What is BetaDrop?

BetaDrop is a mobile app distribution platform for sharing iOS and Android beta builds. You upload an .ipa or .apk from a browser, the CLI, CI, or an AI assistant, and get back a shareable HTTPS install page with an over-the-air install link and a QR code. Testers open the link on a phone and install — no tester account, no SDK in your app, and no store review. It is made by Immersive Mobile Designs and is a commercial product with a free tier, not an open-source project.

For getting a build onto a tester's phone quickly, yes — there is no review queue and no waiting. For anything that depends on Apple's own beta programme it does not: TestFlight gives you Apple-managed tester groups, crash reporting wired into App Store Connect, and a path that ends in App Store submission. BetaDrop distributes a build you have already signed. Many teams run both, using BetaDrop for the daily build and TestFlight for the release candidate.

For iOS, yes. BetaDrop does not sign builds and cannot make an unsigned .ipa installable. An over-the-air install still requires a build signed with a provisioning profile that covers the installing device — ad hoc, enterprise, or development. That is an Apple rule, not a BetaDrop limitation, and no distribution service can route around it. Android has no equivalent requirement: a signed .apk installs on any device that allows installs from the browser.

No. BetaDrop takes the build you produced and distributes it unchanged. It does not re-sign, re-package, or modify the binary. If an install fails because the device is not in the provisioning profile, that is a signing problem to fix in your build, and the install page will say so rather than failing silently.

No. A tester opens the install link in their phone browser and installs. They do not create a BetaDrop account, do not install a companion app, and — on Android — do not need to be added to any list in advance. On iOS the device must be covered by your provisioning profile, which is a property of your build rather than of the tester's account.

There is a free tier and it is perpetual, not a trial: no card, no clock, and it never converts to paid. It covers builds up to 500 MB, install links that live 3 days by default and up to 7 days, 1 GB of storage and 100 GB of bandwidth a month. Paid plans exist and take real money — Pro at $6.99 a month and Studio at $19.99 a month — and what they mostly buy is retention: links that last up to a year on Pro and up to ten years on Studio, plus more storage, more bandwidth and builds up to 1 GB on Studio.

Yes, once. A visitor gets a single guest upload with no account, no card and no CLI, and that guest link expires after 24 hours. A second upload needs an account, which is free. The guest upload exists so you can prove the thing works before signing up for anything — not as an open-ended anonymous file host.

A free link lives 3 days by default and can be set up to 7 days. Pro extends that to a year and Studio to ten years. Expiry can also be set by download count or by device count instead of by time, or by a combination. When a link expires the file is deleted from storage rather than archived, so an expired link cannot be revived — upload the build again.

iOS .ipa and Android .apk. The free and Pro tiers accept builds up to 500 MB; Studio accepts up to 1 GB, which is also the platform ceiling on any plan. Android .aab is not a distribution format — an .aab cannot be installed on a device — so BetaDrop inspects .aab files but distributes the .apk you generate from one.

Yes, three ways. The CLI (`npm i -g @betadrop/cli`, then `betadrop publish ./app.ipa`) runs anywhere. The GitHub Action (`betadrop-app/upload-action`) publishes from a workflow and returns the install URL as an output. And documented recipes exist for GitLab CI, Bitrise, Codemagic and fastlane. All three authenticate with an API token created under Settings → Developer → API tokens.

Yes. `@betadrop/mcp` exposes 11 tools to an AI assistant — publishing a build, listing builds, checking expired builds, upload status, token management, and session commands — so an agent in Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor or VS Code with Copilot can ship a build and hand back an install link without leaving the editor. It is listed in the MCP Registry as io.github.betadrop-app/betadrop-mcp.

Yes. Every upload is screened for malware signatures and checked against a hash list of builds already taken down, and Android builds are screened for the permission patterns that characterise stalkerware. A build that trips the signature or hash check is refused outright; a permissions pattern sends it to a human review queue rather than blocking it, because the same permissions have legitimate uses.