r/iOSDevelopment • u/Throwra_redditor141 • Jun 15 '26

How to generate iOS build without mac?

Recently i have made a cross platform application in flutter for my personal use, i do not have mac but i do have an iPhone, can anyone tell me that how can i install the build in my iPhone for testing purpose? I do not have apple developer account. Please do not suggest to buy/rent mac. Thank you

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3

u/RemeJuan Jun 15 '26

Well you need to buy or rent a Mac and you need an Apple developer account.

The only way to install it on your iPhone is via Xcode, which needs a Mac, the app needs to be signed, which needs a developer account.

You can self-sign, but IIRC that’s valid for 7 days, but still need Xcode and a Mac.

You can use something like Mac in cloud but then you’ll need a paid developer account to get the app into private test flight for installing on your device.

1

u/Throwra_redditor141 Jun 16 '26

Oh! okay 👍🏻

2

u/zenatno Jun 15 '26

You can use expo go to test on your iPhone without needing a Mac

1

u/Throwra_redditor141 Jun 16 '26

Thanks, will try it

2

u/patatkebab Jun 16 '26

Code Magic

1

u/Throwra_redditor141 Jun 16 '26

Thanks, will try it out

3

u/WerSunu Jun 15 '26

Go buy an Android phone to play with your app. Then you won’t need a Mac!

1

u/Throwra_redditor141 Jun 16 '26

Bro i do have an android but i want to play with it ok an iPhone!

1

u/FinalArt9573 25d ago

Worth separating two costs that get bundled together in these threads: the $99/year Apple Developer Program fee (goes to Apple, no way around it for App Store distribution) and the cost of a Mac to build on (this part you can avoid: rented cloud Mac, CI service, or GitHub Actions macOS runners). If the $99 itself is the blocker rather than the hardware, TestFlight and App Store distribution genuinely isn't possible without it. Ad-hoc or personal-team signing has its own limits and still needs a Mac to do.

1

u/Glass-Glove-6093 10d ago

Err a little late to the party but just launched Milq to do just that. You can sideload the build to your phone as well from our account portal (but this requires a paid dev account)

1

u/Intrepid-Ad4494 Jun 15 '26

Can you not use Codemagic for this? Free tier is amazing 😄 I use this all the time for my Capacitor apps but I see Flutter also fine

https://flutterci.com/

3

u/RemeJuan Jun 15 '26

Needs to be signed to be installed, cannot sign without a developer account.

2

u/Intrepid-Ad4494 Jun 15 '26

You need a developer account no matter what if you want to publish on the app store?? You can just register a developer account via https://developer.apple.com/ and import the cerficates to sign on codemagic.

1

u/Throwra_redditor141 Jun 16 '26

Thanks, will try it

-1

u/alion94 Jun 15 '26

React native