fastlane vs qmake

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.

qmake manages builds for applications, libraries and other components by turning project files into Makefiles. Its `.pro` files can define source files, configuration, libraries and include paths. It supplies build rules for Qt's moc and uic tools, with templates for applications, libraries and plugins. Projects can specify third-party libraries, and qmake can use pkg-config for supported libraries such as D-Bus and ogg. It can generate Microsoft Visual Studio project files and, on macOS, Xcode project files. Platform notes cover iOS universal binaries, frameworks and bundles. In Qt 6, qmake remains supported for building Qt applications, but cannot compile custom Qt plugins or libraries that rely on Qt 5 build-system internals. Qt warns that building an untrusted project can execute code on the build machine. The Qt Community Edition is free under LGPL or GPL terms, with source-code obligations and limited access to some Qt capabilities.