FASTBuild vs fastlane
FASTBuild
fastbuild.org
fastlane
fastlane.toolsSide by side
| Figure | FASTBuild | fastlane |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Build Automation Software | 8.6 (#6) | 8.7 (#4) |
| Integrations | The download page lists third-party Unreal Engine 4 integrations and Visual Studio and VSCode-related tooling. | The documentation says fastlane integrates with more than 400 tools and services and lists major CI systems such as GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, and CircleCI. |
| License | The license permits use for any purpose, including commercial applications, and permits alteration and redistribution subject to stated conditions. | The project is licensed under the MIT license. |
| Purpose | FASTBuild is an open-source build system for scalable compilation, caching, and network distribution. | fastlane is an open source platform for automating development and release workflows for iOS and Android apps. |
| Requirements | The site describes FASTBuild as a small, self-contained executable that requires no installation or external dependencies beyond the compiler tools. | The documentation says fastlane supports Ruby 3.2 or newer and prefers Ruby 3.3 or greater. |
| Support | The site directs bug reports, feature requests and questions to GitHub issues and provides online or downloadable documentation. | The documentation directs users to search existing GitHub issues and submit an issue with setup details, including the output of fastlane env, if needed. |
Plans
In their own words
FASTBuild
FASTBuild is an open-source build system for compiling software across Linux, macOS and Windows. It runs compilation work across worker threads, can reuse results from local or network caches, and can distribute builds among networked machines when their settings and worker setup are compatible. The maker says caching can accelerate compile times up to 10x. Some compiler settings do not support caching or distribution; FASTBuild handles affected objects without caching or builds them locally. Supported toolchains include MSVC, GCC, SNC, Clang, GreenHills, CodeWarrior and NVCC, plus syntactically compatible command-line compilers. It can combine C++ files into Unity or Blob builds, while allowing writable files to be built individually for quicker iteration. FASTBuild can generate Visual Studio and XCode project files. The maker describes it as a self-contained executable that needs no installation or dependencies beyond compiler tools. It is free, with commercial use and redistribution allowed under license conditions; the license provides the software without warranty. The listed current release is v1.20, released 26-Apr-2026.
fastlane
fastlane is a free, open-source platform for automating iOS and Android app development and release workflows. Teams define workflows as lanes and can run them with a single command. A lane can manage build numbering, code signing, builds, beta uploads and changelog creation; fastlane also supports store releases, including metadata and screenshot management and submission for review. It can create localized app store screenshots for the languages and devices an app supports. The site lists support for more than 15 beta testing services, including TestFlight, Crashlytics Beta, Play and Hockey. Documentation describes integrations with more than 400 tools and services, including major CI systems, alongside community-built actions and plugins. For iOS signing, signing identities and profiles can be kept in a private encrypted Git repository and synced between machines. fastlane runs on a user's machine or server, and its documentation says credentials and other sensitive information stay there. macOS is officially supported; Linux and Windows are partially supported. The project uses the MIT license.