A robust mobile strategy is critical for businesses to not just win customers, but to retain them, and grow their target audience. This helps them improve the overall efficiency of their app as well (along with the costs). However, businesses are usually not sure about proceeding with mobile app development.
The million dollar question worth asking at this point is whether or not companies should create custom mobile apps or utilize a ready made app?
Another report reveals that around 72% of companies plan on continuing to keep investing in custom made mobile apps. This is because these apps are personalized to suit certain business needs. They also address perfectly, a specific set of users instead of providing a solution catering to a large audience with differing requirements.
This is a major reason why custom mobile app development has become quite popular and proves to be an option that is attractive, reliable, and workable in multiple aspects.
Choosing between custom versus off-the-shelf development
Mobile apps are not just a luxury item, they are a necessity for organizations to be in touch with their customers. Hence, it is necessary for companies to choose the right mobile strategy. Ready-made mobile apps have some benefits like quick deployment, reduced costs in upfront development and maintenance being part of the maintenance agreement.
These products are suitable for those having no time or expertise in making and testing custom mobile apps. According to professional app developers Toronto, companies might be lucky and discover a readymade off-the-shelf app that suits the needs of their company perfectly. In reality, such isn’t the exact case.
White labeling a mobile app does give businesses the chance to sell directly to their clients. Most businesses claim that their clientele maintain full control of their project, but with a lot of limitations present, such a claim is actually not true.
Now we will be examining the key characteristics of a custom approach to help everyone understand the available options before they enter directly into app development:
Degree of customization
A lot of organizations have specific requirements that readymade off-the-shelf solutions often are unable to address the needs they have. Moreover, They are also not flexible enough to adapt and change as goals change and new requirements come up.
There are some products that allow customization to a large extent. Yet it is important to evaluate the extent of customization needed to satisfy the needs an organization has.
At times, organizations can see that the customization they require is either difficult, or not possible to implement with a product. At times, the effort required to do so is either quite a lot in comparison to developing a custom solution.
Ready-made off-the-shelf are often made to cover some needs of a lot of organizations, meaning that there might be features and functionalities needed that may not be supported easily.
Intellectual property ownership
Development of customized apps allows companies to own the source code and retain the product’s intellectual patents and rights. Meaning ownership of intellectual property of a mobile app is instrumental in helping firms adapt quickly to changing market needs.
User experience is personalized in custom mobile apps
The user interface (UI) is another important factor affecting the user experience (UX) of a mobile app along with the usability. While most ready-made apps offer a generic User Interface (UI), some allow companies and users to make adjustments to cater towards individual preferences.
With a custom mobile app, the User Interface (UI) can be customized to a large extent. It can also be tested and validated to make sure it is meeting and exceeding users’ expectations.
Personalization helps provide users an improved experience. It is instrumental in raising user engagement and retention. If the user experience is perfectly aligned with what users need and prefer, then they are more likely to continue using the app (app ideas).
In a time where customer experience is core to help organizations succeed, and mobile users are demanding more personalized and relevant experiences on a higher level; ready-made app solutions are no longer useful to anyone these days as custom apps have it all.