Cheapest app builders for small business in 2026: the real costs, priced and dated

Five lines make up the real cost, and the cheapest lists only show the first.

1. The builder plan — the number on the pricing page. Shop it, but read which plan publishes to the App Store; on several builders the entry plan doesn’t.

2. The store fees — the table above. Fixed, unavoidable, in dollars.

3. The commission — only if you sell inside the app. A booking app that takes payment at the counter pays none.

4. The tool’s other requirement — a Mac for the builders that compile locally; an AI subscription for the builders that run on yours; nothing extra for the cloud builders.

5. Your time — the same on every route and the biggest line by far. The one thing that shortens it is writing down, before you open any tool, what the app does in version one: who uses it, three “customer does X, sees Y” moments, and what you are deliberately leaving out. The one-page template is built for exactly this.

And the two hidden lines: the subscription never ends (an app on a builder plan is rented, not bought — budget the plan for the life of the app, not the build), and on most cheap builders you can’t take the code (the app lives inside the builder; cancel and it is gone). Neither is a reason to avoid a builder. Both are reasons to pick one with your eyes open — the table marks which builders let you leave.

Modaal (ours). A Mac app: you describe the app in plain language, your own AI agent — on the Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot subscription you already pay for — writes a plan you approve, then real Swift and SwiftUI for iPhone and Kotlin and Jetpack Compose for Android, builds it, fixes its own errors and runs it. The free plan is one active project with unlimited prompts on one platform, a real native app, the project on your Mac from the first build, no card. Pro is €9 per user per month billed annually (€15 monthly) and adds both platforms and TestFlight/App Store distribution — pricing. No credits, no meter: the fortieth correction costs the same as the first. Year one, on published figures only: 99 USD to Apple, 108 € for Pro annual, 25 USD to Google if Android, plus the AI subscription you had anyway. The honest catches: you need a Mac, and you do the App Store submission yourself with the build Modaal produces — which is also why the code is yours. Cheapest for a small business owner (or the person who helps them) who has a Mac and an AI subscription, wants both stores, and would rather own the app than rent it.

Superapp. Real Swift for iPhone, in a browser version — no Mac needed — or a Mac version. Pro is $25 a month; credits are metered but “valid for 12 months” and “carry over across billing cycles,” and the site’s free tier gives “5 daily credits.” “You fully own the code and can export it anytime.” iPhone only — there is no Android on the site. Cheapest for an iPhone-only business app when you don’t have a Mac and want to own the code.

Rork. Native Swift for iPhone and Kotlin for Android as two separate apps in one project. Pro is $20 a month for 100 credits; the free plan is design mode — it explores designs but doesn’t produce working code. “Paid users own all generated code.” Cheapest for both stores in native code without a Mac, if 100 credits a month fits how much you iterate — the meter is the thing to watch on this route, and cheap Rork alternatives prices it out.

These are built for exactly the small-business cases — bookings, menus, loyalty, member lists. Their price is honest and their limit is honest: the template is the ceiling, and the app lives in the builder.

Adalo. Drag-and-drop, iOS and Android from one project (its mobile builds use React Native). The free plan “does not allow publishing.” Starter is $36 a month billed annually ($43.20 monthly) for one published app, with “Publish to Apple App Store” and “Publish to Google Play Store” listed; Professional at $52 gives two apps. Code export is not offered as of September 2026. Year one for one app: 432 USD for the plan, 99 to Apple, 25 to Google. Cheapest for a straightforward two-platform app from a template when you won’t need to leave. One-to-one at /alternatives/adalo.

FlutterFlow. A visual builder that produces a real Flutter project. The free plan builds; Basic at $39 a month adds “Code Download,” “APK Download” and “One-Click App Store Deployment.” More capable than a template builder, and the one no-code tool in this group whose code you can take. Cheapest for a business that expects the app to grow past a template and wants an exit. /alternatives/flutterflow.

GoodBarber. Designed for content and commerce apps — its own use-case list reads “retail, grocery, restaurant, local delivery and pickup.” Content from $30 a month, eCommerce from $40 a month, both billed yearly, each giving “Native iOS & Android apps, Progressive Web App”; 30-day free trial, no card. Cheapest for a shop or restaurant that wants ordering and a designed app without touching a builder canvas.

Thunkable. Block-based, iOS and Android, “publish your app on iOS and Android through their stores.” Accelerator is $18 a month billed annually ($19 monthly); Builder $37 ($59 monthly); the free plan allows three public projects with five screens each. Which plan unlocks store publishing is not stated on the pricing page — ask before you pay. Cheapest for a simple app when the lowest paid plan turns out to publish.

Appy Pie. Template builder priced per app: Basic $16 per app per month, Gold $36, Platinum $60 (annual-billing figures as shown). The catch for an iPhone business: Basic and Gold publish to Google Play only; App Store publishing is on Platinum. Cheapest for an Android-only presence from a template.

Glide. Data and catalogue apps from a spreadsheet, fast and genuinely cheap: free for ten projects, Basic $25 a month. But read the help centre before you plan a launch: “Glide apps are Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)” and “publishing directly to the App Store or Google Play is not supported.” Customers install it from the browser, not from the store. Cheapest for an internal tool, a staff schedule, a price list — anything where “open this link” is fine and the store doesn’t matter.

Bubble. A mature web-app builder with native mobile in public beta on React Native. The free plan is a development version only; Starter is $59 a month billed annually for a live app with “5 build submissions/mo.” And the sentence that decides it: “Bubble apps can only be run on the Bubble platform; there’s no way of exporting your application as code.” Cheapest for a web product with a lot of logic — a customer portal, a marketplace — where the mobile app is secondary. /alternatives/bubble.

Before choosing either, run the two-minute test in native app vs web app: if your customers should find you in the store, get push notifications, or use the app offline, a PWA is not the cheap option — it is the wrong one.

Overall cheapest to publish a real app on both stores: Modaal Pro at €9 a month annual, if you have a Mac and an AI subscription — because those two things are the actual cost, and if you already have them the builder is nearly free. Without them, the cheapest real two-store app is Adalo Starter at $36 a month, and the cheapest iPhone-only app without a Mac is Superapp Pro at $25.

The trap is the word “free.” Every builder on this page has a free tier, and on seven of the ten it cannot put an app in a store: Adalo’s “does not allow publishing,” Bubble’s is a development version, FlutterFlow’s store deployment starts at Basic, Rork’s is design mode, Appy Pie’s cheaper plans skip the App Store, Glide never publishes to stores, and Thunkable doesn’t say. The exceptions: Modaal’s free plan builds a complete, real native app that runs on your own phone — publishing is what Pro adds — and Superapp’s free tier gives five daily credits. So “build free, publish cheap” is a real plan; “publish free” is not, and Apple makes sure of it with the 99 USD.

The second trap is quieter: a plan that publishes one app. If the salon wants a customer app and a staff app, that is two apps on most template builders and two plans — or one project on the AI tools.

This only matters if you sell inside the app — subscriptions, paid bookings, digital goods. If you do, two programs cut Apple’s and Google’s cut in half, and both are open to every new small business.

Apple’s App Store Small Business Program gives “a reduced commission rate of 15% on paid apps and In-App Purchases.” Eligibility, in Apple’s words: “Existing developers who made up to 1 million USD in proceeds in the prior calendar year for all their apps, as well as developers new to the App Store, can qualify.” You have to enrol — it is not automatic — as the Account Holder of your developer account, after accepting the Paid Apps agreement in App Store Connect. Do it the day your account is approved; the account setup guide covers where.

Google Play applies its lower rate without enrolment: “15% for the first $1M (USD) revenue earned by the developer each year,” “30% for earnings in excess of $1M,” and “15% for automatically renewing subscription products” regardless of revenue.

Two notes. The programs apply to sales through the store; a booking app that takes payment in person or through your existing card terminal pays no commission at all, which is the cheapest design of all. And the account has to be yours — the 15% follows the Account Holder, which is one more reason never to publish under a builder’s or an agency’s account.

The cheapest app is the small one that customers actually open. In order of how often they pay off:

Bookings and reminders. A salon, clinic, gym or trainer: customers pick a slot, get a reminder, reschedule without calling. This is the app that saves staff time from day one, and it needs no in-app payment, so no commission.

Loyalty and repeat orders. A café or shop: a stamp card that lives on the phone, a reorder button, a notification when the thing they like is back. Push notifications are the reason this is an app and not a website.

Menu and ordering. A restaurant or takeaway: the menu, pickup ordering, order status. If payment happens in the app, enrol in the 15% programs first.

A staff tool. Schedules, checklists, a stock count — the app your customers never see and your team opens every day. Often the best first app, and the one where a PWA (Glide) is fine, because nobody needs to find it in a store.

What not to build first: the everything-app. Version one is one of the four above, with a cut list of what it deliberately doesn’t do. That is the whole difference between a $500 first year and a $5,000 one — and every tool on this page builds a small app well and a vague app badly.

You have a Mac and a ChatGPT/Claude subscription already → Modaal: free to build, Pro €9/month annual to publish to both stores, the code is yours. Year one about 99 USD + 108 € + 25 USD if Android.

No Mac, iPhone customers, you want to own the code → Superapp Pro, $25/month; the Apple fee on top.

No Mac, both stores, a template fits → Adalo Starter, $36/month annual, one app; or GoodBarber from $30/month yearly if it is a shop or restaurant and you want ordering built in.

No Mac, both stores, native code, you iterate a little → Rork Pro, $20/month for 100 credits.

The app might outgrow a template and you want an exit → FlutterFlow Basic, $39/month, real Flutter project you can download.

Android-only presence, smallest budget → Appy Pie Basic, $16 per app per month (Google Play only), plus Google’s 25 USD.

It is really a staff tool or a price list → Glide, free or $25/month, installed from the browser — and skip the store fees entirely.

It is really a customer portal or marketplace on the web → Bubble Starter, $59/month annual, knowing the app lives in Bubble.

Whichever route: open the Apple Developer account in the business’s name on day one — it takes days, not hours — and read the publishing guide before the app is finished, not after.