Maestro Cloud is shutting down… what next?

In case you missed it - on October 1st Mobile.dev announced they are sunsetting Maestro Cloud and encouraging users to move to their new AI-based tool, Robin.

Robin starts at $500 per month for 2 dedicated parallel runners.

Why are they doing this?

My theory is three-fold:

1. Mobile.dev has run out of cloud credits and needs to go profitable.
   
   Based on the fact that they’re backed by Aurelia Ventures - who provide cloud services credits including GCP and AWS - it’s fair to assume mobile.dev are using major cloud providers to host their Android Emulators and iOS Simulators.
   
   Emulation needs bare metal instances to provide adequate performance when it comes to intensive operations such as end-to-end testing. Cloud providers overcharge massively for these instances, costs that ultimately need to be passed to the end user.
   
   My guess is that they were able to brush this under the carpet when Big Cloud/Aurelia was providing free credits but now they need to increase prices to cover this outlay.
   
   
   

2. Mobile.dev need to play the Venture Capital leapfrog game

   
   According to Cruchbase, Mobile.dev’s lead investor is Cowboy Ventures. Their website says they seek companies with a ‘VC-scale outcome’. That potentially means that mobile.dev are gearing up for a new investment round and needs to show increased revenue to whet investor appetite.
   
   Maestro Cloud was a budget service and the complexity of servicing smaller customers just wasn’t going to add up to that ‘VC-scale outcome’ they were seeking.

   
   
   

3. They didn’t solve scalable architecture
   
   In their sunsetting announcement email, mobile.dev says “The shared pool architecture of Maestro Cloud has led to challenges with reliability and quality, impacting both customer satisfaction and our ability to deliver the world-class testing experience you deserve”.
   
   I’m not entirely sure why they haven’t managed to solve the scaling challenge here given their R&D investment. Perhaps more will unfold on this story in the future.

I don’t want to move to Robin Test - what is the alternative?

The alternative is devicecloud.dev.

We’re a faster and cheaper Maestro Cloud alternative with a few additional quality-of-life features and a nicer UI.

How is devicecloud.dev so fast and so cheap?

1. We design, own and manage our own hardware for device simulation instead of renting instances from AWS/GCP. In our UK-based lab, we build and performance-test bespoke CPU/GPU configurations and run our own management software to ensure they stay performant.
   
   This is an ongoing process that we’re getting better all the time. Our iOS runners are already super speedy and cost-effective. We’re launching new Android runners later in October.
   
   

2. We’re bootstrapped not VC-backed. All equity investment in devicecloud.dev comes from its founders. We’re a lean and efficient team that doesn’t need to see a ‘VC-scale’ outcome, we’re happy running a dedicated business that helps engineers do their jobs.

You can try devicecloud.dev for free with $10 credits every month. Simply sign up from the home page.

Already have Maestro Cloud credits? Migrate your Maestro Cloud credits to DCD for a 50% discount. Send a screenshot of your Maestro Cloud receipt and outstanding credits to hello@devicecloud.dev and we’ll provide the same number of credits with a 50% discount.