If you ever wanted to build an app for your small business but do not want to spend several thousands of dollars to hire a team of designers and developers, there are several mobile platforms out there that can help you build an app – no coding knowledge needed. Not only that, using the right mobile platform can help speed up app development and significantly reduce costs. These DIY tools provide you with a series of pre-built templates. Simply select the template that best suits your fancy, upload images and content about your business and make customizations to build out your app. The other benefit to using these tools is that they allow you to publish your app to multiple platforms be it Android, including the Amazon Appstore, iOS or Windows with just one click, no additional work is necessary. Additionally their functionality is not limited to businesses. Whether you are an artist who wants to promote his work, a blogger who wants to offer a native mobile experience for his readers and more, these tools have you covered.

With a small investment, you can create and manage your mobile site or application using one of these platforms and start increase awareness, engagement and revenue by offering your customers a dedicated mobile experience. In this post, we’d like to introduce you to three such platforms that we recently worked with.

APPSME (http://www.appsme.com)

Appsme is an online app builder that enables small businesses to create powerful mobile apps quickly, easily and cost-effectively. They make it easy for business owners to engage with their customers, encourage loyalty and increase revenue.

Building an app with Appsme is simple - you can either do it yourself using their powerful online editing tools, or you can ask their team of in-house app-experts to manage the whole process for you. The apps come packed with essential features for your business including ecommerce and booking platforms, deals and loyalty tools, push messages and location-based messages, maps, price lists, photo and video galleries, Facebook and Twitter integration and more. Additionally, you can use the exclusive Appsme Remote Control app - on iOS and Android, including Amazon Appstore - to send out Push Messages to your customers as easily as sending a text message.

Pricing: Prices start at just $40 per month for both a native iPhone and Android app built and submitted to the app stores.

Cargoes Café & Bistro used Appsme to publish their app on Amazon Appstore. Features include menu, description, in-built map, snapshots and more.

APPY PIE (http://www.appypie.com)

Appy Pie is a cloud-based mobile app creation tool. Users aren’t required to download or install anything. Apps (and now games) can be created by using their simple drag and drop tool user experience; no coding skills needed. Like others, when done, users receive and HTML5 based cross platform app that is compatible with iOS, Android – both Google Play and Amazon Appstore, Windows and Blackberry. Appy Pie offers additional features such as push notifications, In-app purchases, and monetization with ads, live analytics and location tracking via GPS. You can also integrate social media feeds, blogs, websites, audio, video, radio and more to customize your apps. Their appointment scheduler is especially useful for businesses such as salons, dentists and dance/music lesson studios. Additionally they offer a built in contacts feature with one touch call and QR codes included.

Price: Plans start at Free and go up to $33 per month for Platinum

APPSMOMENT (www.appsmoment.com)

AppsMoment is an upcoming European based company which has 17,000 users that have published more than 420,000 apps on Google Play, Amazon Appstore, Apple App Store and Windows Store. Users can choose create customized newspapers, magazines, music, e-commerce, event and business apps, as well as mobile websites. And now, they can also build mobile games by using one of 50 special game templates. According to AppsMoment, their vision is to make app building easy and accessible to everyone, and not just those with coding experience. They offer a bunch of video tutorials and customer support to help users get started. Additionally, small business owners can also integrate mobile marketing and automated solutions into their apps without needing to hire programmers.

Pricing: AppsMoment offers subscription plans depending on the number of apps and updates. The pricing tier starts at $29 per month. However, they also offer tester plan that allows a user to create and publish 1 app.  

Rainbow Dash Pony Memory, a visually appealing memory game built using Appsmoment.

So if you are a small business looking to grow customer awareness and increase loyalty, an artist who’d like to showcase their work or just an app enthusiast who’d like to build an app as a personal project – check out some of these tutorials listed below or visit their websites to get started today.

How to make a mobile app for your business in just 15 minutes with Appsme.

Make a mobile app with Appy Pie.

Set of tutorials on how to use Appsmoment.