The Best Shopify Mobile App Builders for Established Brands

Launching a mobile app for a Shopify store has become surprisingly easy. So easy, it’s not a crazy suggestion that every ecommerce brand on Shopify should have their own app.

But there’s one issue to keep in mind. Most no-code tools made to help you launch an app for your store are built for simple stores, with fast, somewhat generic outputs.

It’s harder for established brands with a real image and a user experience that their customers know and love.

For these brands, a generic app that looks like everyone else’s doesn’t work. They need an app that looks like their brand.

Some app solutions aren’t made for that. Some are. We break down the best options below.

The Best Shopify Mobile App Builders, at a Glance

There are a huge number of mobile app solutions available today. And with AI, there are new, untested tools popping up every day.

Directory site WhichAppBuilder lists over 90 active app builders focused on ecommerce, with over 80 built for Shopify stores.

Here’s a shortlist of app builders that have a track record of working for custom brands with a higher quality bar:

Why Not All App Builders Are a Good Fit for Serious Brands

By nature, most no-code tools aren’t enough for a brand that wants their app to be a natural extension of their website.

Most app builders are SaaS tools, built for one thing: to serve as many users (Shopify brands) as possible.

Their outputs are clean and professional, but generic. By making it easy to build and launch your app, they make it hard (sometimes not possible) to truly customize it the way you want it.

For serious stores with established brand standards, and a unique user experience, template-based tools are a step back.

You end up with an app that falls short of what your website can do. Not all your web features work in the app; your site design, unique elements or custom features don’t carry over. Your site is specifically “you” – but your app comes off a conveyor belt.

And that’s a bad start to your app. Your goal, when launching it, is to convince your best customers to shop in the app instead of on your website, where you’ll have a closer relationship with them, where you can communicate with them easier, with a lower cost, and no middleman controlling your reach.

But it’s difficult to convince the customer to use your app when the user experience is a watered-down version of what they get on your site.

That’s why you need a mobile app builder that doesn’t limit you: that gives you the tools to launch a custom mobile app, not a template with your brand’s logo attached.

The Six Best Shopify Mobile App Builders for Established Brands

There’s no single “best” app builder for your store. But there are some providers that have a proven track record of delivering solid apps, for brands that need more than what the average Shopify app builder offers.

Here are the options you should consider first:

1. Tapcart

Tapcart is one of the most well-known tools in the Shopify ecosystem. It creates native iOS and Android apps, and its App Studio feature gives you a visual, low-code platform to build and manage custom layouts, content, campaigns, and app-specific experiences.

It uses Shopify’s API to sync core data across your site and app, such as products, collections, inventory, and customer information. It also has a broad integration marketplace covering tools across loyalty, subscriptions, reviews, marketing, analytics, search, and customer experience.

The latest updates to their platform (which includes price rises across all their tiers) are all focusing on delivering more custom, high-touch experiences for vendors, with developer extensibility and AI customization.

It’s a solid bet if you want a tool that’s been around a long time, and has a large number of legitimate apps under their belt. It’s become more complex than other platforms, but is still a good way to launch an app.

2. MobiLoud

MobiLoud is a different kind of mobile app builder. MobiLoud helps Shopify brands launch custom mobile apps, powered by their existing website.

It’s not a separate storefront; something built from no-code templates or a drag and drop builder. It’s a custom app that’s fully powered by your web setup.

All your site’s features, integrations, theme customizations, backend logic and everything else that’s unique to your business carries over to your app.

MobiLoud builds a custom native layer for your app, which gives you a native app that feels like a native app; not a shortcut or a generic output.

MobiLoud’s approach also makes it much easier to manage your app than with any other Shopify app builder, as you run everything from one place (your website). Everything’s automatically synced across both channels, while MobiLoud’s team handles all the app-specific maintenance and updates.

For brands wanting an app that’s an extension of what they’ve built for the web, MobiLoud is easily the most effective option available.

3. AppMaker

AppMaker puts more emphasis on customization than the average Shopify app builder. It combines a visual design platform and real-time CMS with Shopify integrations, personalization, push campaigns, and support for more custom mobile experiences.

It sits somewhere between a standard drag-and-drop builder and a fully custom app. You get more control over the design and functionality, along with hands-on support from their team, without having to manage a custom development project from scratch.

It takes more work to build and maintain than some of the simpler options. But it’s a decent fit if you’re willing to invest in a more distinctive native app experience.

4. Reactiv

Reactiv offers full native iOS and Android apps, but its most distinctive feature is its support for Apple App Clips. These are lightweight native experiences that can open from a link, QR code, ad, or NFC tag without requiring the customer to install the full app first.

That creates some interesting options for established brands. A shopper could open a focused product or checkout experience from an ad, access a loyalty or product flow in a physical store, and then be encouraged to install the full app for the longer-term relationship.

They’re newer on the scene than some of the other vendors, like MobiLoud and Tapcart. But they’re a solid alternative if you’re looking for something different, and you think the App Clips feature is worth trying out.

5. Venn Apps

Venn Apps is a UK-based, fully managed mobile app builder aimed primarily at larger Shopify brands.

It’s more hands-on than a typical no-code platform. Their team works with you on the design, build and launch, while giving you a CMS to manage the app’s content after it goes live.

Venn is particularly focused on international brands. It supports Shopify Markets, multiple languages and currencies, expansion stores, localized content, and other features that become important when you’re selling across several regions.

It’s not a bad option to consider if you want something closer to an agency model, without the cost and overhead of a true agency build.

6. Apptile

Apptile uses a tile-based visual builder to create native Shopify apps. It gives you a relatively quick way to create and manage native iOS and Android apps without needing your own development team.

It includes the usual features you’d expect, such as push notifications, app-only offers, Shopify integrations, multi-language and multi-currency support, and custom product and cart pages. It also offers custom tiles and developer tools if you need to go beyond its standard layouts.

Unlike Venn Apps, it veers the other way, giving you a slightly more template-based app, which is easier to manage in-house while retaining more customization options than you’d get from a basic template builder.

How to Narrow Down the List

All six of the platforms above can get you a solid app. The idea is to find the one that best matches your vision for your app.

Ask yourself: do you want an app that’s its own, living, breathing storefront? A unique user experience, something meaningfully different from your website?

Or do you want an app that’s more of an extension of your website, a unified, consistent user experience?

Tools like Tapcart with a visual builder are good if you want to create a whole new experience. While MobiLoud is the market leader for custom apps that retain full consistency with your website.

The approach you take also typically influences the overhead cost of your app. A more custom and differentiated app takes more work to manage, since it’s effectively its own storefront.

The more you go for consistency, the easier it is to maintain your different channels together.

These are the main questions you need to ask yourself, and neither answer is necessarily right or wrong. It comes down to your brand’s direction, and your goals for launching the app.

Final Thoughts

With organic channels more volatile than ever, paid more expensive than ever, and everything making it harder for brands to reliably communicate with their customers, an owned channel like a mobile app is becoming a valuable asset for any brand.

And if you’re on Shopify, you have the benefit of a huge ecosystem of tools to help you launch your own branded mobile app, without the traditional cost and complexity of launching a custom native app.

All the platforms shared in this article are great places to start, for any established brand who wants to take their app channel seriously. Review the list, see which one aligns best with your team’s structure and vision, and start building.