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DISCOVERFree app builder: what free really gets you
Every app builder promises free. None of them publishes your app to the stores for free. Here is the honest version of that page.
GoodBarber has no free plan, and that protects you: instead of a limited product forever, you get the full platform free for 30 days, no credit card, and you decide with complete information.
- Build your app in the editor
- Preview it on your phone
- Publish to the App Store or Google Play
- Remove the builder's logo from your app
- The full platform, every feature, for 30 days
- No credit card required
- Native iOS and Android features to test for real
- A free PWA you can publish during the trial
What free plans include, feature by feature
The pattern is the same across the market: free lets you build and preview. Shipping a real app to real users is where every builder starts charging.
| What you need | Typical free plan | GoodBarber 30-day trial | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design and build your app | Included | Included, full feature set | This is what free plans are genuinely good at: testing an idea in an editor. |
| Publish a web app (PWA) | Often, with the builder's branding on it | A free PWA during your trial | A PWA lives on the web. It is a real way to launch, but it is not a store presence. |
| Publish to the App Store and Google Play | A paid plan, on every major builder | A paid plan here too. Nobody publishes native apps for free. | Store publishing carries real work and real costs for the platform. No vendor absorbs them for free, whatever the landing page says. |
| Your app under your name only | Free tiers keep the builder's badge on your app | Your app, your brand, on every plan | An app that advertises its builder is a prototype, not a product. |
| Push notifications | Rarely included in free tiers | Included | Push is the main reason to have an app instead of a website. Without it, retention drops back to web levels. |
| Apple and Google developer accounts | 99 $ per year (Apple) plus 25 $ once (Google) | The same fees. They are set by Apple and Google, not by your builder. | The only truly unavoidable costs of shipping an app, whoever you build with. |
Three truths behind the word free
A free plan builds a demo, not a business
Free tiers stop right before the moment your app meets its users: store publishing, push notifications, your own branding. That is not a scam, it is the business model of the entire category.
If you only want to test an idea on your phone, a free plan is exactly what you need, and you do not need us for that. If you want an app your customers can download, budget for a paid plan, with any builder.
The unavoidable costs are not your builder's
Apple charges 99 $ a year for a developer account. Google Play charges 25 $, once. Every published app pays them, whether it was built by an agency, a freelancer, an AI tool or a no-code platform.
A builder that hides these fees behind the word free is preparing your first bad surprise. We would rather you budget them from day one.
A trial that ends beats a free plan that lingers
Our choice: instead of a limited free plan designed to frustrate you into upgrading, you get everything for 30 days. Native features, e-commerce, push notifications, design tools, all of it. No credit card, so nothing can be charged by surprise.
After 30 days you know exactly what you would be paying for. A limited free plan can never give you that clarity, because the free version is not the product.
So what is actually free?
Actually free at GoodBarber
- 30 days with the complete platform, no credit card
- A PWA you can publish during your trial
- Free extensions in the Extension Store
- The help center, tutorials and academy, before you even sign up
Never free, with anyone
- Apple and Google developer accounts: 99 $ per year plus 25 $ once
- Publishing a native app to the App Store and Google Play
- Removing the builder's branding from your app
- Your time. A tool that wastes it is the most expensive one.
You can build and preview one for free with several tools, including GoodBarber during the 30-day trial. Publishing a native app to the App Store or Google Play requires a paid plan with every major builder, plus Apple's 99 $ per year developer account and Google's one-time 25 $ fee.
No. GoodBarber offers a 30-day free trial with the full platform and no credit card required. We prefer giving you everything for a limited time over giving you a limited product forever: you evaluate the real thing, then decide.
Two costs are universal: Apple charges 99 $ a year for a developer account and Google Play 25 $, once. On top of that comes your builder's paid plan. GoodBarber's plans are on the pricing page, everything included: hosting, updates, push notifications and support.
You choose a plan to keep going, or you stop there. Since no credit card is required to start, nothing is charged automatically and there is no surprise invoice.
Yes, as a PWA: a progressive web app your users open in their browser and can install from it. During your trial you can publish a free PWA to test your project with a real audience. Native store publishing starts with a paid plan.
For validating an idea, yes, and we say that even though we sell the alternative. For running a business, rarely: free tiers hold back store presence, push notifications and your own branding, which are precisely what make an app worth having for your customers.
Build for real, free, for 30 days
The full platform, no credit card, no surprise. If it is not the right tool for your project, you will know before paying anything.