Summary

Rightmove is the UK’s leading property platform and one of the most popular UK-based digital services overall, with 16.4 billion minutes spent on it in 2024 — ranking just behind the BBC and UK government websites. With mobile usage continuing to rise, the company decided to overhaul its mobile CI/CD setup to keep pace with future growth.

Held back by a fragile, on-premise setup that was slow, complex, and difficult to maintain, it turned to Bitrise for a modern, mobile-first solution. The result: a stable foundation, significantly faster builds, and reduced testing time. The switch has also transformed how its engineers work, collaborate, and approach its mobile strategy, giving them space to focus on the future without worrying about infrastructure or instability.

Challenge

Rightmove's legacy CI/CD setup consisted of an on-premise machine and physical devices for testing releases. It was a bespoke setup that required a lot of maintenance. 

The rest of the company used a different CI/CD solution, and so Rightmove’s platform team often struggled to understand the mobile team's setup and spent a lot of time trying to configure it to keep it running smoothly.

It was also vulnerable to power outages, and even small issues could cause problems. For example, if a system update caused an error, someone had to physically go into the office to fix it,  which was especially challenging during the pandemic.

Maintaining the solution wasn’t easy, but upgrading it without causing an outage was even more challenging.

"Upgrading our legacy CI/CD setup was challenging. It only happened once during my time on the team. You had to request a new computer, install everything, and start all over again. Not ideal for a small team."
_{Valentin Holgado, Senior Software Engineer, Rightmove}

The bespoke nature of Rightmove's legacy setup made troubleshooting difficult. As a result, there was always the possibility that user experience would be compromised if something went wrong. 

A hotfix release or responding to a production issue, for example, was fraught with risk due to the complexity of the setup and manual intervention required to make everything work correctly. It slowed everything down, making it difficult to build and test against upcoming iOS releases or catch issues early.

“If something broke on the latest version of iOS, fixing it meant upgrading to the latest version of Xcode, and that was an event in itself. You had to install it, test everything, and hope nothing else broke. Every upgrade or change was a big deal.”
_{Mayur Tadpelliwar, Senior QA Engineer, Rightmove}

"If we updated the OS for iOS, it might break our Android pipeline because everything was on the same computer."
_{Valentin Holgado, Senior Software Engineer, Rightmove}

On top of everything, only a few team members understood the legacy setup, leaving the team vulnerable if anything went wrong.

“The knowledge around our original CI/CD system was limited to just a few people. If they left for any reason, it would’ve caused us serious issues.”
_{Mayur Tadpelliwar, Senior QA Engineer, Rightmove}

The mobile team at Rightmove realized they needed to find a new CI/CD solution. One that would address the unique requirements of mobile and provide expert support for Macs, iOS, and Xcode. 

Solution

Bitrise products adopted:

Insights

Release Management

Build Cache

CI/CD

After evaluating several solutions on the market, Rightmove decided to choose Bitrise as its new mobile CI/CD solution replacing its legacy set up. Several colleagues had used Bitrise before and had a positive experience with it, which gave the team confidence that it would be a good fit for their needs. And crucially that the team would be comfortable using it. 

“We looked at quite a few solutions, including CircleCI, but Bitrise stood out. Its mobile-first approach and access to a wide range of machines was exactly what we needed. The other platforms we evaluated were more general-purpose, but we were after a specialised solution, which made Bitrise the clear choice.”
_{Valentin Holgado, Senior Software Engineer, Rightmove}

The migration of Rightmove to Bitrise went smoothly, without any complications, ensuring the team could get up and running quickly. 

“The migration to Bitrise was super straightforward. I’d set aside a couple of weeks, but it was all done in a day or two. The only part that took longer, which was handled by another team, was setting up security connections to our account systems, but even that was pretty smooth. Once done, we were good to go.”
_{Valentin Holgado, Senior Software Engineer, Rightmove}

“I have been at Rightmove for a long time. We have done a lot of integrations on many different platforms, but this one with Bitrise was particularly straightforward and seamless. It exceeded all of our expectations.”
_{Mayur Tadpelliwar, Senior QA Engineer, Rightmove}

Now, with a robust CI/CD foundation in place, the team can focus on continuously improving their releases and driving down time to market. Features like Graph Pipelines and Parallel Builds are helping them do just that.

“Parallel builds was something I’d been thinking about, and then as if by magic, it was already there before I had the chance to ask for it. That was pretty cool. We’ve been using it for functional testing, and it’s really helped to bring our build times down significantly.”
_{Valentin Holgado, Senior Software Engineer, Rightmove}

“Graph Pipelines" is definitely a highlight for me. I’m using it a lot. You can create workflows or link them in parallel, run them. It's just so easy. You don’t have to mess with the YAML file. You can use the UI straight away. It’s brilliant.”
_{Mayur Tadpelliwar, Senior QA Engineer, Rightmove}

Results

“My focus as an engineer needs to be on delivering features and improving our product. Bitrise gives me the time to do that. The less time that we have to spend on infrastructure and maintenance, the more we can focus on our product. I think that’s where Bitrise has really made the difference. We no longer have to worry about maintaining everything ourselves. It makes everyone's job easier.”
_{Valentin Holgado, Senior Software Engineer, Rightmove}

• 83% faster build cycles

  With Bitrise, Rightmove has cut build times dramatically from 90 minutes to around 15 minutes, a reduction of 83%. The team can now ship faster and spend less time waiting around for builds to finish, freeing them up to focus on developing new features. 

  "It’s taking about 15–20 minutes for a release now, compared to up to 2 hours before. And that’s being conservative," shares Valentin.
• 28% reduction in functional testing time

  With Bitrise's Graph Pipelines, Rightmove cut 7 minutes from its standard unit and functional testing suites, going from 25 minutes to 18.
• A stable mobile foundation they can rely on

  CI/CD issues used to be a constant headache, now they’re a non-event. With Bitrise, if a flaky test comes up it's easy to rerun things and move on. The reliability Bitrise provides gives the team peace of mind and time to focus on improving the build cycle further. 

  "Problems with our CI setup came up in every 1-1 and retro before we moved to Bitrise, it was painful. Now, it's rarely mentioned, I can't remember the last time I saw a CI ticket,” shares Valentin.
• More time to focus on product not infrastructure

  With Bitrise, infrastructure is no longer a drain on engineering time. The team can turn their attention to building and improving the product, a shift that is allowing them to experiment more and continually improve.

  “With Bitrise, there’s been a huge reduction in engineering time spent on CI, basically down to zero. We did the initial setup, made a few tweaks, and that was it. It’s never about maintaining now, just adding to it. Before, it felt more like trying to keep the boat afloat.” adds Valentin.
• Improved collaboration across engineering teams

  With Bitrise, Rightmove’s CI/CD is now more reliable and easier to use, which has encouraged other teams to get involved and give it a try.  That change in mindset, along  with significant improvements in build speed has transformed how teams work and interact together. 

  “I think our mindset has definitely changed as a result of using Bitrise. Before, if something was wrong with the CI or we wanted to try something new, there was always a hesitation from the team— like, do I really want to spend that much time on this? Now it’s more like, yeah, why not, let’s do it,” shares Mayur.
• Greater visibility and control

  The team can now run quick checks and catch any errors before they reach production which is something they really struggled with before. Now it’s built into their everyday workflows.
• Infrastructure that scales with their needs

  Teams can choose the best machine setup for the job they are working on. As a result the team can test out new Xcode and iOS without worrying about breaking other builds, something that wasn’t possible before.

  "With Bitrise we are able to mix and match our infrastructure according to the task at hand. Our Android engineers can move faster, and our iOS engineers love being able to test with the latest Xcode and iOS versions," shares Valentin.

The future

Bitrise has given Rightmove a solid mobile foundation to build on. With mobile usage on the rise, having the right infrastructure in place is key to supporting continued growth and maintaining its No.1 spot in the UK market. Next on the agenda: improving build times further, streamlining testing, and giving engineers more time to focus on new features and developing their skills for the future.

“One of the best things is that the team now has more time for personal development, to improve their skills and stay up to date with the latest tech trends. There’s definitely less frustration from the team across the product development lifecycle. We have the time to focus on learning new tools and planning what’s next, without worrying about infrastructure or things breaking.”
_{Valentin Holgado, Senior Software Engineer, Rightmove}

“Bitrise has provided us with the independence we needed as a mobile team, and at the same time has given us confidence to experiment and explore new tools and technologies. It’s really helped to make everything easier and more enjoyable.”
_{Mayur Tadpelliwar, Senior QA Engineer, Rightmove}

Is your mobile CI/CD future-ready like Rightmove's? If not, let's talk.