Do I still need a Mac with Appflow (Capacitor)?

My Mac is finally too old to install the latest version of Xcode which means I can’t deploy my app anymore. Rather than getting a new machine I am looking at using Appflow.
I was going to look into Appflow in order to speed up deployments anyway in the next couple of months.

Can I get away without a Mac at all or do I still need a Mac to do the configure / build?

Simple answer is yes you can get away with it but I wouldn’t recommend it. There are a few things to consider; for new apps you need a Mac to setup app certificates and profiles in appconnect. You wont be able to use Safari inspector for debugging apps running on the phone.

I’ve had to resort to using Xcode for deployment (maybe its lack of understanding on my side) a couple of times. Live update is pretty much the only feature I find valuable on my end, though i just cant get it to work for iOS. The platform has its advantages but to completely depend on it is risky.

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Thanks, that was helpful.
I just watched the webinar below and it covered some of these issues at the Q and A at the end.

Apparently it is possible to generate certificates without a Mac using the command line.
Debugging is the main thing I would need and it sounds like there may be some edge cases / exceptions where I may need to resort to Xcode.

Looks like I am stuck with needing 2 machines for now as I just bought a new Windows laptop.

I will probably still try app flow as the live updates will save me a ton of time.

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dlodeprojuicer nailed it! Possible but not necessarily desirable. I think it really comes down to how easily you can use the safari webview inspector with an iOS device. Testing and debugging are a lot more challenging without access to Mac hardware.

Have you tried dosdude1’s patchers?
You can still install the latest macos on unsupported macbooks or imacs!
here’s a link to his official website:


you can look for him in youtube you’ll find a lot of helpful videos out there!
If you need any help just ask.
Have a nice day!

The other option is to drop in the necessary support files into Xcode’s library folder and then you can build your apps without updating your whole machine, just to install the new Xcode.

That’s what I’m doing as I’m avoiding Catalina like the plague. I’m on High Sierra.