Developers building mobile apps with Expo: what takes you the longest to set up?

[u/DarkCALM_]

I'm researching an Expo starter kit for developers who want to build subscription-based mobile apps.

I'm particularly interested in the setup around authentication, Firebase, RevenueCat and store builds. Before building the kit, I want to understand where people actually get stuck.

If you've built an Expo app recently:

- What part of the initial setup took longer than expected?

- Did you start from scratch or use a starter kit?

- What would make a starter kit worth paying for?

I'm at the research stage and would appreciate honest answers, including if you think a paid starter isn't useful.

[u/timmytester2569]

It was all pretty easy to set up. And anything you get stuck with Claude can just setup for you. All these tools have their own MCP servers and documentation. It can be done within minutes.

[u/DarkCALM_ → u/timmytester2569]

Thanks, that’s helpful! Have you used Claude to set up authentication and subscriptions in a real Expo app? Did you also test the full flows on iOS and Android, including restoring purchases and account deletion? I’m curious whether anything needed manual fixes after the initial setup.

[u/timmytester2569 → u/DarkCALM_]

Yes to all of the above. Reddit hates AI so I’ll probably be downvoted. But there’s really no need for writing any boilerplate code now. No need for templates or starter kits. That’s just my opinion though.

[u/DarkCALM_ → u/timmytester2569]

Thanks for sharing! When you use AI to set up a new app, have you run into any issues during testing or store submission that took longer to resolve? Or has that part been straightforward too?

[u/ZMech]

Getting distracted by Reddit always takes longer than expected

[u/DarkCALM_ → u/ZMech]

Haha, fair enough 😄 Once you manage to escape Reddit, what part of setting up an Expo app usually takes you the longest?

[u/RangerOne122]

RevenueCat webhook handling combined with Apple and Google app store review guidelines always eats up way more time than the actual coding. Started from scratch on my last app and getting the sandbox testing right across both platforms was absolute pain. If your kit actually solves store builds and automated provisioning cleanly it would save hours.

[u/DarkCALM_ → u/RangerOne122]

Thanks, that’s really useful! In your last app, what was the hardest part of getting the RevenueCat sandbox tests and store builds working? Was there a specific step you had to repeat or debug several times? I’m trying to understand what a starter kit could realistically simplify.

[u/RangerOne122 → u/DarkCALM_]

Honestly the worst part is just getting Apple and Google to talk to RevenueCat properly with the right bundle IDs and shared secrets. You end up making ten dummy test accounts just to see one successful sandbox purchase go through. If a starter kit actually preconfigured all the webhook listeners and entitlement maps correctly it would save hours of pure pain.

[u/DarkCALM_ → u/RangerOne122]

Thanks, that’s really helpful! Which part caused the biggest delay in your last app: connecting the store accounts, getting a sandbox purchase to work, or handling the webhook and entitlement updates? What did you try before getting it working?

[u/rovonz]

Claude pipeline (10 minutes)

[u/k7512]

Nothing, expo is great!

[u/buildingTamagofit]

Honestly the code was the quick part. What ate my time was store-side config: in-app products and their review states in App Store Connect, sandbox testers, and making sure the purchase webhook is idempotent so a redelivered event never grants twice. Second place was native modules that need a dev build: once you leave Expo Go, getting EAS profiles, env vars and secrets clean per environment took longer than I expected.

A starter would be worth paying for if it shipped a tested webhook handler and a restore-purchases flow, not just the SDK wired up.

[u/Zain]

Auth screens were never the slow part for me. What ate the time was everything after: a permission model that also answers who is allowed to grant a role to someone else, impersonation so support can see exactly what a user sees (and resetting the Apollo cache when it starts and ends, or data bleeds between accounts), and a server driven force update gate per platform. CI that actually uploads to TestFlight and Play and pulls the next build number from the stores saved me more hours than any of the SDK wiring. If a kit had those done properly I'd pay for it. Just keep real credentials and keystores out of the repo.