How Can a Custom Mobile Application Increase the Company’s Profit?

When it comes to creating a mobile application, businesses face a crucial decision: should they develop a unique application from scratch or purchase an out-of-the-box solution? While both options can deliver results, a pre-built application may not meet all of the business’s specific needs, ultimately affecting long-term profitability. In this article, we will explore the following:

• The key differences between custom and pre-built mobile applications;
• The various types of custom applications that exist;
• The advantages of investing in a custom application for your business;
• The steps involved in creating your own unique application;
• The importance of custom mobile app design.

Custom Mobile App vs. Ready-Aade Apps: What’s the Difference?

Imagine you bought a pre-assembled Lego set. You have a finished product that meets your expectations, such as a pre-designed Lego figure that saves you time on assembly. However, the pre-assembled set may not fully meet your needs. So you decide to disassemble the set and start building the exact figure you want. In the end, you have a custom Lego set that was built specifically for you and tailored to your requests. Find iot application development services

Just like a Lego set, you have the option to purchase a pre-built mobile application or create a custom mobile app tailored to meet your specific needs. Although pre-built apps offer a quick and easy solution, they may not fully satisfy your business and customer requirements in the long run. In contrast, custom applications have no limitations and can be designed to address your unique needs, albeit at a higher cost.

The only limitation to a custom application is your budget. Developing a custom application requires considerably more time and effort compared to modifying a pre-built application, which already has a basic framework in place. If your business needs to enter the market quickly or has seasonal demands, purchasing a pre-built application could be a viable option. However, investing in a custom mobile app can provide substantial long-term benefits in terms of user experience and increased profitability. It is important to understand that the main downside of pre-built applications is their lack of uniqueness. As they all have the same foundation, they hardly differ from each other.

Even if you change your company’s logo to that of a competitor, essentially nothing changes. This feature hurts the efficiency of your business. For comparison, take a look at eCommerce projects: one of the market leaders in providing ready-made software, Shopify, requires minimal effort and zero knowledge in website creation. Shopify also takes care of programming, hosting, or purchasing a domain. It is unlikely that we will find Shopify customers in the eCommerce industry, as the market is dominated by giants like Amazon and AliExpress, which have custom applications specifically tailored to their business type. A pre-built application cannot compete with a custom mobile app under any circumstances.

The Pros and Cons of Both Types of Applications:

Out-of-the-applications

Advantages:

1. Quick app launch within 2-8 weeks.

2. Low cost. Prices for such applications start at $35 per year.

3. Suitable for A/B testing and hypothesis validation. You can use a cheap application to determine whether your business has a chance of surviving.

4. No need to delve into programming and UX/UI design.

Disadvantages:

1. The application will not stand out among competitors.

2. Quickly becomes outdated and difficult to adapt to new trends.

3. Unpleasant and dull UX design that repels customers.

4. Changing or improving the platform will be difficult.

5. The application code will not belong to you.

Custom Mobile Apps

Advantages:

1. A friendly interface design enhances customer engagement.

2. Helps you stand out from competitors by being unique.

3. The code belongs to you, and you are not dependent on third-party developers.

4. You can quickly implement a new feature and adapt to new trends.

Disadvantages:

1. Developing a custom application requires a significant financial investment.

2. Creating an application from scratch specifically for you takes time, usually around 3 months before launch.

3. Services for maintaining and upgrading the application are an additional expense.

Choosing Between an Off-the-Shelf Solution and a Custom Application for Your Business

It’s evident that every potential customer of yours owns a smartphone, and your main objective is to maintain close contact with them. Off-the-shelf applications might be cheaper and faster, but they can decrease your competitiveness due to their triviality and lack of user comfort. For this reason, we suggest considering custom applications as your key to success. While some may argue that they are more costly and time-consuming to develop, savvy business person understands that investing in their business is essential. With a custom application, your business gains the following advantages:

Security and Data Protection

In today’s technology-driven world, there are numerous ways to breach databases, and reports of new data breaches make headlines daily. If your application lacks strong security features, potential customers may hesitate to download and try your product. Furthermore, if your application is hacked, it can lead to a loss of trust from your existing customers. Off-the-shelf applications have a foundation, and their security features are based on this foundation. They use established methods for information protection but are vulnerable to hacking over time. By contrast, a custom mobile app can integrate unique and robust methods and mechanisms of protection, enabling you to increase customer loyalty and establish long-term relationships with them.

Business Development and Scaling

The cornerstone of any business is continuous forward momentum. Standing still will only result in competitors surpassing you and stealing your clients. Therefore, a business needs to remain in constant motion. But, as you’re aware, achieving this with an off-the-shelf application is impossible. Ready-made apps aren’t designed to be continually modernized. You get a finished product and forget about it. This approach will hardly foster business growth. That’s why you unquestionably need a custom app that you can improve an unlimited number of times.

If you have an original idea that’s not yet been implemented, a custom application is the only way to bring it to life. For instance, Spotify was one of the first to pioneer music selection based on algorithms. In Spotify, elements of social networks also emerged: profiles and public playlists accessible to anyone. These two features distinguish Spotify and have already propelled it to the forefront of music applications.

Application Support

Companies that sell pre-built solutions claim to include application support in the price, but if you request even minor improvements, they will advise you to use a clean version without modifications. This results in poor support. Furthermore, with a pre-built solution, you don’t own your application. It is hosted on the servers of the company that sold you the application. If the company goes bankrupt, you lose both the application and your customers.

A custom mobile app, on the other hand, allows you to agree on the cost of maintenance and include it in the contract. The development team is the best resource for understanding the application, so it is recommended to pay attention to this point. If you want to change the development team, request detailed documentation on the application development so that the next team can immediately continue the development.

Types of Custom Applications

Before creating a custom application, it is important to consider the platform on which your application will be developed, as it can affect both the app development cost and development process. There are three types of platforms to choose from Native, Cross-Platform, and Hybrid. Each platform has its unique features in terms of coding, interface design, and development process monitoring. It is important to carefully evaluate the pros and cons of each approach for both application users and developers before making a decision on which platform to use.

• Native is developed for a specific operating system, either iOS or Android. This type is suitable for applications with a large volume of complex functions. It is also easier and faster to integrate new features on such a platform. Native platform applications are popular for their high performance.
• Cross-platform applications are designed to work on multiple operating systems at the same time. Unlike Native development, where two separate identical applications are created for iOS and Android platforms, with Cross-platform development, a single application is created to work on both systems. This option is faster and less expensive in terms of development time than Native and is also great for launching MVP.
• Hybrid is a type of platform that combines elements of both Native and Cross-Platform. It is built using web technologies but also uses native code to access device features. Hybrid applications are less expensive to develop than Native and have a shorter development time than building separate applications for each platform. However, their performance and user experience may be inferior to Native applications, so it is important to carefully consider the requirements of your project before choosing a Hybrid platform.

Steps to Create an Application:

1. Analysis – conduct an initial analysis of the market, competitors, and target audience before creating your application. You need to determine the needs of potential customers that your application will satisfy.

2. UX/UI design – to begin with, all blocks, elements, and interactions between them need to be thought out, which is called UX. Then all this needs to be visualized, and you will get an approximate view of your application, which is called UI. After that, you can start creating the design in full.

3. Frontend and Backend development – a frontend developer is responsible for everything the user sees: animations, fonts, and displaying the application on any device and in any browser. A backend specialist is responsible for the internals of the application, for all the mechanisms without which the application cannot exist.

4. Testing is crucial in ensuring a high-quality product release. Testers are responsible for checking the application’s functionality, identifying weaknesses, and fixing errors to ensure that the application is perfect.

5. Additionally, application support during and after release is essential. You cannot simply release an application and forget about it. The development team must continue to work on it, and you must monitor user feedback and continuously improve your product.

We hope that this article has helped you make an informed decision and that you will create a truly unique application that will captivate millions of users worldwide.