
I first got hooked on Ionic as a wrapper framework to export web apps to both the iOS store and Google Play Store. Educational for young children.Ĭons: Minimal online connectivity. That said, because Gamesalad markets itself as an educational tool, there are plenty of great discounts for students! This means Gamesalad is great for single player games or black-box apps.

With only minimal database and multiplayer support, it’s difficult to allow apps to communicate with each other. The main criticism with Gamesalad is that it does lack many external features. The simple design and intuitive IDE allows developers to program many different types of apps. It has many amazing built-in game engine features. But don’t let the education label fool you, many developers have still used this tool to launch apps on the iOS store that reached #1! Gamesalad is an educational and gaming platform. Pros: Cross-platform, live-testing, feature rich, Firebase and Airtable API support.Ĭons: Can produce oversized apps.

This would add a lot more flexibility to build 95% of an app with drag and drop, and then code the last 5%. Practically every drag and drop tool suffers from this issue.Īdditionally I believe Thunkable could really benefit from a feature that translates apps built on their platform into Swift and Java code. Of course this issue isn’t unique to Thunkable. But Thunkable isn’t perfect.įor instance, Thunkable sometimes produces applications that are much more oversized than they need to be. These powerful features make Thunkable the industry leader in my mind. They also have a nifty live-testing feature so you can test apps in real time.

Thunkable is also a cross-platform mobile app builder, so every app you build works for both Android and iOS devices with no environment setup or fiddling with boilerplates. This includes the ability to connect your apps to AirTable, Firebase, One Signal and other APIs. Where other platforms lack flexibility and customization, Thunkable has a robust offering of features and functionality. Overall, Thunkable is the best platform if you want an industry grade no-code development tool. Here are my top three recommendations for 2020: #1 Thunkable There are times when coding is the only option, and times when an app can be knocked out in a few hours with the right tool.Īs a mobile developer for hire, I’ve spent hours weighing the different pros and cons for different app building platforms.

That’s because knowing when to code and when to use an app building platform can greatly impact a client’s budget and schedule. In the growing world of low-code and no-code, dozens of app building platforms claim to offer the best solution for building native mobile apps.Īnd for freelance mobile developers, finding the right tool can be a game-changer.
