The best app builder for small business is the one where you can see the whole bill before you start.
There is no single best app builder for small business, but there is a best way to pick one. Add up the whole first year, then look at what you are holding at the end of it. The subscription is rarely the big number. Any app your customers install costs 99 USD a year to Apple and 25 USD once to Google, in your own name, for as long as the app exists. Then add the hours somebody spends on screenshots, store listings and review replies. The wider case for apps for small business is a separate question. This page is the money and the fit.
Our answer splits three ways, and the split is the useful part. If the app is for your own staff and a browser link is fine, skip the stores and your bill is one subscription. If customers install it and it will barely change after launch, a packaged builder costs less effort than anything else. If you expect to change it most months, choose a tool that hands you the source code. That is the only version of this where year two costs less than year one.
Find the shape that fits youThe short version
The subscription is the small number, the store accounts are the permanent one.
Apple's enrollment page, read on 1 October 2026, puts the Apple Developer Program at 99 USD a year, in local currency where available. Google's Play Console help page puts the Android side at a one-time US 25 dollar registration fee, and adds that prepaid cards are not accepted. So a small business shipping to both stores pays about 124 USD in the first year and 99 USD every year after, before a single screen exists. Those accounts belong in your business name. They hold your listings, your reviews and your ability to push a fix on a Friday.
Builders sit on top of that, and the numbers below come from each small business app builder's own page, read today. Glide lists a free tier and a Basic plan at 25 dollars a month. Adalo lists Starter at 36 dollars a month billed annually, and its own toggle says monthly billing costs 20 percent more. GoodBarber's list starts at 30 EUR a month billed yearly. What each one buys differs enough that the monthly figure alone will mislead you.
What a small business app really costs in year one
Start with the fixed part, because it is the same whichever builder you choose. Apple's enrollment page gives the Apple Developer Program annual fee as 99 USD, with the Enterprise Program at 299 USD, and says prices are listed in local currency during enrollment. Google charges a single US 25 dollars to register a Play Console account. Neither is optional once customers install your app, and neither depends on how the app was built.
Enrolling as a business is paperwork, not a checkout. Apple's page says an organization needs legal entity status and that it does not accept DBAs, fictitious businesses, trade names or branches. It asks for a D-U-N-S number, which Dun and Bradstreet assign and which Apple says is free in most jurisdictions. It also wants a work email on your own domain and a website on that domain that is publicly available and functional. A sole proprietor enrolls personally instead, and Apple says your personal legal name is then listed as the seller on the App Store. Owners tend to find that out late.
Then the builder, then the time. Free tiers exist, but Glide's own comparison table shows zero published apps on its free plan, so free means build and test rather than ship. On top of the subscription and the two fees, budget two days to two weeks of somebody's attention, depending on how much store work the tool does for you. Year two drops the 25 USD and keeps everything else.
Apple, Apple Developer Program enrollment and membership fee, read 1 October 2026
The store cut you probably will not pay
The 15 or 30 percent everybody worries about usually does not apply here. Apple's App Review Guidelines cover it in guideline 3.1.3(e). If your app sells physical goods, or services consumed outside the app, you must use payment methods other than in-app purchase, such as Apple Pay or ordinary card entry. A bakery taking orders, a salon taking bookings and a shop selling furniture are all in that category. You pay your card processor, the same as you do at the counter.
The cut arrives when you sell something digital inside the app: a subscription to content, a paid download, credits, a course. Apple's App Store Small Business Program page puts that commission at 15 percent on paid apps and Apple in-app purchases. Developers with up to 1 million USD in proceeds in the prior calendar year qualify, and so do developers new to the App Store. Google's own service fee page says 97 percent of developers distribute at no charge, and that of those who do pay a service fee, 99 percent are eligible for 15 percent or less through its programs. Both are platforms describing their own fees, which is the only kind of number worth quoting.
So the cost question at this size is not the commission. It is whether a free plan can actually publish, and what you are still paying in year three. We took that apart in free vs paid app builders. The short version: the store fees are fixed, the commission rarely touches a local business, and the subscription is the only line left to argue with.
Which builder fits which small business
If the app is a staff tool, look at the spreadsheet builders first. Glide's own site describes GlideOS as an AI app builder for internal business apps, built from a spreadsheet, a prompt or a file, and talks about launching on desktop and mobile. Its pricing page does not mention the App Store, Google Play, iOS or Android anywhere, which tells you the shape: a browser tool your team opens, not something a customer installs. Its plans run from the free tier to Basic at 25 dollars a month, Plus at 50 and Pro at 125. For stock counts, job sheets and checklists, that is the cheapest honest answer on this page.
If customers install it and the app is a known shape, the packaged builders earn their keep. These are the tools usually marketed as a local business app maker. GoodBarber's technology page says it produces 100 percent native apps, written in Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android. Its price list starts at 30 EUR a month billed yearly, after a 30 day trial that asks for no credit card. Its publishing page says GoodBarber submits to both stores using your own developer accounts, at 50 dollars for 5 submission credits. Adalo sells Starter at 36 dollars a month billed annually with one published app and publishing to both stores, and its own FAQ names the Apple and Google fees as the extra costs. Restaurants are a world of their own, which is why we wrote a best app builder for restaurants page.
If you expect to keep changing the app, weigh ownership instead of features. A packaged builder is a rental: the app lives in the editor, and what you can change is what the editor exposes. A builder that writes a real project leaves you files a developer can pick up, which matters the first time you need something the editor does not do. What should push you the other way is simple. If the app will not change after launch, or you want a human handling submissions, the packaged route is less work and you should take it.
Three questions
What your business should build on
Who opens it every week?
Does it have to be installed from a store?
How often will it change after launch?
A builder that hands you the code, such as Newly
Changing the app most months is where owning a real React Native project pays, because the fifth change costs about what the first one did and nothing is trapped in an editor you rent.
When a small business should not build an app
Most local businesses get more from a fast mobile site than from an app nobody installs. An app for a small business earns its place when the same people come back: a loyalty card, reordering, bookings, a staff rota, a delivery round. If your honest guess at installs in year one is under a few hundred, the 99 USD is the least of it. The real cost is the attention the thing asks for every month after launch.
The failure mode is not launch, it is month seven. Nobody owns updates, the listing goes stale, an iOS release breaks something, the card on the subscription expires. Test the effort before you commit. GoodBarber starts every plan with a 30 day free trial and no credit card, and the Adalo and Glide free tiers both show zero published apps in their own comparison tables. Build the thing and feel the work before any of it reaches a store. Decide who presses the update button, by name, before you pay for anything.
If it is genuinely a working tool rather than a shop window, it usually starts as one boring screen that replaces a paper pad. An invoice app is the clearest version of that, so we built a concrete example instead of describing one. Start there, keep it on one phone for a fortnight, and only then decide whether it needs accounts, a server and a place in the stores.
What each option costs and what you get for it
| Tool | Price on its own page, read 1 October 2026 | What that page says you get | Whose store accounts | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newly | one flat monthly plan, no free tier | a React Native and TypeScript project you own, previewed on cloud simulators | yours, and you press submit | an app you expect to change most months |
| GoodBarber | from 30 EUR a month billed yearly, 40 EUR for eCommerce | native apps in Swift and Kotlin, plus a progressive web app | yours, GoodBarber can submit from them for 50 dollars per 5 credits | a shop or restaurant that wants ordering and pickup |
| Adalo | 36 dollars a month on Starter, billed annually | one published app, publishing to the App Store and Google Play | yours, Adalo lists both store fees itself | a drag and drop app with a built in database |
| Glide | free tier, then 25 dollars a month on Basic | internal business apps from a spreadsheet, a prompt or a file | none mentioned anywhere on its pricing page | staff tools that never need a store |
| Apple and Google | 99 USD a year plus 25 USD once | the developer accounts your listings and reviews live in | yours, in your legal name or your legal entity | every app a customer installs |
Building it so year two costs less than year one
The cost that bites a small business is not the first build, it is the tenth small change. Prices go up, a menu item moves, a new member of staff needs a login, the tax rate changes. Judge any tool on that: what the second change costs, and who can make it if the person who built the app leaves.
Newly is an AI app builder. You describe the app in plain English and it writes a real React Native and TypeScript project you own, runs it on cloud iOS and Android simulators while it builds, then ships it to TestFlight and to Google Play internal testing. It is $25 a month and there is no free plan. New apps start local-first, with their data on the phone, no accounts and no server, which suits a stock list or a job sheet exactly. The agent adds Newly Backend only when the app needs accounts, shared data, syncing or payments, bringing sign-in, an API service, a Postgres database per environment and file storage.
What you keep is the part that matters at this size. The code comes out as a ZIP from project Settings, through two-way GitHub sync under Deploy, or with the CLI, so a developer can pick it up later without starting again. The upload goes to your own App Store Connect account, owner or admin only, and we do not submit for review, so the listing, the seller name and the submit button stay yours.
Questions small business owners ask before they build
It depends on who opens the app. For a staff tool that lives in a browser, a spreadsheet builder such as Glide is cheapest because you skip the stores. For a customer app in a fixed shape, a packaged builder such as GoodBarber or Adalo does the store work for you. For an app you will keep changing, pick one that gives you the source code. Price the store fees into all three.
Price the whole thing, then build the boring version first
Write down the one job the app does, who opens it, and whether it has to be installed. Add 99 USD a year and 25 USD once if the answer is yes. Then build the smallest version that does that job and put it in one person's hands.
Start building