A friend came to me recently with the idea of creating a mobile app that would support the learning platform that he already has. We discussed what features he wanted and what his budget was. The budget was tight, and I realized that developing the app from scratch was not an option. I used this cost calculator to get an estimate for the custom-built app. Later, I found this calculator that seems simpler and gives a lower estimated cost. It seemed that the only way forward was to look for a platform that would generate the app for me.

I knew that there should be some mobile app generators on the market, but I had no idea what features they offered and at what cost. To my surprise, I discovered that there were more than mature 20 platforms, all offering similar features. I soon found out that the mobile-app-makers industry is quite mature: there are reviews and comparisons and top10’s.

I soon understood that all those articles would not help me with my problem: determine how much it would cost to run such an app. The reason is that the platforms are vastly diverse in terms of their offering: different prices for similar, but not always the same set of app features. The services included in the contract and the actual terms would also vary greatly. I had to make my research and comparison, based on the needs of my friend.

In this post, I’m sharing the results of the research that I’ve done. Disclaimer:

• I might have missed a few app makers as I only used this article as a source
• My focus was on the feature set that my friend needed. I didn’t look at the rest of the offered features.
• I only spent 10-15 minutes with each app builder platform, so I might have missed details that need more digging (or contacting customer support).

This comparison sheet is not detailed nor complete enough to allow me to select a “winner”. Instead, I will use it during the discussions with my friend to make a shortlist of 2-3 mobile app makers that I will investigate further.