How to create your own app? Pro­gram­ming vs. app builder

When it comes to building an app, one common dilemma is whether to develop it yourself or use an app builder. De­vel­op­ing the app yourself gives you complete control, flex­ib­il­ity, and the ability to create custom features. On the other hand, app builders offer a fast and easy solution without the need for pro­gram­ming skills. The best choice depends on your goals, budget, and the technical re­quire­ments of the app.

Which makes more sense? App pro­gram­ming vs app maker

Choosing the software for de­vel­op­ing your app is a sig­ni­fic­ant decision and should be carefully con­sidered. The tra­di­tion­al option—pro­gram­ming through a specific platform—generally offers the most pos­sib­il­it­ies for creating an app. However, basic pro­gram­ming knowledge is not suf­fi­cient; suc­cess­ful app creators often have years of ex­per­i­ence in the field. Beginners need to acquire sub­stan­tial found­a­tion­al skills before they can handle app coding with a pro­gram­ming language on their own.

For pro­gram­ming, de­velopers typically use an In­teg­rated De­vel­op­ment En­vir­on­ment (IDE). An IDE for app de­vel­op­ment provides a range of tools, such as a Software De­vel­op­ment Kit (SDK), editor, debugger, compiler, and emulator, among others. These tools help pro­gram­mers create apps, but using them ef­fect­ively requires pro­fi­ciency in the re­spect­ive pro­gram­ming language.

App builders follow a similar approach to the now very popular and wide­spread website builders. With an app building software, you don’t need pro­gram­ming knowledge, as they operate on the WYSIWYG (‘What You See Is What You Get’) principle. Within a mobile app builder, you work with a graphical user interface that is ideally intuitive and easy to use. However, the design options are sig­ni­fic­antly more limited than with an IDE. An app maker includes only a small selection of program commands that are ac­cess­ible through the graphical interface and can be in­teg­rated into the user interface.

How to create a native mobile app on your own through pro­gram­ming

If you want to develop a complex, tech­nic­ally demanding, or graph­ic­ally intensive Native Mobile App, using an IDE is in­dis­pens­able—native app builders are not suitable for this. Ad­di­tion­ally, pro­cessing large volumes of data and using many native device functions (e.g., ori­ent­a­tion and motion sensors) are tasks an app creator generally cannot handle.

Working with an in­teg­rated de­vel­op­ment en­vir­on­ment not only offers more pos­sib­il­it­ies to create an app but is also free. Companies like Apple and Google provide top-notch IDEs at no cost. The reason is simple—a wide range of ap­plic­a­tions makes a platform at­tract­ive to users. Therefore, it benefits the teams behind iOS and Android when as many de­velopers as possible work on and publish new apps for their operating systems. Fur­ther­more, this is part of the providers’ business model. Both Apple and Google receive a fee for every paid app sold through their app stores.

When de­vel­op­ing a native app, you typically use a specific IDE for each platform, which increases the workload. For instance, if you want your app to be available on both Android and iOS, you need to write separate code for each version. While there are in­teg­rated de­vel­op­ment en­vir­on­ments like .NET MAUI that allow you to program native Android, iOS, and Windows apps using mostly the same code, these IDEs are ex­cep­tions. They require different pro­gram­ming ap­proaches, such as Xamarin, which uses the C# pro­gram­ming language.

Pro­gram­ming basics for Android apps

Android apps are based on a Java-com­pat­ible framework. Kotlin is now con­sidered the official and re­com­men­ded pro­gram­ming language by Google. If you are not familiar with Kotlin but have knowledge of Java or C++, you should be able to adapt quickly to pro­gram­ming with Kotlin since the languages are quite similar.

The most widely used IDE by far for pro­gram­ming an Android app is Android Studio. It is the official in­teg­rated de­vel­op­ment en­vir­on­ment for Android ap­plic­a­tions, available to everyone for free. Android Studio is part of the Android SDK (Software De­vel­op­ment Kit) and can be used on various operating systems. There are Android Studio versions for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux. A pre­requis­ite for app de­vel­op­ment with the IDE is an installed version of the Java De­vel­op­ment Kit, which can also be down­loaded for free. Android Studio is based on the popular de­vel­op­ment en­vir­on­ment IntelliJ IDEA.

Pro­gram­ming basics for iOS apps

To create an app for an iOS device, most de­velopers use Xcode—Apple’s official de­vel­op­ment en­vir­on­ment. It also allows you to program ap­plic­a­tions for macOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS. Xcode is available ex­clus­ively for the macOS operating system. Any Mac user can download it for free from Apple’s App Store with their Apple ID.

The IDE is part of the de­vel­op­ment package, which is also called Xcode. To dif­fer­en­ti­ate between the in­teg­rated de­vel­op­ment en­vir­on­ment and the de­vel­op­ment package, one is referred to as the Xcode IDE and the other as Xcode Tools. Ap­plic­a­tions are mainly developed using the modern pro­gram­ming language Swift and the SwiftUI framework, which greatly sim­pli­fies user interface de­vel­op­ment. Objective-C is still supported but is becoming less sig­ni­fic­ant. Ad­di­tion­ally, it’s possible to create ap­plic­a­tions in other pro­gram­ming languages like C, C++, and Java.

How to develop a native mobile app with an app creator

If you don’t have pro­gram­ming knowledge but still want to create and design your own app, an app maker might be the right tool for you. There are now many different providers whose app-building kits can ef­fect­ively bring some app ideas to life. However, unlike the official IDEs from Google and Apple, most app building kits are not free to use.

Nearly all app makers are based on a business model where customers pay a monthly fee for using the builder and hosting the final ap­plic­a­tion. With some providers, the monthly fee already includes offering the app in the platform’s official app store—while others require an ad­di­tion­al (usually one-time) payment for this. However, you can often create and test your app for free with the builder and only pay when you publish the app.

So what do you get for your money with an app creator? Generally, ap­plic­a­tions that mainly feature text and images are easy to create with an app builder. These builders are par­tic­u­larly suitable for small to medium-sized busi­nesses and or­gan­isa­tions that want to use the app to inform about products, services, or specific topics. Many app makers also support the creation of online stores, making it possible to build shopping apps as well.

Fur­ther­more, RSS feeds and push no­ti­fic­a­tions are features of many app builders. They are suitable for designing a news app or an ap­plic­a­tion that informs about events. Other device functions like geotar­get­ing or in­cor­por­at­ing the camera into an app are also possible with some providers, albeit with some lim­it­a­tions.

Many features that are common in other apps are difficult to implement, if not im­possible, with an app maker. The in­teg­ra­tion of native device functions such as the camera, mi­cro­phone, or Bluetooth is highly limited, or may not even be possible. Some features, like using the smart­phone’s ac­cel­er­o­met­er, are not supported at all. Video games are also chal­len­ging to create with standard app-building kits. Although there are now providers spe­cial­ising in app games, such as GameSalad, they mostly offer access to pre-made 2D graphics and pre­defined game world elements.

How do app makers work?

The limited func­tion­al­ity of an app creator compared to an in­teg­rated de­vel­op­ment en­vir­on­ment is not sur­pris­ing—after all, the app design options offered are pre-made command chains of the pro­gram­ming language used. App builders provide certain program commands of a pro­gram­ming language (or the com­pon­ents composed from them) through a graphical user interface, making them ac­cess­ible and usable for non-experts. Ul­ti­mately, an app maker includes a specific set of actions that users can use to create an app. These systems are often referred to as no-code or low-code platforms because they either com­pletely eliminate the need for pro­gram­ming or reduce it to a minimum.

An app builder is like a section in a travel guide that gives you key words and phrases in the local language. With these language templates, you can get by in emer­gen­cies and specific situ­ations. However, beyond these templates, it becomes chal­len­ging to fully com­mu­nic­ate in the foreign language.

Like a phrase­book, an app builder system contains various in­struc­tions that you can use (e.g., to insert images) even if you don’t fully un­der­stand the pro­gram­ming language. The commands are triggered through the graphical user interface, such as a drag-and-drop feature, and trans­lated by the program without your in­ter­ven­tion. Since an app builder uses only part of the pro­gram­ming language’s vocab­u­lary or only a few commands are prepared for the user interface, users have only a certain number of app functions available to them.

9 re­com­men­ded app builders

The app makers listed here are all software designed for creating native mobile apps. With each of these builders, you can develop both Android and iOS ap­plic­a­tions. Some also allow the creation of web apps or websites. The software is user-friendly and can be operated directly in the browser.

The price range of the app builders is re­l­at­ively wide, with each of the programs offering different packages in various price segments.

With each of the nine app builders, you can integrate social media channels like Facebook or X into your ap­plic­a­tion and implement streaming platforms like YouTube or Sound­Cloud. Ad­di­tion­ally, you can test all the listed app builder systems before paying for their use. Below, we focus on the unique features of each app builder.

AppMa­chine

AppMa­chine is an app builder that supports both iOS and Android ap­plic­a­tions. This app maker is par­tic­u­larly notable for its ability to transfer data from Google Sheets or Excel directly into your app. This allows many basic app contents to be easily imported from there.

Fur­ther­more, AppMa­chine offers a re­mark­able number of design options and templates, as well as a clear present­a­tion and operation of the various app features. Ad­di­tion­ally, AppMa­chine supports de­velopers in pub­lish­ing and marketing their own app. However, the native app builder does come at a cost—AppMa­chine is po­si­tioned in the higher price segment of app builders.

AppY­our­self

AppY­our­self, the app creator from a German company, also made it onto our list. It stands out mainly because, depending on the package, you can use a design service when creating an app. You simply inform them about your vision for the app, and they provide you with a completed app builder app with no effort on your part.

Another standout feature is hosting on European servers, ensuring that all personal data is processed in com­pli­ance with the GDPR (General Data Pro­tec­tion Reg­u­la­tion). It offers a straight­for­ward editor for app creation, but the design options are more limited compared to other systems.

Flut­ter­Flow

With Flut­ter­Flow, you get a no-code/low-code platform that allows you to create apps for Android, iOS, and the web from a single visual editor. The solution is based on Google’s Flutter framework and allows both drag-and-drop UI creation and the export of clean Dart code, which is ad­vant­age­ous for pro­gram­mers. Ad­di­tion­ally, the app maker offers AI support, which can further simplify the workflow.

Es­pe­cially con­veni­ent is the in­teg­ra­tion of database and API con­nec­tions (e.g., to Firebase or Supabase), which allows func­tion­al­it­ies like au­then­tic­a­tion or push no­ti­fic­a­tions to be im­ple­men­ted without deep pro­gram­ming knowledge. However, Flut­ter­Flow remains chal­len­ging for an app builder when highly cus­tom­ised functions or high-per­form­ance native features are required.

Good­Barber

This native app builder for iOS and Android ap­plic­a­tions stands out with its versatile design options. You can select from a range of pro­fes­sion­ally designed templates that are easy to customise. Good­Barber also excels by offering various add-ons that enhance func­tion­al­ity, including geofen­cing, iBeacons, and community man­age­ment. Ad­di­tion­ally, the in­teg­ra­tion of AI allows for faster content creation and improved SEO op­tim­isa­tion.

The app maker also allows you to work on an app with multiple de­velopers – in­di­vidu­al team members can be assigned different roles (such as ad­min­is­trat­or or user). Those looking to create a shopping app will find a special offer for this purpose. Apps can be developed for Android, iOS, and for the web (as a Pro­gress­ive Web App).

Mobincube

With Mobincube, you get one of the few app builders that lets you create a fully func­tion­al native app and offer it for free. The free version includes a sur­pris­ing number of features and templates, though it comes with ad­vert­ise­ments.

If you opt for a paid package, you can earn money from these ads yourself because Mobincube has its own ad network that displays ads in the app. When a user clicks an ad displayed in your app, you receive a small amount. In the paid but still af­ford­able packages, you can disable these ads and access a wider range of features and templates.

Shoutem

Two features stand out at Shoutem. First, you can use specially developed social media functions to create your own community platform. Second, Shoutem connects to various ad networks, offering numerous options for in-app ad­vert­ising. This app builder for Android and iOS is also known for its ease of use. Ad­di­tion­ally, shopping systems can be easily in­teg­rated with Shoutem, allowing you to link the app with Shopify for syn­chron­ised sales across different platforms.

With many templates that can all be tailored to in­di­vidu­al pref­er­ences, you can already create a very good app design. You can achieve even more com­plex­ity with Shoutem for De­velopers. Here, you can also access the source code to add even more features.

Bravo Studio

Bravo Studio is an app maker primarily aimed at designers. The no-code platform allows you to transform your Figma or Adobe XD designs into fully func­tion­al native iOS and Android apps with ap­pro­pri­ate mobile app design, without any pro­gram­ming knowledge.

With Bravo Studio, users can turn their UI designs directly into apps by using Bravo Tags. These tags link the design elements to in­ter­act­ive features such as nav­ig­a­tion, push no­ti­fic­a­tions, and API in­teg­ra­tions. The platform also supports con­nect­ing to external data sources like Airtable, Firebase, and REST APIs to integrate dynamic content into the app.

A special feature of Bravo Studio is the ability to make design changes in real-time. Changes made in Figma or Adobe XD are auto­mat­ic­ally updated in the app, allowing for quick ad­just­ments. Ad­di­tion­ally, Bravo Studio offers a preview app called Bravo Vision, which lets users test their app directly on their smart­phone before pub­lish­ing.

Thunkable

Thunkable is an app maker that enables users to create native Android and iOS apps as well as web apps without any pro­gram­ming knowledge. With a visual drag-and-drop interface and extensive block pro­gram­ming, both beginners and ex­per­i­enced de­velopers can create in­ter­act­ive and func­tion­al apps.

The platform offers a variety of com­pon­ents like buttons, lists, maps, and APIs that can be easily in­teg­rated into the app. For more complex logic, users can employ block pro­gram­ming to define con­di­tions, loops, and events, or work with the AI assistant. This provides a high level of flex­ib­il­ity and ad­apt­ab­il­ity for the apps developed.

SAP Build Apps

SAP Build Apps offers full-stack pro­gram­ming on a visual basis. The de­vel­op­ment en­vir­on­ment Composer Pro allows users to create pixel-perfect user in­ter­faces, implement complex logic, and integrate APIs without writing a single line of code.

With SAP Build Apps, you have the op­por­tun­ity to create an app for various platforms such as Web, iOS, and Android without having to write code sep­ar­ately for each platform. Seamless in­teg­ra­tion into your SAP system is, of course, easily achiev­able.

Overview of native app builders

Direct com­par­is­on of self-pro­gram­ming vs template

Imagine a small café wants to create a mobile app to inform its customers about offers, events, and loyalty programs. If the café were to program the app itself, it would first need to hire a de­vel­op­ment team to create both the iOS and Android versions. The costs would be high, and the de­vel­op­ment time could take several months. Ad­di­tion­ally, updates and ad­just­ments would need to be im­ple­men­ted by pro­fes­sion­als, which means ad­di­tion­al effort.

If the café chooses an app maker, it can design the app itself within a few weeks. Templates, modules, and drag-and-drop features simplify im­ple­ment­a­tion, even without technical expertise. Depending on the provider, features like push no­ti­fic­a­tions, menu displays, or location in­teg­ra­tion are often pre­defined and ready to use. The costs are pre­dict­able and much lower than a pro­fes­sion­al de­vel­op­ment project. Ad­just­ments or ex­pan­sions can also be made quickly and flexibly.

The trade-off is that app maker solutions can be limited in cus­tom­isa­tion and complex features, while custom-pro­grammed apps can be precisely tailored to specific needs. For small busi­nesses or projects with limited budgets and clear re­quire­ments, an app maker is often the more efficient option. However, those who need full control, complex features, or deep in­teg­ra­tions will benefit from the tra­di­tion­al de­vel­op­ment approach. Ul­ti­mately, the decision depends on available resources, timelines, and the desired func­tion­al­ity.