I Spent 9 Months Building This: UpgradeLink – An Open-Source All-in-One Cross-Platform App Upgrade System

Source: Dev.to

🚀 Why I Built UpgradeLink

I wanted an upgrade system that’s full‑platform compatible, easy to deploy, and customizable. Existing solutions were either overpriced, single‑platform, or too complex for small teams and individual developers. I built UpgradeLink on Go Zero + simple‑admin, incorporating lessons learned from my own frustrations.

✨ Core Features I Built Into UpgradeLink

1. Full Platform Coverage – One System for All Ends

• Native apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• Cross‑framework apps (Tauri, Electron) – compatible with their official upgrade APIs, requiring almost zero code changes.
• Android apps with delta updates to save bandwidth and speed up upgrades.

Integrating UpgradeLink into a Tauri tool took just 10 minutes.

2. Flexible Configuration

• Canary releases – roll out new versions to a small percentage of users before a full rollout.
• Targeted upgrades – push packages to specific devices or OS versions (e.g., only macOS 14+ users).
• Custom storage – supports S3‑compatible object storage; works with Alibaba Cloud OSS and can connect to CDNs for faster downloads.
• Config/file upgrades – update asset packs and JSON configs dynamically without releasing a full app version.

3. Quality‑of‑Life Details

• Docker single‑machine quick start – run on your own server with a single command.
• Multi‑language SDKs (Go, Java, Python, TypeScript, etc.) – use the SDKs directly for integration, avoiding raw HTTP requests.
• Vue 3 + Vben Admin panel – intuitive UI for managing upgrades, eliminating the need to dig through logs.

🛠️ Personal Quick Start Flow

Full deployment documentation is available in the repository README, including Docker Compose and cluster deployment options. All steps have been validated by me personally.

🤔 A Little Personal Note

UpgradeLink is not meant to be a bloated framework; it’s a focused solution to the upgrade pain points I and many other developers face. It’s already running smoothly in several of my open‑source projects (e.g., note‑gen, MarkFlowy, and other Tauri tools) for over a month.

🤝 Let’s Improve It Together

• Open Issues – share your upgrade challenges.
• Submit PRs – help fix bugs, add features, or improve documentation.

If UpgradeLink helps you avoid upgrade headaches, please give the repository a ⭐️ Star—it’s the biggest motivation for continued maintenance.

GitHub Repo:
Gitee Repo:

Let’s make app upgrades easier together! 🚀