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enatikon Show HN: I hate adding updating to my apps, so I created Pakkly

That’s a valid concern, but Pakkly has never and never will modify your app. It will be installed exactly as-is, with a proxy launcher to facilitate updates. I’m also working on getting that launcher PGP signed so you can verify it’s from us.

enatikon Show HN: I hate adding updating to my apps, so I created Pakkly

I haven’t used Sparkle myself so I may be a bit off, but as far as I can see Sparkle requires you to constantly update an xml file so it knows what to update. Pakkly allows you to specify a glob to search for in the releases area. So you can simply target myapp_mac_*.zip and your users will automatically be updated when they next start the app. Notarization is a process I’m planning to integrate via a CLI, if possible.

Also, it’s cross platform, if you ever decide to branch out :)

enatikon Show HN: I hate adding updating to my apps, so I created Pakkly

It uses fairly standard HTTPS for update checking (endpoints). I'm planning to write a detailed blog post on how it works technically so hopefully that will answer your questions.

Completely self-hosted solutions aren't currently planned.

enatikon Show HN: I hate adding updating to my apps, so I created Pakkly

Yes, but cross platform and works with any app. A paid plan is coming soon so it won't only be for FOSS.

enatikon Show HN: I hate adding updating to my apps, so I created Pakkly

Currently there’s have no way of generating checksums or cryptographic signatures as Pakkly doesn’t enforce any structure on apps. They are delivered straight from GitHub releases so the security considerations are the same as downloading from a browser.

I’m developing a CLI tool to allow signing and notarizing your apps and the installer itself. Hopefully that will alleviate some of the concerns you have.

The third-party service angle is understandable, but I’m not certain how it’s any different from any other third-party service.

enatikon Show HN: I hate adding updating to my apps, so I created Pakkly

Yeah, to be honest I just wanted to get this out ASAP to see what people’s reaction would be. Currently that means it only serves direct downloads from https://github.com .

Currently the roadmap looks like:

Add macOS/Linux support with full signing on macOS and Windows. Add hosted binaries and private repos. Add cryptographic signatures both on the developer side and on our side. These are obviously not enough for total opsec, but should mitigate common attack vectors.

But as you said, the intention is to make the process as seamless as possible, that takes some design time though.

enatikon Show HN: I hate adding updating to my apps, so I created Pakkly

A more technical description is coming soon! I’m planning to post a blog post to provide transparency on how the system works. I hope that will clear things up and I hope you will like it ;)

enatikon Show HN: I hate adding updating to my apps, so I created Pakkly

Yes, you are correct, Pakkly adds a thin wrapper to your executable which is built with Rust to be as lightweight and fast as possible. This wrapper adds virtually no overhead besides taking up a bit of memory (around 8mb).

Update checking only happens on startup, currently. Your app performance will not be affected. In case the server is not responding during startup Pakkly will continue, after a brief delay, executing your app. The startup update check will fire at most once every 60 seconds (In case someone starts your app in quick succession).

Update notifications are planned, but these will be optional, and will never stop your app for you.

enatikon Show HN: I hate adding updating to my apps, so I created Pakkly

The pricing hasn't yet been finalized but it will be fixed per app.

enatikon Show HN: I hate adding updating to my apps, so I created Pakkly

I'm hesitant to share my personal email publicly, but you can contact me at contact@enatik.com and I will get back to you ASAP.

enatikon Show HN: I hate adding updating to my apps, so I created Pakkly

Thanks for the great feedback, I’ll try to cover it all:

The mobile design: I absolutely agree, I didn’t expect so many of our users to come from mobile as the target demographic is desktop developers. I see now that I may have misjudged things a bit. Future plans definitely include a nicer website with better mobile support.

Header: They won’t very soon, Pakkly’s still in Beta, some things are placeholders for future functionality.

The Steps section: Absolutely agreed, we are already working on a video explainer.

The Newsletter section: I thought it fitting into 100% of the viewport height made it distinct.

In regard to caching, we had a caching plugin but it caused some strange layout bugs so we disabled it, I’ll look into those, thanks!

enatikon Show HN: I hate adding updating to my apps, so I created Pakkly

Thanks for the kind words and heads up, I removed the scrolling effect while I decide on a long-term solution.