Can You Do iOS Development Without Xcode? A Full-Process Comparison from Environment Setup to Running on a Real Device

I had been using Xcode for iOS development until one day I changed computers. Downloading Xcode took nearly two hours, and after unzipping, I found only 20GB left on the hard drive. Every major version update involved over ten gigabytes of downloads, plus Simulator and various iOS SDKs, so a 256GB Mac soon required cleaning up space. Later, a new teammate arrived with a Windows laptop and wanted to write iOS code, but the Mac configuration hadn't been approved yet. The threshold of iOS development being tied to Mac and Xcode is indeed not flexible for many scenarios. So I began to wonder: can iOS development be done without Xcode? Are there lighter alternatives? Several Alternative Paths Without Installing Xcode I first tried the approach of VS Code plus remote Mac compilation. Write code on Windows, connect to a remote Mac via SSH, and execute xcodebuild. The coding environment problem was solved, but the debugging phase is unavoidable—running on a real device requires Xcode to handle provisioning profiles and signing, so ultimately a Mac with full Xcode is still needed. Moreover, after each code change, the three steps of local editing, remote compilation, and syncing to the device made the workflow longer than developing directly in Xcode. I also tried the CI approach. Codemagic and GitHub Actions can automate build packaging, suitable for continuous integration before releases. However, frequent debugging and modifications during daily development—changing a line of code and running to see the result—cannot be pushed to CI every time and wait a few minutes. Its coverage is limited. I also considered AppCode, but it essentially still depends on Xcode's toolchain, and JetBrains has discontinued its maintenance. Another Approach: KXApp IDE KXApp has built the compilation toolchain into the IDE, allowing iOS applications to be compiled and signed without installing Xcode on the system. It uses VS Code as its editor layer, with shortcuts, interface layout, and plugin