--- title: "Ionic Appflow Is Shutting Down: Here's Your Migration Plan" description: Ionic Appflow reaches end of life on December 31, 2027. Import your Appflow apps into Capawesome Cloud with a single CLI command and migrate live updates, native builds, and app store publishing. date: created: 2025-08-28 updated: 2026-09-22 authors: - robingenz categories: - Capacitor - Cloud - Cordova - Guides --- # Ionic Appflow Is Shutting Down: Here's Your Migration Plan Ionic Appflow reaches end of life on December 31, 2027, and Ionic already stopped selling it to new customers in February 2025. If you rely on Appflow, that leaves about 15 months to find a new home for your live updates, native builds, and app store publishing, and every release cycle you wait shrinks the buffer for a gradual, low-risk rollout. What used to be a multi-day configuration migration is now a single CLI command: Capawesome Cloud imports your entire Appflow organization export (apps, signing certificates, environments, channels, store destinations, and automations) automatically. ## Key Takeaways - **[Ionic officially recommends Capawesome](https://ionic.io/blog/%f0%9f%9a%80-announcing-a-partnership-with-capawesome){:target="_blank"} as its preferred migration partner** for Appflow, Auth Connect, Identity Vault, and Secure Storage. - **Ionic Appflow reaches end of life on December 31, 2027.** New customer sales already stopped in February 2025, so every Appflow team needs a migration plan. - **One command migrates your configuration.** The `apps:import` command reads Appflow's organization export and recreates your apps in Capawesome Cloud, including signing certificates, secrets, and automations. - **Capawesome Cloud covers all three Appflow pillars** (live updates, native builds, and app store publishing) for Capacitor, Cordova, and native iOS and Android apps. - **The Live Update SDK keeps Appflow's `sync()` and `reload()` API**, so many teams complete the core migration quickly. - **You can run Appflow and Capawesome Cloud in parallel** during the transition, so there's no risky big-bang cutover. ## What the shutdown means Ionic [announced the discontinuation of their commercial products](https://ionic.io/blog/important-announcement-the-future-of-ionics-commercial-products){:target="_blank"}, including Appflow, as part of their transition after being acquired by OutSystems. Existing customers keep access until December 31, 2027, but a healthy migration isn't a last-minute switch. A gradual rollout with monitoring takes several weeks, and you'll want your last Appflow-dependent app version out of circulation well before the shutdown. Practically, that means: start now, complete the migration by mid-2027, and use the remaining time as buffer, not as runway. If your app also relies on Ionic's enterprise plugins like Auth Connect, Identity Vault, or Secure Storage, see [Alternatives to the Ionic Enterprise plugins](./alternatives-to-ionic-enterprise-plugins.md) for drop-in replacements. ## Why Capawesome Cloud [Ionic officially recommends Capawesome](https://ionic.io/blog/%f0%9f%9a%80-announcing-a-partnership-with-capawesome){:target="_blank"} as its preferred migration partner for Appflow and its Enterprise plugins. Read [Announcing Our Official Partnership with Ionic](./announcing-partnership-with-ionic.md) for the details. Capawesome Cloud is the natural home for Appflow workloads: it covers the same three pillars (live updates, native builds, and app store publishing) and, like Appflow, works with Capacitor, Cordova, and native iOS and Android apps. Every Appflow concept has a direct equivalent: channels map to channels, environments to environments, and signing certificates and destinations carry over one-to-one. On top of parity, you gain delta updates that reduce data transfer, [automatic rollback](../../cloud/live-updates/rollbacks.md) of broken updates, native builds that run 3-5x faster on M4 hardware, and a secure zero-trust architecture. Capawesome Cloud is [SOC 2 Type 2 compliant](./capawesome-cloud-soc-2-type-2-compliance.md), verified through continuous third-party auditing, with compliance reports available on the Business plan. [Pricing](https://capawesome.io/pricing/){:target="_blank"} is transparent and scalable: plans start at $9/month for Live Updates and $19/month for the full platform (as of September 2026), with a 14-day free trial. Not sure yet whether Capawesome Cloud is the right fit? Read [Alternative to Ionic Appflow](./alternative-to-appflow.md) for a broader look at what to evaluate in an Appflow replacement. ## Import your configuration Appflow's dashboard offers an organization export that packages the configurations of all your apps into a zip file. The Capawesome CLI imports it directly: ```bash npx @capawesome/cli apps:import --file appflow-export.zip --dry-run # preview npx @capawesome/cli apps:import --file appflow-export.zip # import ``` For every app in the export, the import creates the app itself along with its signing certificates and provisioning profiles, environments with variables and secrets, live update channels, native configurations, store destinations (including the Google service account key), and build automations. It also links your Git repository and continues your Appflow build numbering so store submissions don't collide. A summary table tells you exactly what was created and what needs a manual follow-up. What's left after the import is the part no tool can do for you: swapping the Appflow Live Update SDK for the Capawesome one (same `sync()`/`reload()` API) and connecting your Git provider. This video shows the export and import end to end:
The complete walkthrough, including every manual step: [Read the Migration Guide](../../cloud/migrations/ionic-appflow.md){ .md-button .md-button--primary } ## FAQ ### Which Appflow alternative does Ionic recommend? Ionic officially recommends Capawesome as its preferred migration partner for Appflow, Auth Connect, Identity Vault, and Secure Storage. Capawesome Cloud covers Appflow's live updates, native builds, and app store publishing, and the `apps:import` command recreates your Appflow configuration in one step. Read [Announcing Our Official Partnership with Ionic](./announcing-partnership-with-ionic.md) for the details. ### When does Ionic Appflow shut down? Ionic Appflow reaches end of life on December 31, 2027. Ionic already discontinued new customer sales in February 2025 as part of winding down its commercial products after the OutSystems acquisition. Existing customers keep access until the shutdown date, but migrating early leaves room for a gradual, low-risk rollout. ### Can I import my Appflow configuration automatically? Yes. Export your organization from the Appflow dashboard and run [`apps:import`](../../cloud/cli/commands.md#appsimport) with the Capawesome CLI. Apps, signing certificates, environments, channels, configurations, destinations, and automations are created automatically. Apps exported with the ambiguous type `ionic` prompt you once for whether they are Capacitor or Cordova apps. ### Can I run Ionic Appflow and Capawesome Cloud in parallel? Yes. A common approach is to ship a new app release with the Live Update SDK from Capawesome Cloud while older binaries keep receiving updates from Appflow. This lets you roll out to a subset of users, monitor for a week or two, and only then retire Appflow, with no big-bang cutover required. ### Does Capawesome Cloud support Cordova apps? Yes. The Live Update SDK is available for Cordova with full API parity to the Capacitor version, and native builds and app store publishing support Cordova projects too. Read [Announcing Cordova Support in Capawesome Cloud](./announcing-cordova-support-in-capawesome-cloud.md) for the details. ### How long does the migration take? The configuration import takes minutes, and many teams complete the Live Update SDK swap quickly. A full migration including native builds, app store publishing, QA, and a gradual rollout typically takes two to four weeks, most of which is monitoring rather than active work. ## Get migration help Want a hand moving off Appflow? Our team can walk you through the migration and answer questions specific to your Capacitor, Cordova, or native setup. [Book an Ionic Appflow Migration Demo](https://cal.com/team/capawesome/ionic-appflow-migration){ .md-button .md-button--primary } ## Conclusion The Appflow shutdown has a fixed date; your migration timeline doesn't have to be stressful if it starts early. With the [organization export](../../cloud/migrations/ionic-appflow.md) imported in one command and an SDK that keeps Appflow's API, most of the migration is verification rather than rebuilding. [Start your free trial](https://console.cloud.capawesome.io){:target="_blank"}, follow the [migration guide](../../cloud/migrations/ionic-appflow.md), and keep your release infrastructure on a platform that's actively maintained and built for the long term. Have questions or want to share how your migration went? Join us on the [Capawesome Discord server](https://discord.gg/VCXxSVjefW){:target="_blank"}, and [subscribe to the Capawesome newsletter](https://capawesome.io/newsletter/){:target="_blank"} to stay up to date.