claim the tool lacks the feature.

Patch CodePush Expo EAS Update Shorebird
Framework / language Native Swift + SwiftUI React Native (JavaScript) React Native / Expo (JavaScript) Flutter (Dart)
What gets patched Swift logic, async/await, SwiftUI view bodies — compiled to WebAssembly “your JavaScript and images” “non-native pieces (such as JS, styling, and images)” “any Dart code in your application no matter of size”
What stays native OS-API code, and any native symbol/framework/entitlement not already in the signed binary “changes which touch native code … cannot be distributed via CodePush” “Change to native code or native dependencies” needs a new build “does not support changing native code (e.g. Java/Kotlin on Android or Objective-C/Swift on iOS)”
Stated Apple basis Interpreted code under DPLA §3.3.1(B) (formerly §3.3.2) — “your updates need to follow the App Store and Play Store guidelines” DPLA “section 3.3.1b”; “a custom Dart interpreter to comply with the interpreter-only restriction for updates on iOS”
Rollback patchcli rollback, fleet-wide, propagates on the next update check Automatic client-side rollback of a crashing update Revert / republish a previous update —
Channels & staged rollouts Channels + --rollout N percentage bucketing + version/OS/cohort targeting Staging/Production deployments; promote … -r 20 percentage rollout Channels/branches; per-update and branch-based rollouts Tracks (stable / beta / staging); percentage rollout via tracks + app-side grouping
Minimum OS iOS 16+ — — “the same versions of platforms that Flutter supports”
Open-source SDK Yes — MIT (engine Apache-2.0) Repository archived 20 May 2025 — —
Hosted service Yes — Hobby free (100 devices), Startup $59/mo, Enterprise Retired 31 March 2025 Yes Yes

Can CodePush update a native Swift app?

Section titled “Can CodePush update a native Swift app?”

No — CodePush updates a React Native app’s JavaScript bundle and images, not Swift. Microsoft’s README states: “The CodePush plugin helps get product improvements in front of your end users instantly, by keeping your JavaScript and images synchronized with updates you release”, and that “Any product changes which touch native code (e.g. modifying your AppDelegate.m/MainActivity.java file, adding a new plugin) cannot be distributed via CodePush.” The hosted service is also gone: Microsoft states “Visual Studio App Center is scheduled for retirement on March 31, 2025”, and the react-native-code-push repository records “This repository was archived by the owner on May 20, 2025.” A standalone code-push-server was published for self-hosting; that repository is archived too.

If your app is React Native and you want to keep the CodePush workflow, the self-hosted server is the migration Microsoft points at. If your app is native Swift, CodePush was never able to patch it.

Sources: App Center retirement · react-native-code-push. See also Patch vs CodePush.

Can Expo EAS Update update a native Swift app?

Section titled “Can Expo EAS Update update a native Swift app?”

No — EAS Update serves updates to projects using the expo-updates library, which means React Native. Expo describes it as “a cloud service that serves updates for projects using the expo-updates library”, and an app can “update its own non-native pieces (such as JS, styling, and images) over-the-air”. Its FAQ lists “Change to native code or native dependencies” and “Anything that requires a new app binary version” as cases where you build instead.

For a React Native or Expo team, EAS Update is the right tool and it is more mature at what it does: channels and branches, per-update and branch-based rollouts, and revert. Patch is for teams whose app is Swift, where there is no JavaScript bundle to replace.

Sources: EAS Update introduction · EAS Update rollouts. See also Patch vs EAS Update.

Can Shorebird update a native Swift app?

Section titled “Can Shorebird update a native Swift app?”

No — Shorebird patches Dart code in a Flutter app. Its FAQ states that Shorebird “can change any Dart code in your application no matter of size” and that it “does not support changing native code (e.g. Java/Kotlin on Android or Objective-C/Swift on iOS)”. Shorebird is the one tool here that names Apple’s clause: its FAQ quotes DPLA “3.3.1b” and states that “Shorebird uses a custom Dart interpreter to comply with the interpreter-only restriction for updates on iOS”. Percentage rollouts are built on tracks: the guide describes “how you can implement a percentage-based patch rollout system using predefined tracks”, with the app reading its group number and deciding between the beta and stable track.

If your app is Flutter, Shorebird is the tool for it. Patch cannot patch Dart, and Shorebird cannot patch Swift.

Sources: Shorebird FAQ · Percentage-based rollouts. See also Patch vs Shorebird.

What does Patch do that the other three do not?

Section titled “What does Patch do that the other three do not?”

Patch patches native Swift. The patchcli CLI compiles the Swift you changed to WebAssembly, and the PatchSDK runs that module in WasmKit inside your signed binary. There is no JavaScript bridge, no web view and no cross-platform runtime, and the App Store binary is never modified. Code that touches an OS API stays native, and a patch that cannot run falls back to the signed binary. See how it works and what Patch can & can’t update.

Which one should I use?

Section titled “Which one should I use?”

It follows from the stack, not from the feature list. React Native or Expo: use EAS Update, or a self-hosted CodePush server if you are migrating an existing CodePush app. Flutter: use Shorebird. Native Swift and SwiftUI: none of those three can patch your app, and Patch is built for it.

Section titled “Related”