DIY App Builders - Why Saving A Few Bucks Can Hurt Your Business

The mobile app market is exploding like never before, and as a result, every small business wants to leverage its potential to expand their presence in the world.

However, most small businesses don’t often have the in-house expertise or the capital to outsource their mobile app development project to an agency.

This has led many business owners to opt for DIY app builders to build their dream app.

According to a survey, 38% of small businesses have used a DIY App Builder to build their mobile apps.

While the option to build a mobile app for substantial low price sounds perfect on paper, but this route is actually more expensive and often leads to failure.

In this blog, we will explain what these DIY App Builders are and share 6 reasons why you should not use them to build a mobile app for your small business.

What are DIY App Builders?

DIY App Builders are basically online platforms that make it possible to create a mobile app without any coding experience.

These platforms basically have a drag-and-drop editor and some pre-defined templates that allow users to select themes and add features according to their preferences.

To use a DIY app builder, you need to pay a fixed amount of subscription fees on a monthly or yearly basis. These fees range from a few hundred dollars to a thousand or more dollars, depending on the complexity of your mobile app.

That being said, let’s look at the most popular DIY app builders.

Top DIY App Builders in The Market

Building mobile apps has certainly become much easier with DIY app makers.

Now, anyone can easily build and publish an app using one of these DIY app builders listed below.

Appypie

Appypie is the most popular DIY app maker available in the market today. In this platform, all you need to do is drag and drop your preferred features in its web interface to build your mobile app.

The price of Appypie starts from $30 USD per app per month and goes all the way up to $200 USD per app per month.

BuildFire

BuildFire is another powerful DIY app builder that has gained huge popularity in the market. The platform claims to have built over 10,000 mobile apps and has 10 million users.

The price of BuildFire starts from $53 USD per month to $500 USD per month.

AppInstitute

AppInstitute is a cloud-based DIY app maker which is often referred to as the ‘WordPress for mobile apps’. Founded in 2011, AppInstitute has now grown to over 140K users.

The price of AppInstitute starts from $42 USD per month to $340 USD per month and higher.

While these platforms may seem like an easy and quick solution for building your mobile app, but it’s always better to go with the traditional approach instead of using DIY app builders.

Here are the top 6 reasons why you should not use DIY app builders to build your business mobile app.

6 Reasons Why You Should Not Use DIY App Builders

The whole drag and drop technique to build a mobile app is indeed fast and fun, but most of the DIY app builders have too many drawbacks.

Let’s discuss these drawbacks and see why building mobile apps using DIY app makers is not worth it after all.

1 – It Violates Apple’s Guidelines

If you’re planning to build an iOS app using a DIY app builder, then the first thing you should know is that your mobile app will have a higher risk of being rejected from Apple App Store.

In 2017, Apple had updated its App Store Submission guidelines to widen its ban on templated apps that are being created using App generation services.

The main reason for bringing this update is because whenever an app gained instant popularity, hundreds of its clone apps were created and flooded the App Store.

As a result, the original creators were losing huge revenues.

So now, Apple has started to ban apps created using app generation services and has made it necessary to build mobile apps with the custom approach.

2 – They Actually Cost More In The Long Run

The subscription fees of DIY app builders may seem cheaper for developing mobile apps but that’s only in the beginning.

If you look at its cost from a long-term point of view, then it turns out to be more expensive than the traditional custom development approach.

For example, you will have to continually pay the annual subscription fees until your mobile app lives in the App Store. On the other hand, you will have to pay a one-time cost in the custom app development approach.

So, when you compare the long-term cost, the custom approach is quite cheaper actually.

3 – Limited Customization

No matter what all DIY app makers claim, you just cannot have the level of customization the custom approach offers.

Custom development allows building an app at any scale as well as usability, while in DIY app builders the options are often limited. You cannot have every possible customization even if you go with the most advanced subscription in DIY app maker platforms.

Simply put, after spending thousands of dollars on an app generation service, you might still end up with a mobile app in a web view which cannot take the full advantage of smartphone’s hardware & OS capabilities to its fullest.

Therefore, it’s always best to spend a little more in the beginning and take advantage of all of the hardware and operating system capabilities.

4 – Security Issues

Security is often users’ primary concern and if you build your mobile app using the custom approach, then you can easily double-check its level of security.

DIY app builders, on the other hand, don’t fully clarify their level of security. Hence, you’ll always be in dark as to whether the platform has a standard level of security or not.

So, if you’re serious about the security concern, then custom development is the right approach.

5 – Nothing Unique

If you’ve decided to use DIY app builder just because most of your competitors have done the same, then how are you going to stand-out?

In today’s competition, you just can’t expect to win users through a templated mobile app.

DIY app makers can’t really design a truly unique UI. They often provide a list of theme templates, which are most likely to used by your competitors as well.

What custom approach can do is just unmatchable by DIY app makers, especially when it comes to UI/UX design.

6 – Supports Limited Devices

Even though DIY app makers allow to create apps for multiple devices and operating systems, there is no guarantee that your app will work smoothly in all OS and devices.

As a result, you’ll end up neglecting a large number of devices, losing thousands of users along the way.

Custom app development approach, on the other hand, allows you to target and cater to a large number of audience with smooth user experience.

Conclusion

The development of your business mobile app is the foundation of the growth of your business. And if you make compromises by using any of the DIY app builders, then the end result might not be the best for your business.

Custom application development, on the other hand, can definitely be expensive in the beginning, but you can always outsource your mobile app development project to a different country where the costs are often lower.