Let’s be honest, mobile applications became an integral part of our life. Whether it be a mobile version of catalogs and sites, business gliders, social networks, educational applications or utilities, we spend hours looking at the phone’s screen. Many services require a sophisticated approach to development, but some, such as applications for beauty salons, restaurants or small shops, can be created with simple drag-and-drop tools.

App Builders vs Native Development

If you’ve have been following tech news lately, you probably have heard about Airbnb’s unfortunate experience with React Native. Even such a big company as Airbnb couldn’t stand the unstable nature of hybrid mobile apps much long. For sure, cross-platform development in mobile offers some benefits, but it also adds some tricky issues, found here and there by numerous product companies worldwide.

Native would always be a preferable way of creating apps among developers. Not a surprise, we know. But the reasons are not only because it’s their job, but also because native apps provide unparalleled stability, performance and interaction opportunities.

Indisputable benefits of native development also bring up high costs for development, maintenance and updating of native apps. Also, there can be problems with getting the app approved in different stores, that is connected with following of their standards, policies, and guidelines. Furthermore, native apps are developed exclusively for a specific mobile platform, so to build iOS and Android versions, you need to create two separate apps.

There’s also another way, you can use app builder solutions. First of all, they allow saving time and development costs significantly by providing the majority of basic functions and sufficient quality, much like apps developed applying programming skills.

Another excellent feature of creating applications with the help of drag-and-drop tools is that they can be cross-platform. So, an app can be released on several platforms like iOS and Android simultaneously. Most app builders have the built-in integration with the social networks and CMS, allow to use GPS services, view the application analytics, as well as select ready-made application templates and place projects in app markets.

Which way to choose is up to you.

In our practice, we tried out many drag-and-drop app builders and even took part in the development of one of those, so we decided to make a list of the most efficient and functional tools for creating mobile applications.

1. AppyPie

Registered users: 1 000 000+

AppyPie is the leader in the market of drag-and-drop tools. It allows creating HTML5 based applications compatible with Android, iOS, Windows, and Blackberry. AppyPie is a cloud service that does not need download and installation. Pages of the app are created and linked in the visual constructor. This easy-to-use app builder contains functions for sending push-notifications, advertising monetization, analytics, integration with social accounts and other. AppyPie also makes possible to create mobile e-commerce applications compatible with shop platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify, and PrestaShop.

appypie.com

2. AppMachine

Registered users: 450 000+

AppMachine is a popular tool for the development of professional mobile applications for iOS and Android platforms. It differs from other app builders by the creation of exactly native applications. Broad functions and various app elements allow creating high-quality mobile applications by only dragging elements. AppMachine is full of opportunities to make a unique app design that could be changed anytime. This builder also has its own simulator for app testing and an analytics tracking system, which relieve the use of third-party services for this processes. Furthermore, for applications that need a multi-language option, AppMachine is the best decision.

appmachine.com

3. AppGyver

Registered users: 200 000+

AppGyver is a low-coding full-stack app platform designed basically for enterprises, that implies a high level of security and powerful permissions control at resource, record and column level. AppGyver obtains such primary features as drag-n-drop UI components and pre-built modules for iOS, Android, and Web versions. AppGyver could be easily connected to numerous data sources as APIs, databases, spreadsheets, web forms, 3rd-party platforms and enterprise systems. Its outstanding features are a powerful visual logic editor to create custom forms and draw logic chains, camera and location searching, and ability to operate with QR codes and barcodes. Mobile applications are another essential key for any business to promote their products or services. The basic rules for the success of any app is a visually appealing interface and extensive functionality. With the uprise of app building platforms and tools, now, creating an application has become less expensive and more simplistic. We hope that our list will help with choosing the most suitable tool for the implementation of your project.

appgyver.com

4. EachScape

Registered users: 35 000+

EachScape is a drag-n-drop platform generating true native source code. It doesn’t use templates and allows to create 100% custom iOS, Android, web-fueled and hybrid apps. The platform provides a great number of 3rd party integrations of social networks, ad serving, analytics, push notifications, location services, mailing. EachScape has flexible and powerful user manager to set access permissions. Developed applications could be easily connected to any CMS as well as automatically parse any RSS, XML, JSON and edit results of parsing. At the same time EachScape provides a wide range of possibilities to operate with media files such as downloading and uploading of photos/audio/video, streaming of audio/video and using of YouTube videos in apps.

eachscape.com

5. AppMakr

Registered users: not available

AppMakr is an online service for the creation of iOS, Android and Windows apps. It supports video streaming, chats and Google maps & location in mobile applications. In the intuitive information panel, it is easy to set up apps, add content, change the design and release the app in one click. Over 2 million mobile applications were created without using any programming code with this service. AppMakr is an effective tool to build a fully-fledged app in a short time without expenses and regardless of development skills.

appmakr.com

6. App Pile

Registered users: not available

At Collision 2018 we also met App Pile. It is the world’s first design-to-code platform that generates 100% native, ready to turn code based on Android Developer standards. There you can take Axure files and turn them into Android code or React Native project. App Pile supports almost all Axure elements as form controls, flow, icons and other. With this tool making of Android apps become easier and faster than development on Xamarin, Phone Gap and other frameworks. A great feature is that App Pile generates a static class that helps to quickly send emails, SMS, make calls and store data.

apppile.com

App Building Platforms Comparison Table

Let’s compare these tools to choose the most effective:

After our in-depth research AppyPie won the first place! It supports all platforms and has the most popular features to use in apps. But, other tools do not lag behind so now you can choose the appropriate one for your requirements!

Results

Mobile applications are another essential key for any business to promote their products or services. The basic rules for the success of any app is a visually appealing interface and extensive functionality. With the uprise of app building platforms and tools, now, creating an application has become less expensive and more simplistic. We hope that our list will help with choosing the most suitable tool for the implementation of your project.