What Is the Best BuildFire Alternative?

If your search for the very best BuildFire alternative on the market right now brought you here, you have come to the right place.

While BuildFire is, undeniably, one of the best, most comprehensive and at the same time easy to use app building tools available today, it is very far from being the only one. And with BuildFire’s rather prohibitive price tag, even on its lowest priced subscription tier, it is worth it to do your own research in order to discover what these alternatives might be, and not least how each of them hold up against BuildFire in terms of features, ease of use, bang for your buck and customer support.

In this article, we’re going to be looking at what makes BuildFire a fantastic software development platform – and then we’re going to be moving quickly on to looking at BuildFire’s most viable competitors.

Are you ready? Then let’s dive in.

Why native mobile apps are the wave of the future

If you are

Creating your own custom apps is one of the fastest and most powerful ways to digitally transform business operations within your business or organization.

With the advent of BuildFire and similar app development platforms, building online database applications isn’t only for professional app developers anymore. Rapid app development has become democratised – it’s for everyone.

Creating and publishing your own apps as an online entrepreneur or business owner gives you massive amounts of leverage. Now you are not only one voice or one product in the flurry of online content – you become an authority and a cornerstone within your niche.

Having your own app has the power to transform you or your business into a trusted household name faster than anything else you could possibly do. Just a few years ago, it used to be those who had self-published books who were considered experts. Then it became influencers and brands who had podcasts. Increasingly, it is becoming the businesses that have their own apps that become commodities, in the best possible sense.

In other great news, mobile app development has never been easier. Now you no longer need a large budget behind you, and you don’t need much or any coding experience either. All you need is your app idea and the right app building tool at your disposal.

Is BuildFire the best mobile app builder on the market?

When entrepreneurs and businesses first start looking into how they can create their own apps, BuildFire is one of the first app builders they are likely to come across. The reasons are many, and entirely justified.

BuildFire is a solid choice of app builder software, particularly for those who lack technical programming skills but still want to be able to create a professional quality app that is going to hold up against any other mobile apps on the app store both in terms of appearance and functionality.

BuildFire pros

What makes BuildFire such an appealing choice is its highly intuitive and easy to use interface as well as its drag and edit technology. Even those who are not technically inclined are going to be able to build mobile apps with ease using the BuildFire app builder tool.

BuildFire equips you with everything you need to to be able to craft a scalable global infrastructure. Some of its key features include pre-built modules and pre-built integrations, all of which are easy to customize and edit to suit your brand and vision.

BuildFire cons

The primary – if not the only obvious – downside to using BuildFire is its price tag. While established businesses will probably be able to justify the $499/month cost of the Enterprise subscription plan, bootstrapping startups and solopreneurs may struggle to find even the £189/month required for the Growth subscription.

If you are just starting out and are trying to keep your monthly overhead as low as possible while growing your business, there are better options out there for you than BuildFire. Once you are making enough money to invest more back into your business, you can always choose to move your enterprise over to BuildFire later on.

Another potential drawback to using BuildFire is the the platform is very broad, so if you want to create a very particular kind of app – such as for example an Android app – there are other app builder tools that target your needs better.

Top 7 BuildFire alternatives

If budget is of no concern to you, then you can’t do much better than BuildFire, short of hiring top app developers to build the custom app of your dreams for you. However, the rest of you should seriously consider choosing one of these five alternatives instead.

Android Studio

Android Studio is the only official IDE for Android app development. In other words, if you are looking to create Android apps specifically, this app builder is your jam.

Android Studio comes with a bunch of plug and play elements, tools and plugins that combine to make everything about the app development process smooth and easy.

While it helps to have a little bit of pre-existing coding experience if you are planning on using Android Studio for app building, the app builder’s low code and code completion tools takes a lot of the stress and frustration out of coding.

Android Studio pros

One of the best things about Android Studio is that it is free to download and update.

Within Android Studio you’ll find extensive libraries of templates and plug-and-play elements, ready for you to combine and customize them as you wish. Even though Android Studio isn’t a no-code builder, it requires minimal coding skills for app development since a lot of the features you will find within the app builder are pre-defined, including text edit, like button and much more.

Android Studio is easy and intuitive to navigate, and whenever you encounter a technical problem, the solution is usually easy to find.

The app builder is also open source, and there is a great sense of community and support, ensuring that you will never get stuck halfway into building your app.

Android Studio cons

The greatest downside to using Android Studio is that it isn’t a no code but rather a low code development platform. What this means in practice is that beginners might struggle to build their Android mobile applications on the platform, even though the drag and drop features and the ability to integrate plugins are all rigged to make it easy.

Android Studio consumes a lot of memory while processing updates and commands, which means you will have to use a powerful device for a smooth development experience.

Appy Pie

Appy pie is, beyond a doubt, one of the heavyweights within the app development world. Appy Pie comes with a range of features that are at least as comprehensive as what BuildFire has to offer.

When it comes to versatility and range of application, Appy Pie takes the prize. Not only can you use Appy Pie to build custom apps, you can also use it to build websites and chatbots, and for graphic design purposes.

In other words, Appy Pie is a platform with many different uses. If you are an entrepreneur or a startup looking for a one-stop-shop with many powerful tools and features, Appy Pie is a stellar choice.

Appy Pie pros

Appy Pie is a WYSIWYG app builder, meaning what you see is what you get while building apps on the platform. This is a huge pro if you are inexperienced with coding, since you’ll be able to build your apps regardless, absolutely no coding experience required.

Another pro of using Appy Pie which we’ve already mentioned is that it is such a diverse and versatile platform. It’s a great all-in-one solution for startups and solopreneurs who would like to keep all of the software tools they need to scale their business – or as many of them as possible – on one simple platform.

Yet another pro worth mentioning is that Appy Pie has an incredibly smooth and user-friendly interface, which makes everything about the creative process flow. It can even make the otherwise tedious process of creating a graphic of building an app feel like a game.

And here’s the kicker. Appy Pie offers a free trial, and after it has run out you can upgrade to one of the paid plans starting at just $18/month, which, needless to say, is significantly less of an investment than BuildFire’s minimum monthly subscription which costs $189/month.

Appy Pie cons

All in all, Appy Pie is receiving rave review everywhere you look around the internet. However, this doesn’t mean that Appy Pie is without flaws.

The main con of using Appy Pie (This also applies to other WYSIWYG app development platforms) is that the pre-made features and templates might place a cap on your creativity. When you are coding, your own imagination is what sets the limits, but when using a WYSIWYG app builder, the platform itself limits how the app can look and function. While this is mainly a good thing, since the framework ensures that you end up with an app that is both professional looking and fully functioning, it also means that you can’t get quite as creative.

BizNessApps

BizNessApps brands itself as the leading app builder for small businesses, which already tells you two things about it. It is inexpensive as well as exceedingly easy to use and set up – and its target audience are small businesses.]

BizNessApps does what it says on the tin. It is an out-of-the-box do-it-yourself app development tool that comes with all of the pre-made tools and features you need to be able to create mobile apps for your small business.

You’ll be amazed at how versatile BizNessApps is, enabling you to create mobile apps for both iOS and Android devices, as well as HTML5 apps.

BizNessApps offers two different paid plans, Individual and Reseller. The Individual plan is priced at $99/month while the Reseller plan ranges from $300-$400/month depending on what your requirements are.

BizNessApps pros

One of the great things about BizNessApps is the very comprehensive customer service and support that is available through the platform. BizNessApps provide users with a wealth of training videos and access to a Forum for community support. Support is not only easy to access, it also comes in a great number of different languages, meaning you and your team don’t need to be native English speakers to benefit from the impressive customer service and support options.

BizNessApps allows for easy integration with third-party services and plugins, which makes it even easier to craft exactly the app with the functions your business needs.

BizNessApps cons

Overall, BizNessApps is receiving solid reviews wherever you look online.

The only real issues people seem to be complaining about are occasional bugs and glitches, as well as other minor technical issues, like the fact that you will have to go through iTunes in order to make your finished app live.

Bubble.IO

Bubble.IO is a visual application builder for serious startups and developers looking to acquire funding to develop their app idea further.

In short, Bubble.IO is a powerful platform for the creation of app prototypes, rather than finished apps. If you are looking to build the next Uber or Instagram, Bubble.IO offers a great way for you to be able to develop and showcase your idea to potential investors.

Bubble.IO’s highly intuitive drag and drop app editor lets you experiment and quickly turn your idea into something more tangible. App prototypes created with Bubble.IO demonstrate how the app would look, as well as how it would work.

Bubble.IO pros

Bubble.IO’ smooth and intuitive interface and drag and drop editor makes the platform incredibly user friendly and easy to work with. Absolutely zero coding skills are required on your part.

One of the really cool things about Bubble.IO is that it encourages teamwork by allowing you to give an entire team of people access to the same app-in-development. This means that everyone on the team can pitch in their ideas and try them out. Bubble.IO’s collaborative features let you collaborate with potentially dozens of developers at once. Now, that’s pretty powerful.

Another good thing to highlight about Bubble.IO is the platform’s competitive pricing. A subscription to Bubble.IO starts at just $25/month – a price point that is accessible to most.

Bubble.IO cons

Bubble.IO’s most obvious limitation is the fact that you can’t use the platform to develop finished apps. Bubble.IO only deals with the development of refined prototypes, and, refreshingly, the platform doesn’t pretend to do anything other or more than that.

Passion.IO

Passion.IO is one of the most popular no-code app builder tools on the market today, and with very good reason.

The Passion.IO app builder comes with a number of incredible features that you can customize as you see fit and build right into your apps. Here are just a few examples of what apps created with Passion.IO are capable of: on-demand and live streaming within the app, automated challenges and interactive experiences, drip content, communities, and push notifications.

Apps created with Passion.IO can server a multitude of purposes and niches. This is true whether you are a corporation or a personal brand, such as for example a fitness coach or yoga teacher.

Passion.IO offers two different subscription model. The Pro plan is priced at $97/month and the Ultimate plan is priced at $297/month.

Passion.IO pros

Passion.IO is an amazingly versatile app builder. No matter what your business is, Passion.IO gives you the tools, templates and pre-made features you need to craft a powerful, sleek and fully functional app.

Passion.IO cons

Passion.IO cons? There doesn’t seem to be many.

The only obvious limitation to using Passion.IO is that it is a no-code app builder, which means that you will have to rely on the pre-built templates and features and are not able to add in your own highly customized code.

OutSystems

OutSystems is a comprehensive app builder tool, jam-packed with everything you need to build powerful and professional AI powered apps. OutSystems’s ethos is to help developers build apps quickly, build them right and build them for the future.

Many consider OutSystems to be the most complete full-stack app development platform currently available. This is very much down to the fact that all tools and features across the OutSystems platform are AI-powered, which makes the entire app development process run both smoothly and super fast.

OutSystem offers a free plan which gives users access to building apps with limited capacity (The end-user capacity is 100 users on the free plan), the shared OutSystems Cloud and community support. In many ways, OutSystem’s free plan is nothing more than a taste of what’s possible on either of the paid plans.

The two paid plans are called Enterprise and Universal, and they start at $6,250/month and $15,000/month respectively. The rather large price tags reflect the value that either plan taps you into in terms of scope and scalability.

OutSystems pros

The fact that OutSystems is powered by AI is evident in the absolute speed with which every feature on the platform runs.. With OutSystems, there is never any waiting around waiting for a command or an upgrade to process – everything seems instant, which really unleashes your creativity.

Another pro worth highlighting here is the fact that OutSystems offers a free plan. If you are unsure about whether or not upgrading to one of the paid plans would be worth it, the free plan gives you an opportunity to explore and evaluate.

The OutSystems application builder can be used to create an incredibly diverse set of apps ranging from hospitality apps and consumer apps to business systems.

OutSystems cons

All in all, OutSystems is one of the most robust app development tools you will be able to find, anywhere. However, the rather astronomical price tags that are attached to either of the paid plans will seem daunting to some.

Luckily, the free plan is a good place to start if you don’t have that kind of budget yet or just want a taste of what might be possible with an AI app building tool like OutSystems.

Xcode

Xcode is Apple’s integrated development environment and is very much a do-it-yourself programming platform that turns your hand-written UI code into application software in real time.

What makes Xcode stand out in this lineup of other powerful application builder tools is the fact that it relies on its own programming language for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch, which, when combined with other Xcode tools, turns programming into a surprisingly live and direct experience.

If you can imagine it, Xcode can help you build it. Every change you make to the code is instantly reflected, so that you are able to see and experience what you are building in real time – now that’s powerful, and it makes the entire coding experience not only more fluid, but also more fun.

Xcode is available for free to all registered members of the Mac Developer Program as well as all registered members of the iOS Developer program, each of these being priced at $99 per year.

Xcode pros

Plenty of good things can be said about XCode – this app development tool is both powerful, versatile and affordable.

Versatility is a huge pro of using Xcode. Xcode is a bit of a beast, actually, and you can use it not only to build apps, but also to create video games.

The Grouping feature is another detail worthy of highlight, as it allows you to quickly and easily create groups for storyboards, swift files and more.

Xcode cons

Xcode is a rather more complex tool than most of the other ones we have been looking at in this article. If you lack any coding experience, Xcode isn’t for you.

Conclusion: This is what you need to build the best mobile and web apps

You have made it to the end of this article, and hopefully you have also found an answer as to what the best BuildFire alternative would be for your particular business.

Which app builder is going to suit you best is going to come down to a number of highly individual factors, including whether or not you have any pre-existing coding experience, what your budget is, and whether you are developing an Android app or an app for iOS devices. These are all individual factors you should consider before concluding which BuildFire alternative is going to be the best choice for you.

All in all, you can’t go wrong with any of the app builder tools mentioned in this article – except perhaps for Bubble.IO if you want to be able to create and publish a finished app, or Android Studio if you want to create an app for iOS.

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