

Hello everyone!

I want to share a project I’ve been working on called [OTAShip](https://github.com/vknow360/otaship). It's an open-source, self-hosted over-the-air (OTA) update server for React Native and Expo apps.

**Why I built it**

Earlier this year, I was managing an Expo app for a college society that unexpectedly grew to over 3,500 active users. We needed to push rapid updates to fix bugs without waiting for Play Store reviews. Expo’s official EAS Update service is great, but the pricing and usage limits were becoming unfeasible for a free college app. Plus, I really hated the idea of vendor lock-in.

**The "Vibecoding" Mistake**

In January, I decided to build my own solution. I threw together a quick prototype using MongoDB, Next.js, and a bit of Go. I basically "vibecoded" it. It worked, but the architecture was a mess and it was a nightmare to maintain.

I decided to scrap it entirely and spent the last 4 months building it properly from scratch.

**The Tech Stack:**

* **Backend:** Go (using `chi` for routing and `sqlc` for type-safe SQL)
* **Database:** PostgreSQL 16+
* **Dashboard:** SvelteKit (Tailwind CSS)
* **Deployment:** Fully Dockerized (`docker-compose`) with pluggable storage (AWS S3, MinIO, Cloudinary)

I used this project as an excuse to teach myself Svelte, Postgres, and Docker proxying with Nginx.

  
**What it does**

It acts as a drop-in replacement for your EAS server. It supports:

* Full Expo Updates manifest protocol compliance (with RSA code signing)
* Percentage-based rollouts
* One-click rollbacks
* A custom CLI to bundle and publish updates directly from your terminal or CI/CD

Thanks for reading.

I didn't want to pay for EAS Updates, so I built my own self-hosted OTA server in Go