What are the best ways to manage iOS app distribution certificates and profiles?

I view certificates and profiles as crucial for app security and functionality. Certificates act as digital credentials, verifying our identity as developers and granting access to Apple's services. Profiles, being configuration files, dictate how apps install and operate on devices and simulators. The distinction between types—development, testing, distribution, and push notifications—is key, as each serves a specific purpose in the app lifecycle, from development to deployment. This system ensures secure, controlled, and efficient app management within the Apple ecosystem.

Profiles are meant to authorize a developer to develop the application and run it on any of the allowed devices. Without valid profile, a developer cannot run the application on any device. Certificates enable developer to validate the identity with Apple to run a specific program on apple devices. There are variety of purpose to generate a certificate. Distribution certificate is mainly used to publish an app on app store.

The distinction between development and distribution certificates is fundamental. Development certificates enable app testing on devices and simulators, crucial for debugging and refining. Distribution certificates, on the other hand, are vital for app distribution to the App Store, TestFlight, or specific users. The corresponding private key's security is paramount and should be carefully managed within the team. Assigning roles like admin, app manager, developer, or marketer helps in delegating responsibilities and access levels, ensuring efficient and secure use of certificates and profiles. This system facilitates a streamlined and secure app development process.

Share one code signing identity across your development team: 1- Automate with match: Let match handle certificate and provisioning profile creation effortlessly. 2- Centralized Repo: Use a private repository for storing code signing artifacts. 3- Automate Handling with match: Integrate your repository seamlessly with match for automatic code signing credential management.

Fastlane is a tool developed by google to facilitate the publishing the app on stores. Similar to CI/CD for all the application, developer can build a pipeline in a fastlane file which gets executed while publishing the app to stores. Its absolutely free of cost but need discipline in terms of test driven development.

Firebase has evolved in last 5 years to become one of the application where it provides NoSQL database, storage, crash analytics, distribution, user management and much more. Apps in Android and iOS can be distributed through the firebase interface or CLI or fastlane APIs or firebase APIs. It is quite user friendly for android but little tidy for iOS apps. The best part of distributing from this platform is single interface to manage the distribution on both platforms. Use it to increase your productivity.

Implement Version Control for Certificates and Profiles Integrate version control systems, such as Git, to track changes in certificates and profiles. This practice helps maintain a versioned history of your certificates and profiles, making it easier to roll back changes if issues arise. By tracking changes, you can enhance collaboration among team members, mitigate risks associated with inadvertent changes, and streamline the overall management of iOS app distribution assets.