How often have you felt like not cooking on exhausting workdays? You are aware that even if you don’t cook, you have options available in the form of going out to a restaurant or ordering food online. That way you get the elusive resting time you yearn for, while also calming your stomach’s calls. Alternatives surround us, and they are a testament to the fact that we have rapidly evolved the technology we use to fulfil our needs in a better way.
Talking of technology, the mobile app sector is witnessing exponential growth. Your business, without a mobile app, has little chance of growing beyond the proverbial glass ceiling. Isn’t it relieving that there are alternatives to hiring human developers to build your app? Yes, there are, what we can simply call “mobile app building software”. These operate in the same way as website builders, (like how WordPress functions). However, there remains a question: How viable of an option are these app builders?
Let us consider their pros and cons, and then we’ll see when and to what extent you can use app builder software for your products and services.
The Pros of Using App Builder Software
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Beginner Level Approach
Depending on the software you use and the level of customisation freedom it allows, you’ll find that you can get by with just beginner level coding knowledge, or even none. App builders usually offer a drag-and-drop interface for which you can choose a built-in template. Bonus points for you if you have some experience with app development, but it’s not a prerequisite.
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Economical Process
Hiring developers, freelancers or full-time, is an option that requires a big budget. Human app developers don’t come as cheap as an online app building software does. The inexpensiveness of this tool is the biggest deciding factor when an entrepreneur sets out to build an app.
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Faster Development
With the easy-to-explore user interfaces the best app builders offer, you can get your app up and running in a day or two. Even the fastest coder might not be able to make a functional application that fast. Such a high speed of development is mostly because you don’t have to build an app from scratch. Adding features and content is easier too, minus all the coding.
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Quick Updations
An app requires updates. Some need it more frequently than others, depending on the data they serve. Making updates available is fast and easy with the app building service you used for creating that app. You can even do it for different platforms your app is on simultaneously.
It’s not all roses and butterflies when you develop an app with software. You should know the bumps that you’ll encounter on this road.
The Cons of Using App Builder Software
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Cost of Beginner Level Approach
A chief advantage that app builders offer is the ease of development, which is great for beginners. However, this approach blocks access to a lot of tweaks and modifications that could enhance your app. The service providers don’t usually share the source codes which is a big bump.
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Shared Ownership
Keeping the previous point in mind, do you think that the app is all yours when you build it using a third-party tool? It isn’t, no matter how persuasively they claim to give you complete ownership. You share data with them, they store it and share the app’s ownership with you. It’s not an entirely bad thing, but you should know what you’re getting into.
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Non-Transferable
Once you build your app on a platform of your choice, you cannot transfer it somewhere else. You have to build the app again on another platform to shift there. It’s wise to choose an app builder carefully.
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Rising Charges
To build an app on any online developer tool or platform, you have to subscribe to a package which allows you storage of data, processing of queries, and other features to launch your app. However, if your app gets good reception, you would have to buy a bigger package to handle it. The software company might also release new features that you would have to pay for.
Weighing the pros and cons against each other leads to interesting observations. It also helps you understand when to use an app builder and when to rely on human developers.
When should you use an app builder?
- When the app is for a temporary purpose. For instance, an event app is a great way to organise and keep track of your attendees. Eventify is a great tool for that purpose.
- When you don’t plan for major changes in the future. You can build an app just to offer a basic service which would remain constant.
- When you just want to test the waters. The volatile app market is not for slackers. You can build a small app just to gauge the market and get a feel about the audience you would target in the future with your planned app.
Building an app from scratch is no joke. So when you have a groundbreaking idea, it’s advisable not to use an app builder. Human developers might charge more but the product would be more like you want it to be. You would have more control on the UI and UX of the app. You would also have to pick up some coding knowledge and best practices for yourself in the process. The app would belong to you, truly. Having your own developer or a team of developers is your best bet to converting a big idea into a great app. For everything else, there’s an app builder.
Hussain Fakhruddin
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