We’ve been following the for more than five years now and creating a simple website is not really much of a problem these days.But does the same hold true for mobile apps? Can it be possible to create a mobile app without having a clue about programming languages?While my wife was toying with the idea of creating a mobile app for her, we took the opportunity to try out some of the best app builders on the market.
There really is no shortage of companies offering this kind of service; we easily found more than 30.Update: the app has now been launched using,. Visit our complete review of 16 app builders: In this short review we show you what an app maker is. Mobile App Makers in 100 Seconds - Everything You Need to Know 2015-03-02T12:33:39.000Z App doesn’t equal AppMost of the app makers that we’ve tested offer two kinds of apps:A (PWA) is like a mobile-friendly version of a website. You can open it through your web browser on desktops, Smartphones and Tablet devices. They are designed to give you most of the features you get from native apps, such as ecommerce, user logins, article posting etc.Speaking of Native Apps, these are the ones most people want. You can download them on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. A native app will also allow you to send those handy little push messages that hardly anybody knows how to deactivate.While you can create your own PWA app for around $10-20 per month, creating a native app is not gonna be wallet friendly.
Most providers will require you to fork out around $40-60 per month to have it listed in the Android ecosystems, and it is often twice that for the Apple Store.What we discovered here is an exciting market in its early stages; we expect a lot more to come in the future. For now, these mobile app builders are our favorites: GoodBarber – Eye CandyThe app builder with the most interesting name comes from the French island of Corsica and impresses with beautiful themes. What’s more is that they offer some of the most advanced features such as social networking, chat, Geofencing and iBeacons.Get an app that works on mobile and desktop browsers like a website for $25 a month. Add a native Android app for $48 per month.
Add a native iOS app for iPad and iPhone for $96 per month (check out ). And that’s not all: now there is the product, which is a new builder for ecommerce apps. Free Trial:Detailed Review: Siberian CMS – Open Source App BuildingAnother app maker made in France, Siberian has two unique features: they give you the full source code of the app, but you must install their platform on your own domain. It’s a small price to pay because you can create an app completely free! Of course, if you are not that tech-savvy you can also ask them to install the platform for you (59€).They also sell you loads of useful extra modules such as the Whatsapp-like chat function, an appointment add-on, their Uber-like taxi service and a classifieds feature that works similar to Craigslist.Most of the fees are one-offs, which still makes them very cheap compared to monthly subscription plans. There is also a Multi App Edition that lets you create unlimited apps for 399€ and resellers can pay €799 for aThe designs aren’t the most exciting to begin with, but you get tons of customization options and layouts.
And the features are really impressive, including unlimited push notifications, m-commerce and more. This all comes at the price of technical effort, but if you understand basic web hosting, you’ll have no problem getting started with Siberian.What we liked: you can go rather far with their free version and create a very professional app. Also, their add-ons are great and offer some features that can’t be found elsewhere, like the Pay in App module that provides paid access to certain sections of your app.What they should improve: the editor is a bit clunky at times.
Siberian Video Review and Tutorial. Free trial:Detailed Review: Swiftic (formerly Como) – The Swiss Army Knife of App CreatorsThis app maker, which was founded in 2010 in Israel claims to power more than 1 million apps around the world, making it one of the biggest fishes in the app pond. They provide a wide selection of building blocks such as a loyalty card feature, appointment scheduling integrations, ecommerce, user reviews and events. Most of the examples on their app gallery are restaurants, bands and other kinds of organizations that run events.Swiftic just released a new pricing structure: now there is only one tier with either a monthly ($57), yearly ($48) or bi-yearly ($41) payment option.
Part of these updates is also a bold 6-Month Success Guarantee, meaning that Swiftic will give you six months for free if you don’t manage to achieve “any meaningful business results” with your app.We found seven different templates that you can combine with six navigational styles. Colors, background images and icons can be adapted with your own artwork. Swiftic EditorSwiftic TemplatesSwiftic App StoreWhat we liked: the editor is very well laid out and easy to use. Their features range is one of the most extensive and the designs are a definite plus. The Success Guarantee is quite reassuring.What they should improve: their marketing. After registering they will send you promotional emails every single day for about a weekUpdate: Swiftic told us that they are currently changing their email marketing.
If you have any recent experience with Swiftic’s newsletters, please leave a comment and let us know! Swiftic Video Review and Tutorial. Looking for more information on app makers?We now have a site dedicated to in-depth app maker software reviews with a ranking table. Find further resources and information to help you find the best app creation tool for your project or small business. We are also happy to answer any questions you may have.Shoutem – The Apple of App BuildersFounded in 2011, offers a very polished product.
They have completely updated their platform in the new V5 and it’s a pleasure to use. Their templates are sleek and offer loads of customization options, so you can get very good looking apps. The features are good too, making them a great choice for Event apps or communities thanks to their Social Wall, where users can share comment and photos.While it’s not the most expensive provider, it’s not cheap either: pricing starts at $49 (Basic) per month.
In order to be able to publish to Apple, you’ll have to at least pick their $79.00 Advanced plan.They are also opening their code to developers and hope that people will build more extensions and features for them. A few of them are missing at the moment. Free Trial:Detailed Review: AppInstitute – More Than Meets the EyeAppInstitute are the largest app maker in the UK, and the winner of several startup awards.
They have great ecommerce features, with highly customizable catalogue menus and loyalty options. You can also pay for everything without ever leaving the app.They have a great booking feature, which is more powerful than it appears.
Not only does it allow for appointment booking, but also creating rich events with video and other content.Price-wise, you can get a PWA and Android app for $49 a month. It costs $81 a month to publish to iOS. This comes with basic push notifications and app analytics. Free Trial: www.appinstitute.comDetailed Review:Appy Pie – A Feast of Features?Appy Pie, based out of India, is another app maker that claims to be the fastest growing app maker in the world.
Although it’s difficult to test these claims, it does appear to be gaining popularity across certain parts of the globe.With a relatively unique free plan option, this could be appealing to people just starting out. Although it’s worth noting it will only be a mobile website. You won’t get both a native iOS and Android app until you move up to a higher tier, roughly in line with the prices of other app creators.The biggest thing Appy Pie has going for it are the unique features. They really do offer many of the things that other app makers don’t. For example you can add in-app purchases, connect databases, upload ebooks, and even create your own dating app! A lot of these features are often simply integrations, though, so be aware you may need to set up other accounts to get them working. This can sometimes be quite complex due to the lack of detailed tutorials.
Free Trial: www.biznessapps.comDetailed Review: AppYourself – Easy and Fun to UseThis company started in 2011, allowing their users to create apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and also pure HTML5 apps. Their promise doesn’t end with a mobile app: in contrast to other app maker software they also let you create a responsive website that automatically syncs your app content. Currently, this feature is in an open beta phase.There are three pricing tiers, with varying limits on active users and push notification campaigns Starter (€20) is for PWAs and 200 users. Business (€40) is the same with 2000 users. Enterprise (€80) gives you unlimited users for iOS and Android apps.
You can try out, for as long as you want. In order to be able to actually submit your app to one of the app stores you need to be on, at least, their Basic plan.Their features include ecommerce, table booking options via Open Table and Resmio, loyalty cards, photo galleries and of course, the usual news feed streams. Appyourself EditorAppyourself DashboardAppYourself: Editing an AppWe like: Most of all, the interface is well structured and very easy to use. They feature their own online store module and support was quick to respond when we contacted them.
Using their Connect App you can also update your app on the go.Things they should improve: AppYourself is a German company and sometimes there are menu items that haven’t been fully translated. It’s not a big issue overall but it needs to be addressed.Tip: Save 20% in your first year using the discount code “wtt20off”. Valid for all pricing tiers except for Business.Free Trial:Where are all the apps? According to, there are around 2.8m apps on the leading three app stores. According to just Swiftic and AppMakr, a total of 3m apps have been created with their tools alone. This can only mean that a significant number of all apps never make it into the major app stores.Mobile Roadie – The Enterprise App BuilderAs one of the bigger players Mobile Roadie proudly showcases their clients: Disney, TED.org and Universal have apps made on their platform.Given the price point ranges from $149 (CORE) to a hefty $799 per month (PRO) this company clearly has its focus on larger companies.
We particularly liked their design options which feature great templates and give you plenty of options to tweak them.They have a couple of nice community features such as chats and a fan wall that can be particularly useful for artists and bands. Musicians will also like the smooth integration of its music player.There are also some very advanced features such as geo-targeting for your content. Because of its wide feature range getting the hang of this app builder will take more time than most of the others.
Mobileroadie EditorMobileroadie TemplatesWe like: Their templates are very elegant and they offer plenty of options to tweak the designs. All in all their features are extremely advanced.Where they should improve: pricing of course as it’s not affordable for smaller businesses. It also took us quite some time to get to grips with the editor – the UI could be more intuitive.Free Trial:AppMachine – The High PotentialThis name seems to have a deeper meaning. AppMachine automates as many tedious processes as possible. Just give them your website’s URL and they will import everything they deem useful for your app. Twitter, Facebook, RSS and even images can be imported if you wish. Quite unique and pretty useful!The editor of this Dutch company is visually quite impressive but at the same time not overwhelming.
We like their idea of using Lego building blocks. It’s one of the best app creators we’ve seen and although not all of the user interface was intuitive right from the start, we think that they have the potential to be one of the top players in this space.Currently they offer two plans: Plus for $49 and Pro for $69 per month. AppMachine DashboardAppMachine EditorAppMachine PublishingWhat we liked: powerful editor, a comprehensive building block selectionWhat they should improve: they should make the user interface a little bit more logic and fasterMobincube – Apps for EveryoneIn contrast to Mobile Roadie, Mobincube positions itself as the website builder for everyone. Everyone can and should be able to build an app and also make some money using the Admob platform.
Before you make money though you’ll have to spend some but don’t worry because Mobincube is very affordable: while they offer a free plan, their cheapest ad-free plan is priced at $9.99. Surprisingly, all of their plans allow you to ‘go native’, i.e. To upload your creation to one or all of the major app stores.Using the editor sometimes felt a little bit “beta”. We sometimes had to switch browsers to use certain features.
What they have on offer does looks pretty powerful; they let you create complex page types: for example you can use a SQLite based database to pull in data from an external server. To be honest, we haven’t really figured out how this works and in terms of user friendliness there is definitely room for improvement.
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However, no other provider allows you to get a real app for free. Their paid plans look very affordable too.Update 3 June 2015: You can now add HTML modules into your app. Examples would be:User account registration screens, embedded html5 games, advanced forms, access to different branches of the app depending on certain inputs (time, language, region, type of device, etc.) and animations. Mobincube EditorMobincube FeaturesMobincube ToolsWhat we liked: very competitive prices and plenty of templates to choose from. Also, some of the features seem quite innovative.What they should improve: technical hiccups need to be taken care of, the templates can be a bit restrictive.Free Plan:AppsBuilder – Intuitive Italian DesignThis Italian app creator features a drag and drop editor and has so far helped 500,000 apps come to life.
Once you navigate the slightly confusing free trial vs. Free account sign up, the dashboard and editor are surprisingly intuitive. Adding logos and other images is also extremely easy, as you can easily scale images and add effects effortlessly after dropping your image onto the page.There is also a wide array of modules you can add to pages, such as eCommerce, multimedia, maps, calculators and loyalty tools.
There are dedicated tools for all the popular social sites, as well as at least five modules for different restaurant sites, so there’s something for everyone here. AppsBuilder also have a handy dedicated resource section on their site with articles, eBooks, templates and even case studies, all available for free.There are three pricing categories: $52 (Starter), $215 (Regular) and $269 (Scalable). In order to create a native iOS or Android app you’ll have to pick the Premium plan.
AppsBuilder: The EditorAppsBuilder: Image EffectsAppsBuilder: Section SelectionWhat we liked: easy to navigate editor, intuitive image editing with many options, good supportWhat they should improve: they have a free account (as well as their trial) but it’s difficult to access, should have different language options available.Free Trial: www.apps-builder.comMobAppCreator – New Kid on the BlockThis relatively new company calls Argentina home and has its focus on native apps. They claim to have almost 41,000,000 app views and rising, but apart from that, they’re a little mysterious, without even an ‘About Us’ or Company Profile on their site.With MobAppCreator, users don’t have as many templates available to them as other builders, yet the editor itself is very user-friendly, with different modules explained clearly and without too much technical jargon. It’s a nice touch having a pull-out iPhone on the side that keeps an updated, clickable representation of your app which is refreshed with each new change. We did find some issues in the layout design once we started to change some of the module elements, though, and had to begin again just to reset it.You have fourteen days to trial the service, with full functionality, but then the cheapest option starts at $32.50 per month. This isn’t too dissimilar to some of the other app building software on the market, as you’ll see below, but perhaps they could offer a few more templates for that price. MobAppCreator: ThemesMobAppCreator: The ModulesMobAppCreator: ThemesWhat we liked: the editor is relatively easy to use, they have their own online store module available for the South American market.What they should improve: there could be a wider range of template designs, perhaps offer a free version that isn’t time limited but offers fewer options.Free Trial:AppMakr – The Good Old Times of App CreationThis app creator from Singapore shows almost 2 million apps on its counter; impressive. Next to their claim of creating an app “in only 20 minutes” the pricing page sticks out for us. Next to a free plan there’s a $2 per month for PWAs, and a $99 dollar per year for iOS and Android, making it one of the most affordable app makers.However, after signing up we were quite disappointed.
The visual appearance of their editor isn’t really state of the art: it looks like there hasn’t been a redesign for a couple of years. To be fair though, they offer plenty of building blocks and also the app design can be tweaked.
It’s just not as much fun to work with this product compared to their more stylish competitors. AppMakr: App PreviewAppMakr: InterfaceWhat we liked: affordable pricesWhat they should improve: their design and the editor, this product is due for a major do-over.Free Trial:Further App Builders that we haven’t tested IBuildAppAlthough the featured templates on this website don’t look too exciting, IBuildApp has been used more than a million times. Basic ($9.99 per month), Business ($39) and Enterprise/Agency ($99) are their pricing tiers. Free Trial: BuildFireTheir well-designed website doesn’t reveal a lot about the company other than 30,000 businesses have used the software in one way or the other. You can choose between the free plan and a Premium plan ($49 per month). Free Trial: Appery.ioIf you don’t mind technical lingo or even embrace it, the “industry’s leading cloud-based rapid app development environment for building mobile apps” might be your candidate of choice. It’s more of a technical infrastructure for apps than an app maker for end users. Free Trial: GamesaladCreating games is pretty much the ultimate challenge for programmers.
For a mere $299 per year the Texan company provides a building block system for iOS and Android game creation. Free Trial:Can I make an app and sell it?Yes – in fact app makers encourage it through their white label or reseller programs. They usually offer special deals when you create more than 3 apps with them, and they even remove all their branding (logo, brand name etc).
That way you can make it look like you created the whole app making platform with your own skills. You can even give your clients a login so they can edit the app themselves.If you want more info about reseller programs or how to start your app reseller business, we have. What if my app idea is too complex for an app builder?The app builders we list here are the most advanced ones we were able to find on the market. However, they. Hence they may not be the ideal solution for your most ambitious app ideas (e.g. Larger social media apps or multilingual projects).
Is a bit more flexible than the rest of the pack as you can download the source code and host it yourself. This might be worth a try.If that’s not an option there are basically two ways to proceed: learn app development yourself or hire an app developer. To learn iOS or Android development, you could check out Udemy, where there are numerous.If you are short on time and want to hire an app developer who is able to start working on your app idea immediately you can try a platform like or Upwork to find a coder with the right skills. Make sure you compare several offers and check out the applicant’s ratings carefully. To sum upIt’s true that there are absolutely no programming skills required to build an app, however, if you actually want to have a chance of it being published in one of the App Stores you’ll need at least some basic image editing skills.High-quality visual components are key to creating an app that people will enjoy using. In addition, you really need to know how to provide a valuable app – an exact copy of your website usually doesn’t cut it.
You need to offer app-specific functions or content.As mentioned before, we think that there is a lot more to come in terms of functionality. Let us know what you think!Have you tried any of them yourself? Which one do you like the most?Updates:19 Nov 2019: Goodbarber section updated.02 Nov 2018: Paragraph on courses and hiring added.15 Oct 2018: Siberian now offers in-app purchases.06 Feb 2018: Information for PWA’s added.15 Aug 2017: Added new Goodbarber review video and pricing updates.Image credit: DigiClack – Fotolia.
How do people login?An email login is generally best to start with unless your app will havetightintegration with services like Facebook or Twitter, in which case social login is better. EmailLogin will be through an email and password combination. There will bealso be areset password option to help with forgotten passwords. Social (Facebook, Twitter.etc)Users will be able to login using an existing social media account(e.g.Facebook, Twitter). Single Sign On (SSO)Users will be able to login using one set of login credentials thatare used across multiple applications. What information would you like to know about your users?These are the data points you want to keep track of you users to betterengage them.
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User Profile InfoFind out details about the users in your applications (e.g. Image,name, email, bio.etc).
Segment UsersSegment users into categories in order to have a better picture ofyour user base (e.g. Admins, VIP's, Employees).
User ActivitySee what each user is doing and how they are using the app(Downloaded, Opened the app, Viewed Content.etc). How would you like to engage your users?These features allow you to communicate with your users or to facilitateuser to user communication. Send Push NotificationsAlert users with push notifications to let them know about newupdates. Subscription to NewslettersAllow users to subscribe to newsletters that will keep them up to datewith everything new that’s going on in the app (e.g Deals, Articles, News,Updates.etc). Allow Users to ChatChat would allow users to send real-time messages to each other. Audio streaming with simple controls, pause, play, volumecontrol (e.g. Soundcloud).
EventsInclude a list of events with detailed information about the time,place and event. E-commerceAbility to list items (image, description, price, etc),shopping cart feature, checkout, email confirmation, purchase history, etc) withpayments included. Map & LocationSimple maps that display a place, allows for pins and shortdescriptions and basic calculation of distance. FormsCapture information by allowing users to submit forms. Loyalty PointsReward users with points that can be used to access deals orbenefits inside the app.
What Infrastructure will you need?These are backend systems that support your app. DatabaseIf you’re going to need to store any data, you will need adatabase. SecurityIn this day and age security cannot be an afterthought. Ifyour application saves any sensitive or personally identifiable information,you’ll need to make sure your app is secure. Fault ToleranceFault Tolerance is a system’s ability to handle failures ormalfunctions, which are bound to happen over the lifespan of an application.Databases and servers occasionally go down.
Global AccessYour application will be distributed world wide so that any user canenjoy it. What kind of maintenance do you need on an ongoing basis?With constant changes to iOS and Android you will need to make sure yourapp stays up to date and compatible.
Industry averages to maintain an application are around 20-40%of the upfront cost each year. Andriod MaintenanceKeep your Android App up to date with the latest updates and makeenhancements to your app.
iOS MaintenanceKeep your iOS App up to date with the latest updates and makeenhancements to your app. Server MaintenanceIf your app requires a server, you will need to monitor uptime andmaintain redundancy. Custom features we didn't go over?No App Cost Calculator will be able to account for every feature or edgecase. MonthlyThis is generally the monthly cost of hosting all the infrastructure behind your app. Thisincludes but not limited to:.
Server/Cloud hosting fees like you'd get from Amazon AWS, Google GCP, Or MicrosoftAzure. Database services like MySQL hosting, MongoDB and and others. Reliability services like Firewalls, Auto Scallers, Load Balancers. Security Operations keeping your infrastructure secure. Dev Ops Making sure your System is running smoothly with maximum uptime. Compatibility and Compliance assurance.
Making sure your systems continues to becompliant with industry specific standards and compatible with the latest version ofmobile devices, operating systems and browsers.