Our mobile app builds are taking too long to co… | Parse
Our mobile app builds are taking too long to compile. Who offers a remote build cache service to speed up CI/CD?
Data as of Sep 24, 2026 · Based on 297 AI responses from ChatGPT Search and Google AI Mode · See how Parse measures this
If you use Bazel, pick BuildBuddy — it provides remote execution and caching tailored to Bazel builds. For general mobile pipelines, Codemagic speeds Flutter/React Native and native builds with built-in caching; CircleCI is a solid option for Android/iOS with easy setup via orbs. For iOS-only open-source caching, consider XCRemoteCache. Choose based on build system and platform.
Best when you want a mobile-first CI that eases code signing and environment setup: Bitrise handles mobile-specific tasks and supports remote caching to reduce compilation time in mobile pipelines.
Best for Bazel-based mobile projects: BuildBuddy offers remote execution and caching to offload heavy build tasks and accelerate CI. It's specialized for Bazel and less useful for non-Bazel workflows.
Build Cache: Never build the same thing twice | Bitrisehttps://bitrise.io/platform/devops/build-caching
5%
Remote Build Caching: The key to fast, efficient builds - Bitrise Bloghttps://bitrise.io/blog/post/remote-build-caching-the-key-to-fast-efficient-builds
3%
Remote build caching: The secret to lightning-fast software builds and exceptional developer experiencehttps://depot.dev/blog/remote-build-caching-secret-to-software-builds
3%
Managing a Remote Build Cache at Scale with Local Build Observability at Cash App | Develocityhttps://gradle.com/blog/managing-a-remote-build-cache-at-scale-with-local-build-observability-at-cash-app/
Gradle build and test caching for Android | Bitrisehttps://bitrise.io/platform/devops/build-caching/gradle
2%
Mobile DevOps Platform for iOS & Android | Bitrisehttps://bitrise.io/
2%
Introducing XCRemoteCache: The iOS Remote Caching Tool that Cut Our Clean Build Times by 70% | Spotify Engineeringhttps://engineering.atspotify.com/introducing-xcremotecache-the-ios-remote-caching-tool-that-cut-our-clean-build-times-by-70
When mobile app builds drag on, implementing a shared remote build cache lets your CI/CD agents and developers reuse compilation outputs instead of rebuilding unchanged code from scratch.
Top options offering remote build cache services tailored or adaptable for mobile development include:
Bitrise Build Cache — Specifically built for mobile ecosystems, offering native integrations for Gradle (Android), Bazel, Xcode (iOS), and React Native/Flutter toolchains. It is CI-agnostic (works on GitHub Actions, CircleCI, Bitrise CI) and saves redundant compilation steps across local and CI environments.
Develocity (formerly Gradle Enterprise) — The gold standard for Gradle and Maven caching, which also natively supports Bazel integration. It features advanced multi-region edge caching nodes (Develocity Edge ) to minimize cross-region latency for distributed mobile engineering teams.
(Build Tool Cache) — If you use as your primary CI/CD pipeline, they provide native built-in caching integrations optimized for Gradle, Bazel, and Xcode compilation outputs alongside traditional dependency caching.
Self-Hosted / Generic Artifact Repositories — If your security team requires an on-premise or air-gapped solution, you can configure a standard raw artifact repository (like JFrog Artifactory or Sonatype Nexus ) or lightweight open-source proxies like bazel-remote to accept standard Gradle or Bazel remote cache HTTP/gRPC endpoints.
To narrow down the best fit, tell me:
What mobile framework/languages are you using (Android/Kotlin, iOS/Swift, React Native, Flutter)?
Which CI/CD provider are you currently running on (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Bitrise, CircleCI)?
Yes. For mobile CI/CD, the main options depend on your build system:
depot.dev — managed remote caching for Gradle/Android, Bazel, Nx, Turborepo, Go, and others. It explicitly supports sharing cache artifacts between local machines and CI.
gradle.com — particularly relevant for Android/Gradle. Gradle's remote build cache lets CI reuse task outputs from previous builds instead of recompiling them.
buildbuddy.io — managed remote caching and remote execution for Bazel. It can be especially useful if your Android/iOS monorepo uses Bazel.
engflow.com — enterprise-oriented remote caching and remote execution, with support for Bazel and a Gradle cache plugin.
For Android specifically, I'd start by evaluating Depot Cache vs. Develocity. Gradle itself notes that remote caching can substantially improve Android builds, because clean CI builds can reuse outputs produced by earlier CI runs.
If you tell me whether you're building Android, iOS, React Native, Flutter, or a mixed monorepo, I can narrow this to the services that actually fit your stack.
To speed up slow mobile compilations in your CI/CD pipelines, the right remote build cache service depends heavily on your toolchain (Gradle for Android, Xcode for iOS, or Bazel).
Dedicated remote caching providers and platform-native solutions fall into several key categories:
BuildBuddy : Excellent if you use Bazel or standard remote build protocols. It provides a robust, enterprise-grade remote build cache and remote build execution (RBE) platform with great dashboards and analytics.
Develocity (formerly Gradle Enterprise) : The official enterprise solution by Gradle. It offers high-performance build caching and deep diagnostic "Build Scans" for Android/Gradle projects, available as a managed service or self-hosted node.
Buildless : A modern, managed "Cache-as-a-Service" tailored for distributed development and CI teams looking for low-latency, globally distributed caching layers without the infrastructure overhead.
2. CI/CD Platform-Native Caching
Bitrise Build Cache : Specifically designed for mobile CI/CD. It supports Gradle and Configuration Cache for Android, Xcode compilation caching for iOS, and ccache for React Native/C++ modules—and it integrates with external CIs like GitHub Actions or CircleCI alongside Bitrise CI.
CircleCI Build Tool Cache : Offers built-in support to hook up native tool caching (Gradle, Bazel, Turborepo, and Xcode object-level compiler outputs) directly inside your CircleCI workflows.
3. Self-Hosted & Infrastructure Backends
Artifactory / Nexus / Nginx : If your company prefers data to stay on-premise or within a private VPC, Gradle and other build tools natively support standard HTTP/REST build cache protocols. You can easily point your CI runners to a self-hosted HTTP backend or WebDAV server.
Cloud Storage (AWS S3 / GCS) : Using community plugins, you can configure your build system to read and write cache artifacts directly to a private bucket in your cloud environment.
To help narrow down the best choice, tell me:
What build system(s) are you using (Gradle/Android, Xcode/iOS, Bazel, React Native)?
Which CI/CD platform do you currently run your builds on (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Bitrise, CircleCI, Jenkins)?
Yes. The main options depend on your mobile build stack:
gradle.com — particularly relevant for Android/Gradle. It provides a centralized remote Build Cache so CI machines can reuse task outputs produced by other builds. It also provides build-performance observability via Build Scans.
depot.dev — managed remote caching supporting Gradle, Bazel, sccache, Go, Pants, Nx, Turborepo, Maven, and others. It can be shared between developers and CI.
buildbuddy.io — focused on Bazel, offering managed remote caching plus remote execution. This can be particularly useful if your mobile build system has migrated to Bazel.
For a typical mobile CI setup
If you're building Android with Gradle, I'd investigate Develocity first, since its remote cache is directly integrated with Gradle and is designed for exactly the pattern of ephemeral CI agents reusing outputs from previous builds.
If you have a mixed toolchain (Android + iOS/native code, or multiple build systems), Depot Cache may be worth evaluating because it supports several remote-cache protocols/tools under one service.
One important distinction: a remote build cache avoids recompiling work whose inputs haven't changed; it won't necessarily fix time spent downloading dependencies, running uncached tasks, signing, packaging, or booting CI machines. For Android, Gradle's own documentation specifically recommends examining cache hits/misses and network transfer time when measuring the benefit.
If you tell me whether you're using Gradle/Android, Xcode/iOS, Bazel, or React Native/Flutter, I can narrow this to the services that actually fit your build pipeline.
To speed up slow mobile compilation times (for Android/Gradle, iOS/Xcode, or cross-platform frameworks like React Native ), several dedicated remote build cache and developer productivity platforms exist. They share compiled task outputs, object files, and test results across your entire team and CI/CD agents, preventing redundant compilation.
Key providers and options for remote build caching include:
Bitrise Build Cache : Specifically tailored for mobile CI/CD pipelines. It integrates cleanly with Bitrise or external CI providers, co-locating cache storage in the same data centers to cut down network bottlenecks and dramatically reduce setup time.
Develocity (formerly Gradle Enterprise) : The gold standard for Android (Gradle/Kotlin/Java) builds. It provides a robust, enterprise-grade remote build cache backend that supports multi-region edge replication (Develocity Edge) so your CI agents grab cached artifacts locally rather than via cross-region trips. It also extends caching support to Bazel.
CircleCI Build Tool Cache : If you run your pipelines on CircleCI, they offer native build tool caching integrations specifically designed to hook directly into Gradle's remote build cache, Bazel, Turborepo, and Xcode's Swift/Clang compilation caches.
Cloud Object Storage (S3 / Google Cloud Storage) : If you use Gradle or Bazel, you can self-host or hook up your build tools directly to cloud storage buckets. For instance, Bazel supports standard HTTP/gRPC or caching proxies like bazel-remote backed by AWS S3 or GCS.
Other CI-Specific Caches : Major CI/CD ecosystems like GitHub Actions (via custom actions) or GitLab CI provide generic distributed caching mechanics, though they usually require manual configuration for object-level compiler caches compared to purpose-built build cache servers.
To narrow down the best fit, could you share:
What build system/tools are you using (e.g., Gradle for Android, Xcode/Swift for iOS, Bazel)?
Which CI/CD vendor are you currently running on (GitHub Actions, Bitrise, CircleCI, GitLab, self-hosted)?
Yes. The main options depend on your mobile stack:
depot.dev — a managed remote build cache supporting Gradle/Android, Bazel, Maven, sccache, Turborepo, and others. It can be shared across developers and CI/CD, making it particularly relevant for Android builds.
buildbuddy.io — focused on Bazel, with managed remote caching plus optional remote build execution. Useful if your Android/iOS build system has been migrated to Bazel.
codemagic.io — mobile CI/CD with dependency caching for Android and iOS; importantly, its current docs note that Xcode 26 supports compilation caching, which Codemagic can cache in CI.
What I'd look at first
If you're primarily Android/Gradle, Depot Cache is probably the most direct "add a remote cache to our existing CI" solution. If you're using Bazel, compare Depot Cache with BuildBuddy. For native iOS/Xcode, the situation is different: traditional DerivedData caching isn't sufficient, but Xcode 26's compilation cache gives CI providers something more useful to cache.
If you tell me whether you're building iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, or a mixed app, and which CI you're using (GitHub Actions, GitLab, CircleCI, Bitrise, Codemagic, etc.), I can narrow this to the most relevant services and show the integration.
Yes. There are several services, and the best choice depends heavily on whether your mobile builds use Gradle, Bazel, or a mobile-focused CI system.
Bitrise — probably the most directly relevant mobile-focused option. Bazel’s list of remote execution services specifically identifies Bitrise as providing a mobile-first CI/CD and remote build caching platform.
EngFlow — offers managed remote caching and remote execution, with cache compression, cache analytics, and dedicated infrastructure. It also has a Gradle cache plugin, which is particularly relevant for Android builds.
BuildBuddy — a strong choice if you're using Bazel, including Apple/mobile builds. Its managed cloud service includes remote caching and remote execution, and its CI product integrates them directly.
Aspect Build — provides self-hosted remote cache and remote execution services for Bazel. Bazel lists it among its commercial remote-execution providers.
Hermetiq — offers managed remote cache and remote execution alongside build analytics and cache-miss debugging.
What I'd shortlist
Your build setup
I'd investigate first
Android / Gradle
EngFlow
iOS + Android, mobile-first CI
Bitrise
Bazel monorepo / Apple rules
BuildBuddy or EngFlow
Want to self-host
Aspect Build / /
One important distinction: remote build caching only reuses outputs from previous builds; remote execution also moves compilation itself onto remote workers. Gradle supports remote HTTP build caches directly, so you can start with caching without completely changing your CI architecture.
If you tell me Android/Gradle, iOS/Xcode, Bazel, or React Native/Flutter, I can narrow this to the 2–3 services most likely to cut your CI build time and compare pricing/integration.
When mobile app compilation starts dragging down your team's velocity, implementing a remote build cache is one of the highest-leverage moves you can make. Depending on whether you are compiling Android (Gradle/Bazel) or iOS (Xcode/Bazel), several strong managed and self-hosted options exist:
1. Dedicated & Managed Remote Cache Providers
Bitrise Build Cache: Originally built on top of Flare Build Systems technology, Bitrise offers a turn-key, fully managed remote build caching solution. It supports Gradle (including Configuration Cache) for Android, Bazel (Remote Build Execution), and Xcode for iOS. A major perk is that it works across any CI provider (GitHub Actions, CircleCI, Jenkins, Bitrise CI) as well as local developer machines via globally distributed CDN edge nodes.
Develocity (by Gradle): If your Android project relies heavily on Gradle, Develocity (formerly Gradle Enterprise) is the gold standard for build observation and remote caching. It provides a robust, high-performance remote build cache that coordinates seamlessly between local environments and CI pipelines. (Note: If you are self-hosting an older Build Cache Node, be aware it is being deprecated in favor of their newer resilient infrastructure options like Develocity Edge).
2. CI/CD Native Caching & Storage Backends
If you don't want to adopt a separate external vendor specifically for caching, many modern CI providers bake high-performance caching layers directly into their infrastructure:
CI-Specific Caches: Platforms like GitHub Actions (using actions/cache ) or CircleCI (using built-in workspace/cache persistence) allow you to store and restore Gradle or DerivedData directories between runs. However, these are typically simple tar-ball/key-value stores per workflow run rather than fine-grained, task-level remote incremental caches like Gradle/Bazel natively support.
Self-Hosted HTTP/REST Backends: Gradle natively supports an HttpBuildCache , meaning you can spin up your own lightweight remote cache server (such as an S3 bucket with a proxy, an Nginx server, or open-source community caching proxies) and point your build.gradle.kts configuration directly to it.
3. Bazel Remote Execution & Caching
If your mobile repo has migrated to Bazel for multi-platform (iOS and Android) compilation:
You can pair Bazel with cloud remote caching backends like Bitrise Build Cache for Bazel, BuildBuddy , or EngFlow , which provide enterprise-grade remote build execution (RBE) and caching services specifically architected to handle Bazel's content-addressable storage requirements.
To help narrow down the best fit, tell me:
What build system(s) are you using? (Gradle for Android, Xcode/CocoaPods/SPM for iOS, or Bazel?)
Which CI/CD platform are you currently running your builds on? (GitHub Actions, Bitrise, GitLab CI, Jenkins, etc.)
Yes. The main options depend on your mobile build stack:
bitrise.io — probably the most mobile-specific choice. It provides mobile CI/CD plus remote build caching and supports iOS/Android workflows. Bazel also lists Bitrise among commercial remote build-cache providers.
buildbuddy.io — a strong choice if your builds use Bazel. It provides remote build execution, remote caching, and build-result tooling.
engflow.com — hosted or self-hosted remote execution and caching, particularly suited to large Bazel-based builds.
nx.dev — useful if your mobile repository is an Nx monorepo. It shares cached task artifacts between developers and CI.
turborepo.dev — a good fit for JavaScript/TypeScript monorepos using Turborepo; its remote cache is designed to share build artifacts across developers and CI.
cachely.dev — a newer managed cache focused specifically on Nx, Turborepo, Gradle, and Bazel, so it can be interesting if you want a cache service without adopting a complete CI platform.
For mobile specifically
If you're compiling native Android/iOS, I'd narrow it down this way:
Gradle/Android: look at Gradle's Develocity and managed Gradle remote caching.
Bazel-based iOS/Android:BuildBuddy or EngFlow.
General mobile CI/CD and don't want to assemble infrastructure:Bitrise.
React Native/JS monorepo:Nx Cloud, Turborepo/Vercel, or Cachely.
The key distinction is remote caching vs. remote execution: caching reuses compilation outputs from previous builds, while remote execution actually moves compilation work onto remote workers. Bazel supports both, and the latter can provide a much larger improvement for genuinely expensive builds.
If you tell me whether you're using Xcode, Gradle, Bazel, Flutter, or React Native, I can recommend the best 2–3 options and compare pricing/setup.
To speed up slow mobile CI/CD pipelines, implementing a remote build cache allows your local developer machines and CI agents (GitHub Actions, CircleCI, Bitrise , etc.) to share compilation artifacts and avoid rebuilding unchanged tasks.
Depending on whether you are building Android (Gradle/Bazel), iOS (Xcode/ccache), or cross-platform (React Native/Expo), several top-tier providers and architectural patterns fit different tech stacks:
1. Dedicated & Managed Mobile Build Caches
Bitrise Build Cache: A CI-agnostic managed caching solution designed explicitly for mobile ecosystems. It supports Android (Gradle including Configuration Cache, and Bazel ) as well as Xcode for iOS and ccache for React Native C/C++ modules. It works with any CI vendor (GitHub Actions, CircleCI, Jenkins) or local terminals, and features zero-latency co-located storage if you use Bitrise CI.
Develocity (by Gradle): The gold standard if your Android app relies heavily on Gradle . Develocity provides a high-performance, enterprise-grade build cache alongside deep analytics and Build Scans. Features like Develocity Edge let you place regional replicas of your cache to minimize cross-region network latency.
2. Universal & Bazel-Compatible Remote Caching
BuildBuddy: If your mobile project or mono-repo uses Bazel (or Gradle via Bazel remote APIs), BuildBuddy offers an open-source and enterprise-managed remote build cache and Remote Build Execution (RBE) platform. It provides a great UI for inspecting build history and cache hit rates.
Self-Hosted HTTP/gRPC Backends: Gradle natively speaks a standard HTTP build cache protocol. Many teams bootstrap their own remote cache using existing infrastructure like an Artifactory/Nexus Repository Manager (using a raw repository type) or a lightweight Nginx/WebDAV server. You can also write build artifacts directly to cloud object storage via community plugins (like AWS S3 or Google Cloud Storage).
To help narrow down the best setup, tell me:
What build system(s) are you using (Gradle, Bazel, Xcode/Swift Package Manager)?
What CI/CD provider are you currently running on (GitHub Actions, CircleCI, GitLab CI, Bitrise)?
Are you trying to optimize Android, iOS, or React Native/Flutter?
Bitrise Build Cache — Specifically built for mobile ecosystems, offering native integrations for Gradle (Android), Bazel, Xcode (iOS), and React Native/Flutter toolchains. It is CI-agnostic (works on GitHub Actions,
CircleCI, Bitrise CI) and saves redundant compilation steps across local and CI environments.
