Apple Xcode Cloud exits beta and is now widely available

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Xcode Cloud, Apple’s continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) service, is moving out of beta and will now be available to all developers, the company announced at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on Monday.

Xcode Cloud was first announced during WWDC in June 2021. Since then, Apple has gradually rolled it out to more developers. But now anyone can subscribe to it. The service comes in several paid tiers, but the cheapest one — 25 hours for $14.99 a month — will be free until December 2023. More robust plans include 100 hours for $44.99/month, 250 hours for $99.99/month, and 1,000 hours for $399.99/month.

The Git-based service also works well with common code repositories such as GitHub and GitLab. But Xcode Cloud is of course specific to Apple platforms.

If you are not a developer, this is of little relevance to you. CI/CD provides robust processes for deploying frequent incremental code changes from developers’ local machines to production, including various steps such as automated testing. This is intended to ensure quality (that is, to prevent bugs, conflicts, and other failures) as multiple contributors make iterative changes to the project.

But if you’re a developer working within the Apple ecosystem, chances are that Xcode Cloud’s tight integration will be easier for you than the alternatives.