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As a website or blog owner in a wold where the mobile Web is quickly taking over, it’s important to have a mobile Web app or native app for your blog or website. More and more users are accessing the Web while on-the-go when they’re at school, at work, shopping, in waiting rooms, and even in their vehicles. Having a mobile app for your website gives users quick access; plus with the icon being displayed on one of their home screens, it’s a constant reminder for them to visit your site.
You may think that creating a mobile app is too difficult and out of your reach unless you have a lot of money, but that’s not true at all! We’ll take a look at 10 of the best free tools available for creating both mobile and native Web apps. These tools are not only free, but most require no technical or programming knowledge and are quick and easy to use.
With Appatista you can make apps for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad for free. It involves downloading the Appatista iOS app to your device and then using it to customize your own mobile app. You can create your app from a single RSS feed or mashup of various RSS feeds.
When you’re done, you can preview your app in mobile Safari. Additionally, your app will include a share button so that anyone who uses it can help spread the word. It’s as easy as that!
AppsGeyser helps you to create, distribute, and monetize your app via a shared ad space. It’s a platform that is exclusively for Android mobile apps and you can even sell any apps that you create to AppsGeyser for a profit. You can create your app by entering any URL or copying and pasting an HTML widget code.
AppsGeyser distributes your app through their network; you’re paid every time someone clicks on one of your ads. AppsGeyser supports HTML 5 and includes social sharing features and advanced statistics.
Conduit lets you create mobile apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and Bada just by typing in your website URL. You can add different types of content to your app such as RSS, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Photos, Maps, and more.
It’s easy to customize the look and feel of your app by changing the app icon, style, background, and color scheme. Conduit also lets you choose your navigation style: bottom tabs, top tabs, menu, or buttons. If you want to be able to make money from your mobile app, be sure to enable advertisements. Conduit offers a simple one-stop solution for anyone that wants to mobilize their website.
If you’re looking for an easy way to create a mobile app, then you’ll love Appsbar; in just 3 easy steps you’ll have a free iOS or Android app. First, select the type of app that you want to create. Second, design and preview your app using the wizard (Digi).
Here you can name your app, select an icon, create a splash screen, change your color scheme, and create your actual content. Lastly, Appsbar will publish your app to iTunes and/or the Android Marketplace. It’s never been easier to create an app and get it published to the public.
“MobileNation provides a powerful drag-and-drop environment for designing bespoke mobile applications all within your web browser.” This advanced tool gives you total control over how your app looks and functions - no cookie cutter templates here.
Everything is done by dragging and dropping widgets to any area that you desire; widgets can be found in the widget library, where you’ll find everything from Google Maps to Facebook commenting widgets. You can also add your own videos and images via the “Media Repository” for a personal touch.
Though Tiggr describes itself as “the fastest and easiest way to create mobile apps,” it also includes numerous advanced functions and features. With the mobile apps builder, you can create HTML5 apps for iOS, Android, and PhoneGap. The UI includes popular jQuery mobile components with drag-and-drop functionality. You can even add custom JavaScript or load 3rd party JavaScript libraries to be used within your app.
Apps can be tested in your Web browser or via Tiggr mobile tester. There is also a collaboration function for teams and an export feature that lets you export as HTML/CSS/JS, Eclipse project, .apk, or xCode project.
Onswipe is an awesome tool for blog owners who want to make their blogs look like native apps on tablet Web browsers. You can literally have your mobile Web app setup in under 3 minutes. Features include: the ability to make your blog feel like an app, full page ad integration (designed specifically for tablets), design customization options, recommended content to your readers, and social media integration.
There are thousands of layout combinations, so you won’t have to worry about your layout looking like everyone else using this tool. If you are using WordPress, you can install the Onswipe WordPress plugin for instant transformation of your blog.
MoSoync is an advanced, feature-rich cross-platform mobile application development SDK for “creating richer, faster apps for iOS, Android, and the other major mobile platforms”. Platforms supported include: iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Moblin/MeeGo, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Java ME, and MoRE (MoSync emulator).
Features include (some features may not be available on certain platforms): basic graphics, basic audio, HTTPS communication, bluetooth discovery, camera access, sending SMS, Vibration, sensors, HTML5 (wormhole), custom UIs, Twitter API integration, XML parsing libraries, and much much more.
Genwi lets you create apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and HTML5 (iSites). Your apps come with numerous advanced features like radio playback, Blogger and WordPress importing, ad control (via AdMob), RSS and Atom Integration, Twitter and Facebook sharing, in-app subscriptions, bump and share, real-time analytics, push notifications, geo-location, and much more. While this tool is not free, they do offer a 30-day free trial.
With all of the features that it has, it’s definitely worth the price if you’re looking for a great, professional looking app. However, with the free trial you can only create HTML5 (iSites), so keep that in mind.
Finally we have AppCobra, another tool that is not free, but provides a 30-day free trial. AppCobra lets you create native apps for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android, HP webOS, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Smart TVs - all right on your computer. You can also create mobile Web apps (which users will be able to add to their home screens) or you can get a URL that users can use to access your app directly online.
There is no programming knowledge needed and includes features like HTML5 compatibility, geo-location, WebKit styles and animations, finger gestures, and the ability to create interactive apps like quizzes, slide shows, and assessments.
Which Tool is Best?If you’re looking for the tool that is quickest and easiest to use, your best bet is Conduit or Appsbar. However, if you’re looking for the best free tool with the most advanced features and functionality, MobileNation and MoSync are your best options. It all depends on what you’re looking for and how much work you’re willing to put into it. Plus, you’ll also need to think about which platforms you want to support; it’s a great idea to at least have both an iOS and Android app.
So which tool do you feel is most promising and which tool will you use to create your own mobile app?
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