fastlane vs Rake

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.

Rake is a Make-like task runner written in Ruby for defining tasks and their dependencies. Its Rakefiles use standard Ruby syntax, and tasks can declare prerequisite tasks. Rule patterns can generate implicit tasks, while FileLists provide array-like handling for file names and paths. Rake includes packaged tasks, including tasks for building tarballs, and can execute tasks in parallel. The documentation’s example has a default task call a test task that runs a Ruby unit test file. Rake runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows; the project lists Ruby 2.0.0 or later as a requirement. Installation is with `gem install rake`. Rake is free under an MIT-style license, with a listed plan of free. The project credits Jim Weirich as its original creator and Hiroshi SHIBATA as maintainer of Rake 10 and later. It is provided as is, without express or implied warranties.