Comparison
HexSign vs Fastlane Match
Fastlane Match is the de-facto open-source standard for sharing iOS code-signing assets across a team. It's a Ruby CLI that stores certificates and provisioning profiles in an encrypted Git, Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, or GitLab Secure Files repository. HexSign is a hosted dashboard that syncs directly with your Apple Developer account through the App Store Connect API, with a live relationship graph, health score, and proactive alerts.
TL;DR
- Match keeps signing identities encrypted in Git/S3/GCS/GitLab Secure Files. HexSign keeps a queryable, alerting copy in sync with App Store Connect.
- Match has no GUI, no built-in expiration alerts, and no relationship graph. HexSign provides all three out of the box.
- Match's `nuke` is the blunt repair tool when things drift. HexSign lets you regenerate or revoke individual assets from the dashboard.
- They can sit side by side. HexSign reads through Apple's API and never touches your Match repository.
Where teams hit friction
Common pain points with Fastlane Match
Why teams pick HexSign
What HexSign adds on top of Fastlane Match
Live relationship graph
An interactive graph linking certificates, provisioning profiles, bundle IDs, and devices. Click any node to see its dependencies and the blast radius of revoking or rotating it.
Expiration alerts before things break
Alerts to email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira, PagerDuty, Jira Service Management, or incident.io at thresholds you choose (7, 14, 30, 60, 90 days). Send a test alert before enabling delivery, so there are no surprise expirations during a release.
Health score & expiring items
A 0-100% health score across every Apple account you connect, plus an expiring-items panel that surfaces what to act on first. No CLI invocation required.
Guided provisioning profile wizard
A step-by-step wizard picks the right profile type, identifier, signing certificate, and devices, then generates the profile through Apple's API. No portal tab-switching.
Multi-account dashboard
Connect one or many Apple Developer team accounts. Each syncs independently with its own status and error reporting, all visible from a single dashboard.
Audit logs, RBAC & MFA
Owner / Admin / Member roles, per-user auth activity log, and MFA via SMS or TOTP authenticator apps. Every certificate, profile, device, and identifier change is logged.
Side-by-side
HexSign vs Fastlane Match, feature by feature
HexSign | Fastlane Match | |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | ||
| Interface | Hosted dashboard | Ruby CLI |
| Source of truth | App Store Connect API | Encrypted repo (Git / S3 / GCS / GitLab) |
| Setup | Add an ASC API key | Ruby + bundler + storage backend + passphrase |
| License | Commercial SaaS | MIT (open source) |
| Asset Management | ||
| Certificates (dev, distribution, Developer ID, push, Pass Type, etc.) | ||
| Provisioning profiles (App Store, Ad Hoc, Development, Enterprise) | ||
| Profile regeneration | Yes (`match --force`) | |
| Certificate revocation | Via `match nuke` | |
| Bundle ID & capability management | ||
| Device registry & UDID enrollment | ||
| CSR generation with KMS-encrypted private key | ||
| Visibility & Monitoring | ||
| Relationship graph (certs ↔ profiles ↔ bundle IDs ↔ devices) | ||
| Health score dashboard | ||
| Assets-over-time analytics | ||
| Sync history & change detection | Git history | |
| Alerts | ||
| Email expiration alerts | ||
| Slack webhook alerts | ||
| Microsoft Teams webhook alerts | ||
| Custom thresholds (7/14/30/60/90 days) | ||
| Team & Security | ||
| Role-based access control | Owner / Admin / Member | Repo permissions |
| Multi-factor authentication | TOTP / SMS | Apple ID 2FA + ASC API key |
| Audit log of every change | Git commit history | |
| Encrypted secrets at rest | AWS Secrets Manager + KMS | OpenSSL passphrase |
| Pricing | ||
| Free trial / free tier | 14-day free trial, free plan available | Free, MIT-licensed |
| Self-service Stripe billing | ||
FAQ
Questions about HexSign vs Fastlane Match
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