Mobile app makers review

A friend came to me recently with the idea of creating a mobile app that would support the learning platform that he already has. We discussed what features he wanted and what his budget was. The budget was tight, as is normal for any small and medium enterprise and I realized that developing the app from scratch was not an option. Mobile app makers to the rescue!

I knew that there should be some mobile app generators on the market, but I had no idea what features they offered and at what cost. Actually, I only knew that they “had” to exist. I was thinking that I’ll find a few online platforms tackling this problem. To my surprise, I discovered that there were more than mature 20 platforms, all offering similar features. I soon found out that the industry, of mobile app makers, is quite mature: there are reviews and comparisons and top10's.

Soon after I started reading I understood that all those articles will not help me with my problem: determine how much it would cost to run such an app. The reason is that the platforms are vastly diverse in terms of their offering: different prices for similar, but not always the same set of app features. The services included in the contract and the actual terms would also vary greatly. I had to make my own research and comparison, based on the needs of the friend.

In this post, I’m sharing the results of the research that I’ve done. Disclaimer: 1) I only used this article as a source for mobile app makers, so I might have missed a few. 2) My focus during the research was on the feature set that my friend needed, so if a feature isn’t there, it might still be available. 3) I only spent 10–15 minutes with each app builder platform, so I might have missed details that need more digging (or contacting customer support).

This comparison sheet is not detailed nor complete enough to allow me to select a “winner”. Instead, I will use it during the discussions with my friend to make a shortlist of 2–3 mobile app makers that I will investigate further.

If the table below is too hard to read, you can access the comparison sheet directly.