AppCenter Retirement: How to handle .NET MAUI Apps?

[thomasgalliker]

Visual Studio App Center is scheduled for retirement on March 31, 2025. Learn more about support timelines and recommended alternatives.

What is your proposed migration path for Xamarin Forms and .NET MAUI apps that use the AppCenter features Build, Analytics, Crashes, Distribution? Please post your ideas below.

[huyphams]

Please open source self-hosting appcenter.
#2623

[Xynratron]

We integrated the Builds completly in our Azure Devops Pipelines.

Application Insights seems not to be a good replacement for Analytics / Crashes - any other Ideas?

The Distribution is the biggest Problem, because Microsoft Partner Center Apps & Games is a mess and not updated in years (as far as I can see). After anouncing the retirement for Microsoft AppStore for Business, what ist the roadmap for distributing Windows Applications?

[thomasgalliker]

Does anyone have experience with aptabase? It seems to have tracking features. Not sure about diagnostics/crash analysis. It's open-source and free for self-hosting instances.
https://github.com/aptabase

[LathanHarper]

It's the diagnostic logs I will miss the most!

[LathanHarper]

We integrated the Builds completly in our Azure Devops Pipelines.

Application Insights seems not to be a good replacement for Analytics / Crashes - any other Ideas?

The Distribution is the biggest Problem, because Microsoft Partner Center Apps & Games is a mess and not updated in years (as far as I can see). After anouncing the retirement for Microsoft AppStore for Business, what ist the roadmap for distributing Windows Applications?

for Enterprise distribution the InTune product is actually really awesome at that. When a device (or PC) is enrolled you get your
own "store" plus all the normal remote admin ability.

[thomasgalliker]

Does anyone use Sentry for .NET MAUI analytics and/or crash reporting?

[softlion]

Does anyone use Sentry for .NET MAUI analytics and/or crash reporting?

Yes me. Work perfectly with Apple App Store apps. Better than appcenter crash. Full C# stack trace.

Also, for building I tried Azure Pipeline, but in the end switched to codemagic.io
Codemagic supports the latest macs (M1 M2) and the latest xcode versions. They release new versions fast, you can still select older versions.
M1 are free. Build time is 10mn total.

[thomasgalliker]

Good news. I migrated my MAUI app from AppCenter to Sentry. It‘s pretty cool! We mainly use the crash reporting and user tracking part.
All distribution related task will be done with native Android/iOS tools (question: does anyone have scripts to upload apps to the stores?).

Here you have a small MAUI demo app with Sentry integration: https://github.com/hsrcasnet/MauiSamples/tree/main/MonitoringDemo/MonitoringDemo

[AlleSchonWeg]

Hi,
has somebody tested Application Insights with Android and iOS?
My questions are:

• Are crashes handled the same like App Center?
• Are C# StackTraces included in Android and iOS?
• Is Xamarin Forms also supported?

Thank you.

[r0bbie]

For building - Azure DevOps Pipelines or GitHub Actions with Fastlane (latter automating key steps like signing apps, as well as automated app store deployment) are solid choices.

For crashes - a number of choices out there but I'd suggest Sentry.

For beta distribution - Buildstash was designed to be a solid replacement for App Center's distribution groups capabilities, and has integrations for Azure Pipelines, GitHub Actions, and Fastlane (disclaimer - I'm working on that tool!)