Mobile Applications are gaining momentum at an unprecedented rate. No matter whether you own a small retail shop or multiple stores, there is always scope for further penetrating the market and giving users an enriched tool to interface with your business.
Mobile applications are not just a means to amplify sales, but they are instrumental in building a brand and keeping prospective customers engaged through valuable content. Moreover, mobile applications help in creating personalized offerings for users based on their previous purchases and other relevant data which the app fetches from the device.
It’s quite natural for businesses to get lured into making an app via App builders because they are cheap, and can help you build a fully functional app on the go. However, there is a darker side to building mobile applications with App Builders which often overlooked and this leads business to a point of damage from which no return is possible.
Here are the areas where you will have to compromise if you were to make an app via an App Builder.
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1. Acceptability
As per Apple’s new guidelines, Apps created with the help of an App Creator will e rejected. There are many businesses that are building the design using an app creator but the recent guidelines of Apple seem to counter the infringement of intellectual property, simply put, designs.
When one App gained popularity, a hundred others joined the party by building a near-exact replica of it and swarmed the Apple store market. In order to get their App published, the business now can’t rely on DIY builders to get their
2. Economics
Yeah, this might surprise you. A lot of businesses choose App Builders believing it to be a relatively economical option, however, in the long run, the tables turned upside down and the lifetime cost of the product exceed the custom-built application.
App builders offer limited scope for scalability and adding in-purchase app features because of their mundane design. This forces the business to rebuild the product from scratch, thus nullifying the economical advantage which they had whilst choosing an App builder over custom product.
The App Builders’ may seem to offer very enticing pricing for once, but the catch is the subscription fee of App Builders would come up as a liability throughout the life of the application. Even after you have built the application, you would continue to pay to the online App Builders even if you are not modifying the app one single bit.
Swiftic charges $48 per month and that too if you take a year-long subscription.
Build fire charges somewhere around $60 per month. It has a cheaper subscription option but that’s too basic and you can’t build a full-functional mobile application through it.
If you were to build an app using an online DIY app builder, your annual cost will be somewhere between a few hundred dollars to a couple of grand or more (it would depend on the kind of package you go for). What most businesses fail to realize is that this cost would continue to add up until the app is alive.
However, if you go for a custom-built app, you will have to pay a one-time cost upfront. That is it
3. Uniqueness
One can make a fully functional app with an app builder; however, the room for customization in app builders is strapped up. The App Builders work on a fixed template with little scope for modifying the usability but the user interface remains more or less the same. This proves to be a serious disadvantage in the saturating app market where differentiation strategy in terms of UI is of vital importance.
These days, apps that have the same interface do not entice the users anymore. UI and UX have evolved into two different sciences altogether, majorly because the businesses are finding it hard to strike the right chord with users through their apps.
Only a custom-built app can deliver you a different UI, something which is exclusive. To build a different UX, a lot of research is needed on customers’ preferences and inclinations. A reputed mobile app development company can delve into the intricacies of your business and design UI and UX which is specially tailored to suit the needs of your business.
4. Security
If you build an app using an App Builder, you are never sure whether the App Builder incorporates all the security protocols whilst building the app. The security standpoint has gained increased importance these days because the apps these days fetch user data and sometimes even the Personally Identifiable Information as well.
The breach of the app’s security would land the business in a legal mess. The collateral damage caused is sometimes beyond measure. The security breach wouldn’t only invite huge penalties but would also mean sudden death to your business because your brand would be perceived as a one who has breached people’s trust.
Mobile applications can fetch data regarding how the users use their mobiles; what websites do they browse, how much screen time do they have on a regular basis, how many times they devote to particular applications… and a lot more than this.
A user gives the application certain access rights such as access to contacts, access to gallery and others whilst downloading an app from the app store. This data, if misused can help online predators to cheat the users or even steal their identities. So, it’s crucial on the part of developers to comply with the government norms and incorporate security mechanisms as per the industry standards.
Now that you know why creating an app may not be the wisest choice for businesses, keep a strategic distance from them in the future.
