React Native OTA Updates After CodePush: The Complete 2026 Guide

If you’re a React Native developer who relied on Microsoft CodePush for over-the-air updates, you already know the pain. App Center shut down on March 31, 2025, and the react-native-code-push repo was archived on May 20, 2025. It’s read-only now. Gone.

But here’s the thing nobody tells you: the ecosystem that filled the vacuum is surprisingly vibrant. Whether you want fully self-hosted, dirt-cheap managed services, or even a custom Expo OTA server, you have real options in 2026.

I spent weeks researching every alternative. This is the honest breakdown.

Why CodePush Had to Die

It wasn’t just about Microsoft shutting down App Center. CodePush had a fundamental technical problem: it never supported React Native’s New Architecture (Fabric and TurboModules, introduced in RN 0.76+). Apps using CodePush had to explicitly opt out of the new architecture.

Microsoft did open-source a standalone CodePush server before the shutdown, but archived it the same day. It had only 28 commits and required Azure infrastructure. The original repo had ~9,100 stars and 1,600 forks, so this affected a massive number of teams.

Some community forks tried to keep it alive. One detailed case study on ITNEXT described 2+ months of debugging and estimated infrastructure costs of $600–800/month for 200K users, before counting DevOps labor.

The message is clear: self-hosting the old CodePush server is not worth the pain.

Hot Updater: The Best Self-Hosted Option Right Now

Hot Updater is the most actively developed open-source, self-hosted OTA solution in the React Native ecosystem today.

The numbers speak for themselves:

~1,300+ GitHub stars (growing fast)
713+ commits, multiple releases per month
Latest release: v0.25.8 (January 14, 2026)
~10,000 weekly npm downloads for @hot-updater/react-native
MIT licensed, fully self-hosted

Hot Updater’s killer feature is its plugin architecture. You’re not locked into any cloud provider. Mix and match:

Build plugins: Metro, Re.Pack, Expo
Storage plugins: AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, Supabase Storage, Firebase Storage
Database plugins: PostgreSQL, Supabase, Cloudflare D1, MySQL, Firebase

It supports React Native’s New Architecture, includes a web console for managing updates, handles forced updates and rollbacks, and added brownfield support (mixed native/RN apps) in v0.25.7.

The author, Sungyu Kang (gronxb), has maintained an impressive release cadence. v0.25.0 through v0.25.8 shipped between mid-December 2025 and mid-January 2026 alone.

There are real adoption signals too. This DEV.to guide walks through setting it up with AWS S3 and Lambda@Edge. The project’s own docs are at hot-updater.dev.

It’s still pre-1.0 (v0.25.x), so expect some breaking changes. But for teams with 100K+ users wanting full control and zero vendor lock-in, this is the top recommendation right now.

Yes, Expo Supports Custom OTA Servers — No EAS Required

This is the part most people don’t realize: Expo officially supports running custom update servers as an alternative to EAS Update. It’s not a hack. It’s a first-class capability built on the Expo Updates Protocol (v1).

The configuration is simple: set updates.url in your app.json or app.config.js to point at your own server instead of Expo’s. The expo-updates client library works with any server that implements the protocol.

Expo’s official documentation on custom update servers describes this as an “escape hatch” for teams that need self-hosted infrastructure.

Production-Ready Open-Source Servers

Three implementations are ready for production use today:

Expo Open OTA: Written in Go. Designed for production with AWS S3 storage and CloudFront CDN. Supports AWS Secrets Manager for key management.

Xavia OTA: Built with Next.js and TypeScript. ~369 GitHub stars. Docker deployment, admin dashboard, PostgreSQL backend. Describes itself as “a free, self-hosted alternative to EAS Updates.”

Self-Hosted Expo Updates Server: “Batteries included” approach with web UI, Docker Compose for production, and a companion client library.

Expo also provides a reference implementation, but warns it’s not production-ready.

If you’re already on Expo and cost-sensitive, this is your move. Your app code barely changes: just point updates.url to your server.

Affordable Commercial Alternatives

Not everyone wants to manage infrastructure. Here are the managed services that won’t destroy your budget at scale.

Revopush

Website: revopush.org

The most seamless migration from CodePush. It’s 100% API-compatible with the original CodePush SDK, so migration is essentially a config change. Their SDK adds New Architecture and Expo SDK 52+ support.

Pricing:

$30/month: 200K updates
$90/month: 1M updates
No bandwidth limits

For comparison, the same workload on EAS Update costs ~$1,000–1,200/month. Revopush also offers delta updates that are 10–20x smaller than full bundles.

AppZung

Website: appzung.com

EU-based service with one-command migration from App Center:

npx @appzung/cli codepush migrate

Pricing starts at €1.50 per 1,500 MAU with 500K MAU included. They claim up to 5x cheaper than EAS Update and are already serving 2M+ end-users. Their React Native SDK is on GitHub.

React Native Stallion

Website: stalliontech.io

Differentiates on patch/delta updates, reportedly 90–98% smaller than full bundles (e.g., 236KB vs 20MB). Offers both cloud hosting and a full self-hosted option for compliance requirements.

Supports Expo SDK 52+ and the New Architecture. Still newer (~118 GitHub stars), so verify their claims independently. But the technical approach is sound.

Appcircle

Website: appcircle.io/codepush

Targets enterprises with a full CI/CD platform that includes CodePush functionality. Cloud and self-hosted deployment, RBAC, SSO/LDAP, and code obfuscation. Enterprise pricing (contact sales). Does not support managed Expo apps.

What Do Large Companies Actually Do?

Here’s an uncomfortable truth: most companies with 100K+ React Native users don’t publicly document their OTA strategy. Meta, Shopify, Amazon, and Walmart all use RN at massive scale, but their OTA tooling is internal.

What we do know:

Shopify does weekly native releases and recently migrated fully to the New Architecture. They appear to rely on App Store releases rather than OTA for feature delivery.
Callstack (the largest RN consultancy) positions OTA as an emergency escape hatch, not a primary delivery mechanism. Their post Ship OTA When in an Emergency makes this explicit.
The most sophisticated approach at scale is Module Federation via Re.Pack. Instead of updating the entire JS bundle, independent teams deploy mini-app bundles to a CDN. Re.Pack 5 brought 5x faster builds with Rspack. Zephyr Cloud provides the deployment layer.
One documented migration: Perficient moved a client’s production app from CodePush to EAS Updates in mid-2025.

Cost Comparison at Scale

At 200K active users, 5 monthly releases:

Solution	Monthly Cost	Self-Hosted?	New Architecture?
Expo EAS Update	~$1,000–1,200	No	Yes
Self-Hosted CodePush	~$600–800 + DevOps	Yes	No
Revopush	$30–90	No	Yes
AppZung	~€50–150	No	Yes
Hot Updater	$50–200 (infra only)	Yes	Yes
Stallion (self-hosted)	Infra costs only	Yes	Yes
Xavia OTA / Expo Open OTA	Infra costs only	Yes	Yes (Expo)

Which One Should You Pick?

Already using Expo and cost-sensitive? Self-host with Xavia OTA or Expo Open OTA. Your app code barely changes.

Bare React Native or want maximum flexibility? Hot Updater is the clear leader for self-hosted. For managed service, Revopush or AppZung are dramatically cheaper than EAS.

Large org with compliance needs? Stallion self-hosted or Appcircle for governance features like code signing, RBAC, and audit trails.

Migrating from CodePush and want the least friction? Revopush. It’s API-compatible. Change your config and you’re done.

The Bottom Line

The post-CodePush landscape is more fragmented but ultimately healthier than the monoculture before it. Hot Updater has emerged as the strongest open-source contender. The Expo Updates Protocol is becoming a de facto standard with multiple independent server implementations.

The biggest shift: delta/patch updates are becoming table stakes. EAS Update still ships full bundles, while Stallion and Revopush send only changed bytes. At scale, that’s not just a cost issue — it’s a UX issue.

If you’re evaluating solutions in 2026, treat patch update support and New Architecture compatibility as non-negotiable, and build your decision from there.