The honest starting point: EAS Simulator and VibeView are aimed at the same moment. A coding agent has just changed a screen, and somebody — the agent, ideally — should install the build on a device, tap through the change and report whether it worked. Expo's product page calls this "simulators built for agents". So do we, in slightly different words, and have since before that page existed.
Three things separate them today. EAS Simulator is a limited-access preview, opened from a waitlist in batches; VibeView is available on every plan, including the free one, this afternoon. EAS Simulator's announcement lists an iOS Simulator and an Android Emulator; VibeView also runs Apple TV and Android TV, and Roku on real hardware. And EAS Simulator describes agents driving the device through third-party tools — agent-device, Argent, computer use — where VibeView ships its own skill and MCP server with device verbs built for the job.
Where Expo is stronger, this page says so: the session recording that lands on a pull request, simulated camera injection, and the fact that for an Expo team it will one day be the path Expo documents.
Why people look for an EAS Simulator alternative
Not every reason below is one we solve, and the last one is a reason to stay put.
- The waitlist. The announcement is explicit that access opens in batches. If you need a cloud simulator for an agent this week, "join the waitlist" is not an answer.
- TV. A tvOS or Android TV app cannot be verified on a phone simulator, and the announcement mentions neither.
- The rest of the loop. An agent that can drive a simulator still needs a build to drive, and a way to ship the result. EAS Build and EAS Submit exist, but Simulator is a separate product with no published price.
- Non-Expo projects. Expo says EAS Simulator is framework-agnostic, and it may be. But its whole surface — the CLI, the build IDs it takes, the skill — is
eas. A Swift, Kotlin or Flutter team is adopting Expo's tooling to get a simulator. - Humans. Both products share a session by URL. Only one of them also embeds the live device in a page, hands the controls to a guest who has no account, and lets a designer open the build from a link on their phone.
- You are all-in on Expo and can wait. Then EAS Simulator will be the integrated option, and the honest advice is to join the waitlist and use VibeView in the meantime — or not at all.
Give your agent a device in two commands
npm install -g vibeview, then vibeview agent-setup. That installs
the skill where Claude Code finds it and offers to register the MCP server. From then on,
"implement X and verify it on the device" is a sentence your agent can act on.
EAS Simulator alternatives: how VibeView compares
| What you are deciding | VibeView | Expo EAS Simulator |
|---|---|---|
| Can you use it today? | Yes — on every plan, including free, with no waitlist | A limited-access preview, opened from the waitlist in batches, labelled "Early access" on the product page |
| Which devices does it run? | iOS simulators (iPhone, iPad), Android emulators (phone, tablet), Apple TV, Android TV, and Roku hardware | A remote iOS Simulator and an Android Emulator, per the announcement |
| Does it cover TV apps? | Yes — tvOS and Android TV with a d-pad and a focus walk the agent can call, plus Roku | No TV platform is mentioned in the announcement or on the product page |
| How does a coding agent drive it? | A first-party skill and MCP server: ui-tree, tap, type, scroll-to, drag, screenshot, logs, dev_start / dev_stop. Works from Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or any MCP client | Through agent-device, Argent or computer use, with an eas-simulator skill for Claude Code, Cursor and Codex |
| Does the app hot-reload from your editor? | Yes — vibeview dev connects the cloud device to Metro on your machine | Yes — Fast Refresh through a Metro tunnel is a listed feature |
| Can people share and watch a session? | Yes — share links that need no account, live collaboration with guests who can take the controls, and an embeddable player for any page | Yes — real-time URL sharing and multi-user simultaneous control are listed features |
| Is there a recording? | Flows record as replayable tests with per-step screenshots and visual-regression thresholds, and every test run has a video; there is no video of a live session | Yes — session replay with a timeline and screenshots at each step, and "a session recording lands on the PR" |
| Can it fake the camera? | No | Yes — simulated camera feed injection from a test pattern, photo or video is a listed feature |
| Does it build and ship the app too? | Yes — cloud builds with generated signing, then vibeview submit to TestFlight or a Play track, in the same CLI | EAS Build and EAS Submit are separate products included on every EAS plan; the Simulator announcement takes a build ID and does not mention submission |
| What does it cost? | Free: 30 streaming minutes and 15 cloud builds a month, no card. Dev from $19 a month. All plans published | No price is published for EAS Simulator on the announcement, product page or pricing page. EAS plans are Free, $19 a month plus usage, or $199 a month plus usage |
Two ties on the day-to-day loop — hot reload and sharing — two rows where Expo describes something we do not have, and four rows that decide it: whether you can use it now, whether TV counts, whether the agent has first-party controls, and whether the same tool builds and ships what it just verified.
What "built for agents" means here
The phrase is on both products, so the useful question is what the agent actually gets.
On VibeView, the agent reads a UI tree with stable element references — every label, accessibility id and rectangle on screen, as text — and acts on those references. Each action returns what changed, so the agent's next decision is based on the screen it is looking at rather than the one it remembers. Screenshots are on demand, for the moments when appearance matters and structure is not enough. App logs come back the same way. On TV, the agent names an element and the device walks focus to it. All of that is exposed twice: as CLI verbs the skill teaches, for agents that can shell out, and as MCP tools, for agents that cannot.
On EAS Simulator, per the announcement, the agent works through agent-device, Argent or computer use, with an eas-simulator skill telling Claude Code, Cursor or Codex how. Those are capable tools and the result may be excellent. It is also one more layer between the agent and the device, maintained by someone else, and the reason the announcement can list three of them is that the product itself is the simulator, not the controls.
Where EAS Simulator is stronger
A recording on the PR, a fake camera, and Expo's own front door.
Three real things. The announcement describes session replay with a timeline and per-step screenshots, and the product page says a session recording lands on the pull request — a reviewer can watch the agent's proof without opening anything. We record flows as tests, which is a different artifact. Camera injection — a test pattern, a photo or a video piped into the simulator's camera — is something VibeView does not do, and if your app is a camera app that matters. And for a team already on EAS Build, Submit and Workflows, a simulator that takes an EAS build ID and shares their infrastructure is the integrated path, once the waitlist opens.
Pricing, side by side
EAS Simulator has no published price as of 20 September 2026: not on the announcement, not on the product page, and not on the EAS pricing page, which lists Build, Submit, Update and Workflows on every plan and does not mention the simulator. EAS plans themselves are Free with 15 Android and 15 iOS builds, Starter at $19 a month plus usage with a $45 build credit, and Production at $199 a month plus usage with a $225 credit; additional builds are $1 to $4 each depending on platform and worker size.
VibeView's plans are all public. The free tier includes two concurrent sessions, 30 streaming minutes a month, 15 cloud builds, usage credit for AI features, and needs no card; each free session stops after five minutes. Dev is $19 a month with 1,000 streaming minutes and no session length limit; Starter and Professional add seats, sessions and embed domains. Streaming past the included minutes draws from usage credit at a published per-minute rate.
Which is yours: a decision guide
You need it this week
VibeView. There is no waitlist; vibeview agent-setup and a free account get an agent onto a cloud device in minutes.
You ship a TV app
VibeView. Apple TV and Android TV run with a d-pad and a focus walk; Roku runs on real hardware. EAS Simulator's announcement lists phones only.
You want build, verify and submit in one tool
VibeView. Cloud builds, generated signing, the device, the agent verbs and vibeview submit are one CLI and one account.
Your app is a camera app
EAS Simulator, when you can get in. Camera feed injection is a listed feature and we do not have it.
Reviewers want a video on the PR
EAS Simulator describes exactly that. VibeView gives you a replayable test with a GitHub check, and the run's video on its run page, not on the PR.
You are all-in on EAS and patient
Join the waitlist. Use the VibeView free tier while you wait, or don't; either way, Expo's integrated simulator is the path they will document.
One session tells you which
Register, run vibeview agent-setup, and ask your agent to verify the last
change it made on a device. If it comes back with a screenshot and a verdict, you have your
answer; if you are still on a waitlist, you have a different one.
Frequently asked questions
Is VibeView an EAS Simulator alternative I can use today?
Yes. Every VibeView plan, including the free one, runs cloud iOS simulators and Android emulators you can open in a browser tab, drive from the CLI or an MCP client, and share by link — with no waitlist. EAS Simulator was announced on 14 September 2026 as a limited-access preview opened from the waitlist in batches.
Does VibeView work with the same coding agents as EAS Simulator?
The same clients, through a different door. Expo describes an eas-simulator skill for Claude Code, Cursor and Codex, with the device driven through agent-device, Argent or computer use. VibeView ships its own skill (`vibeview agent-setup`, or `npx skills add vibeview/skills`) and its own MCP server (`vibeview mcp`), so the agent gets first-party verbs — ui-tree, tap, type, scroll-to, screenshot, logs — instead of a third-party driver.
Can EAS Simulator or VibeView run Apple TV, Android TV or Roku apps?
VibeView can: tvOS and Android TV run on cloud TV devices with a d-pad, and Roku runs on real hardware. The EAS Simulator announcement and product page describe an iOS Simulator and an Android Emulator; no TV platform is mentioned.
What does EAS Simulator cost?
No price was published on the announcement, the product page or the EAS pricing page when we checked on 20 September 2026. EAS plans themselves are Free, Starter at $19 a month plus usage, and Production at $199 a month plus usage. VibeView publishes every plan on its pricing page; the free tier includes 30 streaming minutes a month with no card.
I use EAS Build. Do I have to leave it to use VibeView?
No. Upload the simulator build EAS produces and run it on a VibeView device, or point `vibeview dev` at your local Metro so the cloud device hot-reloads from your editor. VibeView also has its own cloud builds, signing and store submission if you want the whole loop in one tool, but nothing requires it.
Does VibeView do session recording like EAS Simulator?
Not as a video that lands on a pull request — that is a feature Expo describes and we do not have. VibeView records flows as replayable tests with per-step screenshots and visual-regression thresholds, and runs them from CI with a GitHub check. Every test run has a video on its run page. If what you want is a movie of a live session, EAS Simulator describes one and we do not.
Published 20 September 2026 · Expo EAS Simulator announcement, product page and EAS pricing verified 20 September 2026