eCommerce
Memberships
Online Courses
Bookings
Travel guide
Events
Employee Communication
Content Creators
Pickup & Delivery
Newspaper
Radio
Schools
Faith
Organizations
Restaurant
Grocery
Custom apps
PRODUCT RESOURCES
TOPICS
TECHNOLOGY
MOBILE APPS RESELLERS
DISCOVER
What are the advantages of no-code App builders for developing your business?
Written by Brenda Wokoma on
Every month, thousands of people decide to take the plunge and develop their business on mobile. Before taking the plunge, they often wonder whether choosing an app builder is the right choice. At GoodBarber, we're convinced that it is.
In this article, I'm going to outline the main benefits of App Builder for developing your business based on findings from our database analysis.
In this article, I'm going to outline the main benefits of App Builder for developing your business based on findings from our database analysis.
Reduce costs
App creation
When it comes to creating your app, you need to choose the ecosystem for which it will be distributed. Each distribution platform requires its own file format. So, if you want to offer your customers an iOS app and an Android app, you need to create not one, but two apps! The financial impact of this choice is not neutral.
Nevertheless, suppose you want to address your entire customer base. In that case, there's really no alternative but to make yourself available on the 2 market-leading distribution platforms (Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store).
If you have your app developed by a third party (freelance developer, agency, IT services company, etc.), they will charge you for creating both the iOS and Android apps. This is because each app is built in its own programming language (Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android). Different skills are, therefore, required to build each of the two apps.
With an App Builder, you design your app once, and the tool generates an iOS app and an Android app. So you get your 2 apps without having to do the work twice.
Note that GoodBarber also produces a progressive web app (PWA) in addition to the native iOS and Android apps, so you can also distribute your app on the Web, and not just in the Stores.
App maintenance and upgrades
The mobile world is changing fast. On the software side, Apple and Google update their phones' operating systems every year. On the hardware side, new handsets are launched every year, with ever more advanced features and new designs.
These new features have an impact on your application. You need to take them into account. For example, if your application is unable to work with a recent version of Android, Google may decide to remove it from the Play Store.
Similarly, when Apple introduces a new pixel density in its screens (retina display) or a new design in it (notch with iPhone X, dynamic island with iPhone 14 Pro), it's important to update your iOS app to take advantage of these innovations; otherwise the user experience you offer will be disappointing.
These annual maintenance fees are worth considering when you launch your app creation project. A third party will charge you for each intervention, and for each of your apps.
In the case of an app designed with an app builder, maintenance is included in your subscription. It's the app builder's job to keep the tool constantly up to date. What's more, the app builder usually notifies you when your app needs updating.
Cost of ownership divided by 10!
Since GoodBarber has been on the market, we've found that the cost of owning an app created and maintained via an app builder is, on average, 10 times lower than the cost of a traditionally developed app.
When it comes to creating your app, you need to choose the ecosystem for which it will be distributed. Each distribution platform requires its own file format. So, if you want to offer your customers an iOS app and an Android app, you need to create not one, but two apps! The financial impact of this choice is not neutral.
Nevertheless, suppose you want to address your entire customer base. In that case, there's really no alternative but to make yourself available on the 2 market-leading distribution platforms (Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store).
If you have your app developed by a third party (freelance developer, agency, IT services company, etc.), they will charge you for creating both the iOS and Android apps. This is because each app is built in its own programming language (Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android). Different skills are, therefore, required to build each of the two apps.
With an App Builder, you design your app once, and the tool generates an iOS app and an Android app. So you get your 2 apps without having to do the work twice.
Note that GoodBarber also produces a progressive web app (PWA) in addition to the native iOS and Android apps, so you can also distribute your app on the Web, and not just in the Stores.
App maintenance and upgrades
The mobile world is changing fast. On the software side, Apple and Google update their phones' operating systems every year. On the hardware side, new handsets are launched every year, with ever more advanced features and new designs.
These new features have an impact on your application. You need to take them into account. For example, if your application is unable to work with a recent version of Android, Google may decide to remove it from the Play Store.
Similarly, when Apple introduces a new pixel density in its screens (retina display) or a new design in it (notch with iPhone X, dynamic island with iPhone 14 Pro), it's important to update your iOS app to take advantage of these innovations; otherwise the user experience you offer will be disappointing.
These annual maintenance fees are worth considering when you launch your app creation project. A third party will charge you for each intervention, and for each of your apps.
In the case of an app designed with an app builder, maintenance is included in your subscription. It's the app builder's job to keep the tool constantly up to date. What's more, the app builder usually notifies you when your app needs updating.
Cost of ownership divided by 10!
Since GoodBarber has been on the market, we've found that the cost of owning an app created and maintained via an app builder is, on average, 10 times lower than the cost of a traditionally developed app.
Save Time !
By using an app builder to create your application, you'll save considerable time.
Accelerated design
An app builder generally has a library of ready-to-use components for designing your application. These components can be more or less elementary, or even very elaborate. This is the case, for example, with GoodBarber, which provides pre-designed pages for displaying lists of items or item details (articles, videos, podcasts, events, photos, geographical locations).
So there's no need to create pages from scratch. All you have to do is customize the look and feel of the components and activate the functionalities you need. This approach allows you to achieve high-quality results more quickly.
When it comes to adding content to the application, app builders offer integrated management tools. From a backoffice, you can enter your data in a structured way. The availability of a content management system (CMS) makes app builders a user-friendly, universally accessible tool for managing an application. This not only saves you time at the design stage, but also helps you bring your app to life on a day-to-day basis once it has been published.
Error-free design
The user experience (UX) offered by an app is a key factor in its success. Bear in mind that you are indirectly competing with apps from the internet giants (Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon, ...) because your audience uses them on a daily basis. These companies employ teams dedicated to improving UX, and their apps are so popular that they set a standard with which you have to compete to remain relevant.
An app builder also employs talented UX teams. Their job is to provide you with components that respect good UI design practices. By using them, not only are you guaranteed to make no mistakes, but you'll be offering a user experience in your app on a par with that of the Internet giants.
Create once, publish three times!
Building an app with an app builder means designing your app once, but getting enough to publish it across multiple distribution channels.
For example, at GoodBarber, at the end of the app compilation process, you get an .ipa file to publish your app on the Apple App Store, an .aab file to publish it on the Google Play Store, and you can link it to a domain name to publish it on the web as a Progressive Web App (PWA).
Here again, the time saved is appreciable.
To go even faster, you can mandate the app builder teams to take care of the Store publication process for you. This compulsory step results in your app being reviewed by Apple and Google, who then decide whether or not to publish it in their stores.
Our app builders are well-versed in this exercise, and will help you make sure you have every chance of being accepted. The teams in charge of publication carry out an in-depth examination of your app, suggesting improvements if necessary, and taking care of the administrative side of sending your app for review.
Accelerated design
An app builder generally has a library of ready-to-use components for designing your application. These components can be more or less elementary, or even very elaborate. This is the case, for example, with GoodBarber, which provides pre-designed pages for displaying lists of items or item details (articles, videos, podcasts, events, photos, geographical locations).
So there's no need to create pages from scratch. All you have to do is customize the look and feel of the components and activate the functionalities you need. This approach allows you to achieve high-quality results more quickly.
When it comes to adding content to the application, app builders offer integrated management tools. From a backoffice, you can enter your data in a structured way. The availability of a content management system (CMS) makes app builders a user-friendly, universally accessible tool for managing an application. This not only saves you time at the design stage, but also helps you bring your app to life on a day-to-day basis once it has been published.
Error-free design
The user experience (UX) offered by an app is a key factor in its success. Bear in mind that you are indirectly competing with apps from the internet giants (Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon, ...) because your audience uses them on a daily basis. These companies employ teams dedicated to improving UX, and their apps are so popular that they set a standard with which you have to compete to remain relevant.
An app builder also employs talented UX teams. Their job is to provide you with components that respect good UI design practices. By using them, not only are you guaranteed to make no mistakes, but you'll be offering a user experience in your app on a par with that of the Internet giants.
Create once, publish three times!
Building an app with an app builder means designing your app once, but getting enough to publish it across multiple distribution channels.
For example, at GoodBarber, at the end of the app compilation process, you get an .ipa file to publish your app on the Apple App Store, an .aab file to publish it on the Google Play Store, and you can link it to a domain name to publish it on the web as a Progressive Web App (PWA).
Here again, the time saved is appreciable.
To go even faster, you can mandate the app builder teams to take care of the Store publication process for you. This compulsory step results in your app being reviewed by Apple and Google, who then decide whether or not to publish it in their stores.
Our app builders are well-versed in this exercise, and will help you make sure you have every chance of being accepted. The teams in charge of publication carry out an in-depth examination of your app, suggesting improvements if necessary, and taking care of the administrative side of sending your app for review.
An app created in less than 15 days
We conducted a study on the speed of app creation. This study shows that for half of GoodBarber users, it takes less than 15 days from the moment they create their project to the first compilation of the app. This illustrates just how quickly a mobile app can be designed with an app builder.
We conducted a study on the speed of app creation. This study shows that for half of GoodBarber users, it takes less than 15 days from the moment they create their project to the first compilation of the app. This illustrates just how quickly a mobile app can be designed with an app builder.
Leveraging native technologies
In this paragraph, we'll explore the advantages of building a native application. There aren't many app builders on the market that allow you to create native apps. GoodBarber makes it possible, and you'll see that having a native app when doing eCommerce on mobile has many advantages.
Speed and fluidity
Native apps are faster than others. They are built in the technology specific to the phone on which they run, and are therefore interpreted immediately from a binary file installed on the phone. This is not the case for non-native applications, for which an interpretation layer is required between the technology used to build the application and that used by the phone. This interpretation layer slows down the execution of a non-native application compared to the execution of a native application.
The difference in speed is truly perceptible. Here's an example comparing a native app created with GoodBarber and a non-native app created with a competing app builder.
Navigation in native apps is smoother. This is because we developers, by building the application in the phone's language, have at our disposal a very extensive library of transition effects, gestures, haptic feedback, etc., which enable us to offer a pleasant, natural and intuitive user experience.
The speed and fluidity of use of an application are criteria of quality, perceived or induced, which enable you to stand out from the competition and offer the best experience to your user.
Speed and fluidity
Native apps are faster than others. They are built in the technology specific to the phone on which they run, and are therefore interpreted immediately from a binary file installed on the phone. This is not the case for non-native applications, for which an interpretation layer is required between the technology used to build the application and that used by the phone. This interpretation layer slows down the execution of a non-native application compared to the execution of a native application.
The difference in speed is truly perceptible. Here's an example comparing a native app created with GoodBarber and a non-native app created with a competing app builder.
Navigation in native apps is smoother. This is because we developers, by building the application in the phone's language, have at our disposal a very extensive library of transition effects, gestures, haptic feedback, etc., which enable us to offer a pleasant, natural and intuitive user experience.
The speed and fluidity of use of an application are criteria of quality, perceived or induced, which enable you to stand out from the competition and offer the best experience to your user.
Your customers prefer native apps
We studied a panel of 200,000 orders placed from 200 eCommerce applications designed with GoodBarber and published on the App Store, Google Play Store and the web.
Each of the 200 applications is offered in both native (iOS and Android) and web (PWA) versions.
The results of this study show that 73% of users prefer to make their purchases from the iOS or Android version of the app. The preference for using a native app, when it exists, is clear ! The preference for using a native app, when it exists, is clear!
We studied a panel of 200,000 orders placed from 200 eCommerce applications designed with GoodBarber and published on the App Store, Google Play Store and the web.
Each of the 200 applications is offered in both native (iOS and Android) and web (PWA) versions.
The results of this study show that 73% of users prefer to make their purchases from the iOS or Android version of the app. The preference for using a native app, when it exists, is clear ! The preference for using a native app, when it exists, is clear!
Fluidity and speed of use compared to mobile websites or hybrid applications are not the only reasons for this preference for native. The fact of offering an application integrated into an environment in which users feel confident to make online purchases also plays a role.
Native mobile applications are often perceived as being more secure, as they are generally subject to rigorous controls by the Stores. This lifts apprehension and translates into greater use of quick (1-click) payment methods in the app (Apple Pay, Google Pay, bank card registered in the app).
Native mobile applications are often perceived as being more secure, as they are generally subject to rigorous controls by the Stores. This lifts apprehension and translates into greater use of quick (1-click) payment methods in the app (Apple Pay, Google Pay, bank card registered in the app).
What's more, our study also reveals that loyal customers prefer to use the native version of your app. We identified that 65% of customers who make at least 2 purchases in an online store created with GoodBarber make their purchases from the native iOS or Android app.
Several features specific to native apps explain this statistic. Firstly, push notifications. The native app gives you a direct communication channel with your customers via push notifications. It's a way of strengthening the bond between your brand and your customers. Secondly, quick access from the device's home screen encourages recurring interactions, which is particularly advantageous for loyal customers who want quick access to products.
Several features specific to native apps explain this statistic. Firstly, push notifications. The native app gives you a direct communication channel with your customers via push notifications. It's a way of strengthening the bond between your brand and your customers. Secondly, quick access from the device's home screen encourages recurring interactions, which is particularly advantageous for loyal customers who want quick access to products.
Create your native app with an app builder in 2024!
Today, app builders are a highly advantageous solution for launching a business on mobile and creating a native application for iOS and Android.
They enable you to divide the cost of owning an app by 10, be on the market in less than 15 days and offer a shopping experience that rivals that of the major players in online mobile commerce.
73% of customers prefer to use a native app when available, compared to a mobile website. In 2024, you'll have no excuse not to offer your customers a native application. Don't wait any longer, your most loyal customers will be delighted to use it, and will place even more orders on your store!
They enable you to divide the cost of owning an app by 10, be on the market in less than 15 days and offer a shopping experience that rivals that of the major players in online mobile commerce.
73% of customers prefer to use a native app when available, compared to a mobile website. In 2024, you'll have no excuse not to offer your customers a native application. Don't wait any longer, your most loyal customers will be delighted to use it, and will place even more orders on your store!