With the burgeoning app market, building a mobile application might be the next big step in expanding your business and gaining the most effective app marketing channel. But what if you are not an app builder and have very little or no experience in app programming software and design?
You can hire an in-house app builder or an external company to build your app. However, you may be a start-up and can’t face the costs of full-blown app development. This is where app builders come in.
In this guide, we have listed the top app builders in our directory below along with a summary of what advantages come with hiring an app builder for your mobile application.
What is an app builder?
An app builder is a platform that helps businesses create mobile applications with little to no experience in coding and/or design. The online mobile development tool allows users to go beyond the generic app development process, building mobile apps in a more time-efficient way.
Instead of the usual duration of developing an app, which can take weeks or even several months, app builders can shorten this process with easy-to-use tools and features that will help create a high-quality app, effectively promoting your products and services that will drive user acquisition as well as high engagement levels, and increase ROI.
From idea creation to wireframing, requirement analysis, design, testing to implementation, developing an app can be a challenging process for app and software developers. But app builders use simple tools, requiring only the app type, features, user interaction format, and a rough idea of your preferred design.
A word of caution however: in December 2017, Apple banned apps made from templates from the App Store, only to swiftly backtrack two weeks later when it realized the havoc the decision was wreaking on smaller businesses, which don’t have the budget for a fully customized app.
Apple’s rules currently read:
4.2.6 Apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected unless they are submitted directly by the provider of the app’s content. These services should not submit apps on behalf of their clients and should offer tools that let their clients create customized, innovative apps that provide unique customer experiences.
This means you, the app owner, will have to create a publisher account and publish the app independently as well as paying the publishing fees. Nonetheless, app builders have adapted to the change in rules, and have created upgraded features that will make sure you are the main creator of your content, ensuring your name is listed as a publisher, and, therefore, qualifying to launch your app on the App Store.
Having laid out the main characteristics of what defines app builders, let us now understand how app makers really work, and how you can leave it to them to do the heavy lifting.
How can I build my mobile app?
Championed by original blogging platforms, such as WordPress, app makers allow non-coders to design their application with visual interfaces, by dragging and dropping pre-coded elements and selecting themes, color schemes and designs. Meanwhile, the app making software “codes” the resulting application in the background, ready for review and publication – simple.
Some app builders even go as far as trawling a pre-existing website to import content directly onto the mobile application once your app is made. Making an app with pre-coded elements means the majority of them are coded in HTML5, the mobile-friendly language.
App builders allow your app to be instantly accessible from any mobile web browser. Moreover, if you want apps native to iOS and Android, hiring an app builder to make your app from scratch might be the best way to go. Indeed, only a few app development companies offer native apps “out of the box”.
Some of the app maker software is also available if you wish to create and sell applications as a business, offering a price plan to become resellers that use their own software platforms. However, for a small-to-medium sized company looking to enter the mobile market, these concerns might be secondary, and there are a number of app builders out there that will make the perfect mobile application according to their needs.
Today, the most sophisticated app builders offer a number of features on top of the basic app building ones, such as the following:
- Reporting
- Testing
- Debugging
- Consulting
- Educational programs
How can I benefit from app makers?
There are currently more than 6 billion smartphone subscriptions worldwide, with China, India and the United States accounting for the highest number of smartphone users. This number keeps growing year on year, meaning that the need to build apps to maximize success for your business is greater than before.
App builders can help develop a product just in time to boost those conversions and start making revenue.
As mentioned earlier, there are plenty of advantages to templated apps: someone with no coding experience can use the app maker to design, and launch a functioning application in very little time, keeping full control of the creative process, without paying for an entire development cycle.
But let’s dive deeper into the benefits of using app builders to understand how useful application makers truly are.
App builders – pros & cons
Naturally, there are pros and cons to working with an application maker. Moreover, hiring an app development team can be rather costly, with a sea full of developers to choose from. So, app builders can be extremely beneficial, especially if you are looking to develop a straightforward app for your business.
With the constantly evolving app market, you want to get an app out there quickly to increase user interaction and brand awareness. App builders offer the additional benefit of helping you achieve just that as well as expanding your business opportunities without having to waste your budget entirely on the app development process itself.
So, let’s take a look at how much it will actually cost you to use an app builder.
How much does it cost to build an app?
Publishing paid-for applications in Apple’s App Store has a yearly cost of $99, while Google Play has a one-time fee of $25 that cannot be avoided. Paid plans provided by such app builders usually range from $159/month for basic
Paid plans provided by certain app builders range from $159/month for a basic growth plan, to $424/month for the enterprise plan. When it comes to managed services the price range goes way up – from $999/month to $7,500/month. These prices are in the same ballpark as paying to a hired app development company.
These numbers are certainly tentative, as several factors come into play when determining the actual cost, including the app type, functionality and complexity. Nonetheless, top app builders offer flexible and affordable price plans for you to choose from, depending on the standards and requirements of your individual mobile app – all you need is to select the best app maker.
What are the best app builders?
App builders are useful if you have little to no coding or design experience, and are looking to get an app up in the near future. They can cut down the typical duration of the usual app development lifecycle, offering a wide range of online app making tools that make it easier to create and design a functioning app that will make your product and services accessible to users quickly.
Here is a list of the best app builders you can work with to create a mobile app. We collected a list that combines a variety of budgets, features and tools that will suit your mobile app and secure the long-term sustainability of your business.
List of the top app builders
Appery.io is the first mobile platform that offers a cloud-based rapid enterprise mobile app development environment with integrated backend services and a rich catalog of API plug-ins that dramatically simplify integration with cloud services and enterprise systems. It combines the simplicity of visual development with the power of JavaScript to create cross-platform enterprise apps rapidly. Because the platform is 100% cloud-based, you can focus on creating great applications, while we worry about maintaining the platform.
- 500,000+ registered users
- 10+ years on the market
- 10,000 + published apps
- Cross-platform
- Collaboration tools to build apps by a team
AppQuantum
We are a team of gamedev specialists who are striving to skyrocket your game.
| Founded | Employees | Social | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 101-200 | 690 |
ShoutEm is a powerful tool to create mobile applications which asks no coding skills of the creator. From content to advertising, from e-commerce to social apps, the platform provides you with a simple drag-and-drop interface to create the application, and gives you the tools to preview it natively and in real time. While basic apps are coded in HTML5, the scaling price plans also allows for native apps in iOS, Android and iPad.
ShoutEm also offers analytics tracking for your application, keeping tabs on active users, sessions, shout outs, check ins and more data points, as well as including a content management system, a variety of modules to monetize your users such as promotions and advertising.
- Automated publishing to App Store and Google Play, free republishing and updates
- 4-tier price plan covers all levels of customization for your app
- High profile clients include T-Mobile, USA Today and Digital First Media
GoodBarber
Native apps Progressive Web App Builder for eCommerce and Content Management.
GoodBarber is an app builder created in 2011, delivering a tool which allows to create robust and powerful apps, with the best design and user experience out there. With GoodBarber, you can make native iOS apps, native Android apps, and Progressive Web Apps, which are the latest, most advanced mobile technology. The platform can be used by a wide range of projects and organizations—from local businesses, to radio stations, to magazines, to non-profits, and more. Digital agencies are also a main user of the platform, taking advantage of the solid, reliable technology and flexible customization options to make and sell apps to clients via the white-label reseller program.
With 30,000 apps published with the platform, GoodBarber is a tool you can trust with your business’s digital identity. Not only will end-users enjoy the top-notch design options and a wide range of features that can be added to the app, but the app creator will be pleasantly surprised with how easy it is to use the back office to create and maintain an engaging application. Given the indispensability of a mobile presence, no business should have to decide between breaking the bank or having a low-quality app—that’s why GoodBarber’s mission is to give everyone access to the opportunity to create an exceptional product worthy of representing them.
- Allows to build a shopping app with offline payment system, local delivery by zip code, in-store pickup, time slots, store locator, push notifications, discounts, one-click checkout, permanent cart, quick share and more.
- 30,000+ apps are built with the platform
GameSalad is a free, drag and drop game creation engine for the development of iPhone, iPad, Android, Tizen & HTML5 games. Using GameSalad developers can test games on Apple devices (no coding required) and publish games to the App Store. The engine is also powered by a complex behavior library to enable creative freedom for game designers. Plus to business objectives, GameSalad team has a noble goal to enable anyone to engage with STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) and learn Computer Science through video game creation.
One of GameSalad’s main features is it’s testing tool, the In-App Previewer, which can be used to test game logic and behavior sets. Its web publishing system allows for quick and easy cross-platform publishing to supported targets including iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle, Nook, Windows 8 and Mac desktop. Developers can also instantly publish games to the HTML5 powered GameSalad Arcade
- Create, test and publish iPhone, iPad, Android, Tizen and HTML5 games
- In-App Previewer to test game logic and behavior sets
- Cross-platform publishing available for ebook readers, Windows 8 and Mac desktop
Fliplet is an enterprise-focused app making solution designed to make mobile applications for your business without any knowledge of coding or programming. Once your app is designed with a simple click-and-edit browser interface and using a number of ready-made templates, it can be shared internally in your company or via the Fliplet Viewer application.
Fliplet’s pre-coded features are built around the needs of a company, and include sales and marketing features such as client proposals and project overviews, as well as suites of features for event organizing, project management, promotion and others. Apps can also link to external PDFs or websites and can always be customised to make navigation and use as easy as possible.
- Free plan to build an app for a small number of users
- Team plan (from 65 euro per month and up)
- Enterprise plan (from 1,300 euro per month and up)
- Manage privacy and access settings, deciding which employees can access which app
- Audio and video streaming supported, as well as visualization of charts and graphs
- Return to Office app built in collaboration with 25 customers that businesses to return to the office after COVID-19 lockdown.
Appy Pie is a mobile app-development software platform with the aim of minimizing the amount of coding you have to do yourself. The software is entirely cloud based and requires no installation. The Appy Pie team is on a mission to democratize mobile app development process and let small companies access quality app development building tools cheaper than hiring an outside app development team would require.
Its basic service is free, but will only produce games and apps compatible with HTML 5. The paid versions of the program will add iOS and Android support, remove Appy Pie branding from your application and include other features such as push notifications, real-time updates, and analytics, depending on the price plan.
- Drag-and-drop interface means no coding skills required.
- Four different price plans to only pay for the support you want.
- Paid version always provides customer support and one-time free submission.
- The entire app building process takes only 3 steps.
AppsGeyser is a web platform that allows converting any web content into an Android App in 2 easy steps. It is a Android-only codeless application development platform that lets users create template-based mobile apps based on content pulled from webpages. The AppsGeyser tool is easy to use and bundles social sharing, tabs, messaging and full support for HTML5 enhancements.
On top of the free plan, it offers 3 paid plans – Master ($10 / month to remove ads and get a number of extra features, including premium support), Business ($10 / month for the same features as the Master plan minus support) and Individual plan ($5 / month for the Master plan set of features).
- The platform can pull content from webpages, YouTube channels, RSS feeds and other sources
- Create an app in 3 simple steps and you’ll be ready to monetize it in no time
- Choose your own themes and templates from a wide selection
- On average 7,000+ apps being created with AppsGeyser daily
- To date 6,000000+ apps were created with the platform in total
Zoho Creator is a low-code app development platform that lets you launch custom, mobile-ready apps. Create your own applications to automate workflows, internal processes, and manage databases.
Zoho Creator offers a first of its kind drag-n-drop interface to create tables/forms, design, schedule workflows and perform a variety of automated actions.
Zoho Creator’s powerful tools for data collection and management, analysis, reporting and collaboration for small to large organizations to run their business online, without any additional costs, infrastructure, or software.
Zoho Creator is used by more than 2 million users, and 3 million apps have been already created. Don’t let complex looking workflows and business rules scare you.
- Used by well known brands such as Whirlpool, Audible
- Zoho Creator app builder has 7 million users
- Workflow automation
Swiftic‘s solution to app building comes with the standard drag-and-drop interface but adds a suite of tools for monetization of your application.
Strongly business-oriented, it comes with a wide knowledge base and dedicated support teams, a highly customizable price plan and a 30-day money back guarantee, though its yearly plans do not include publishing costs to the App Store and Google Play.
- Monthly plan ($39 / month), Yearly plan ($33 / month – paid once a year), 2 Year plan ($29 / month – paid once every 2 years)
- Over 25 features
- Push Notifications
- Coupons & loyalty cards support
- Promotional toolkit to attract new customers