The Best Salesforce Commerce Cloud App Builders and App Development Companies

Salesforce Commerce Cloud has a lot of features - but no native mobile app builder.

It has all the plumbing for a native app; APIs and headless architecture built to allow you to ship a native app for your store. But getting the rest of the way; building the app part on top of SFCC’s APIs; is not exactly simple.

That’s what we’ve heard, at least, from numerous Salesforce Commerce Cloud merchants, such as John Varvatos, Bestseller, Junior Couture to name a few. They wanted a mobile app, but ideally without the cost and complexity of a custom app project.

So what’s the best option? Are there ecommerce app builders (no-code tools) that hold up for a brand like yours? Is the agency route better? Is it something you can actually do yourself?

Keep reading and we’ll explain everything you need to know to get your app project off the ground.

How to Build a Mobile App on Salesforce Commerce Cloud

There are many different ways to build a mobile app.

The absolute best end product you could get would be a custom native app, built from the ground up.

But the truth is, a custom native build is not as far ahead in quality as you would expect. Not enough to justify the huge operational tax of building a new channel you need to maintain and update separately from your site.

“If we had unlimited time and money, we would probably go for a custom native app, but that is half a million to a million a year to maintain.”

We’ll touch a little more on the realities of a custom “from scratch” build later. But you’re probably aware of this to some degree already (that’s why you’re here).

Simpler options can still give you an output of a similar standard, without turning you into a software company.

The choice is basically between productized versions of an app, and an agency providing a more custom version.

There’s still a decision to make: how much you want to invest, and how much ongoing complexity you want from the project.

But at the end of the day, you need something capable of holding up at SFCC scale, and providing an app that matches the user experience on your website.

Few companies are built for that. We’ve rounded up a few that are.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud Mobile App Options: at a Glance

The Best Mobile App Builders and Development Partners for Salesforce Commerce Cloud

We’ve rounded up five companies that can help you launch a native app for your Salesforce Commerce Cloud store, easier and more economically than a full custom build.

1. MobiLoud: For a Custom App on Your Existing SFCC Stack

Key features: 

• Native iOS and Android apps powered by your existing Salesforce Commerce Cloud storefront
• Your catalog, custom checkout, B2B and multi-region logic, promotions, and integrations carry over to the app
• Fully managed: MobiLoud builds, designs, submits, and maintains the app, including OS and app-store policy updates
• Native push notifications, deep linking, and native navigation
• Typically live in six to eight weeks, with no second storefront or codebase to maintain

MobiLoud is a fully managed service that helps you build a custom mobile app using your existing SFCC tech stack.

One codebase powers both web and app. Instead of configuring a custom frontend and using Salesforce’s APIs to sync data across both platforms, MobiLoud’s unique approach lets you publish a custom app, managed from the same place as your existing site.

MobiLoud’s team takes care of the app for you, and will help implement any custom native features you need in the app.

The result is a full-featured, fully custom mobile app, but much easier and more cost-effective than a “from scratch” build.

MobiLoud already powers the mobile apps for multiple Salesforce Commerce Cloud brands, including John Varvatos, the Bestseller group (which includes Jack & Jones, ONLY and Vero Moda), and Junior Couture.

"A custom app build for our Salesforce Commerce Cloud setup would have been prohibitively expensive. MobiLoud was the only realistic option."
- Nick Barbarise, Director of IT, John Varvatos

2. JMango360: For a Done-for-You No-Code App

Key features:

• Native iOS and Android apps, built done-for-you over a few weeks of sprints with weekly check-ins and app-growth support after launch
• Syncs product and order data from your SFCC backend through an integration, managed in JMango360's own dashboard
• Push notifications (manual and behavior-based, including back-in-stock and order status), native checkout via Braintree or Stripe, and Elasticsearch
• Barcode scanning and B2B features like login-gated pricing, plus 40-plus integrations including Klaviyo and Yotpo
• Supports SFCC alongside Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, and Shopify

JMango360 is a multi-platform ecommerce app builder that supports Salesforce Commerce Cloud alongside Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, and Shopify. 

It’s a no-code app builder, catering to a more upmarket customer base than the typical software tool. Their team provides hands-on service throughout the process, helping you design and develop a custom app through their platform.

The app is a native iOS and Android front end that connects to your store backend through an integration and keeps product and order data in sync.

Pricing is quoted per project rather than published, though Capterra lists indicative tiers of roughly €499, €899, and €1,499 a month. JMango360 holds a 4.6 out of 5 across 10 reviews on G2 and 4.8 across 13 reviews on Capterra, with reviewers consistently praising the partnership and support.

"Launching our own mobile app has been the best decision we made last year. 50% of orders now come in-app. I wish we'd done this sooner."
- Sonia Giogini, Global eCommerce Manager, Subdued

3. Poq Commerce: For Retail Brands That Want a Native App Plus App Marketing

Key features

• MACH-certified headless platform; its Salesforce Native App Platform (SNAP) integrates with B2C Commerce through the Commerce APIs and powers a separate native iOS and Android front end
• Pulls your content, catalog, accounts, and checkout, with a deep Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement tie-in
• In-app stories and lookbooks, barcode scanning, and loyalty via Talon.One
• Managed service for development and app marketing; day-to-day content and merchandising run in Poq's Elevate dashboard, with fuller self-serve control on higher tiers

Poq Commerce is a native app platform built specifically for retail, and its Salesforce Native App Platform (SNAP) is its SFCC product, listed on the Salesforce AppExchange. 

It's a MACH-certified headless approach: SNAP integrates with Salesforce B2C Commerce through the Commerce APIs and powers a separate native iOS and Android front end that pulls your content, catalog, accounts, and checkout. 

Poq pairs the platform with a managed service, handling development and app marketing, while day-to-day content and merchandising are managed in its Elevate dashboard. Fuller self-serve control sits on higher tiers.

Pricing starts from £2,500 a month per the AppExchange listing, with full tiers quoted directly. Poq holds a 4.6 out of 5 across 10 reviews on G2.

"They are an extension of our team and they've truly become a part of the family. We lean on them as our mobile app experts, providing strategic direction, feature development, marketing services, and performance reviews."
- Shana Rungsarangnont, Associate Director, Digital Product, E.L.F. Beauty

4. OSF Digital: For a SFCC Agency That Handles Your App Build

Key features:

• A full-service systems integrator covering SFCC implementation, headless and composable storefronts, and native mobile app development
• A proprietary ecommerce mobile accelerator built to plug into SFCC infrastructure
• Salesforce Summit consulting partner, the top tier, with one of the deepest Commerce Cloud specializations of any agency

OSF Digital is a Salesforce Summit consulting partner, the top partner tier, with one of the deepest Commerce Cloud specializations of any agency. 

It’s a full-service systems integrator: SFCC implementation, headless and composable storefronts, and native mobile app development, including a proprietary ecommerce mobile accelerator built to plug into SFCC infrastructure. 

In short, they’re a complete agency partner for brands on Salesforce, and as part of that, they can handle your mobile app. As a custom build, you can expect the cost and timeline to be more in line with what it costs to build an app from scratch, as opposed to the more efficient options higher up in this list.

OSF holds Summit partner status and more than 300 reviews on its Salesforce AppExchange consulting listing, backed by over 1,100 certified experts and 900-plus Salesforce-verified projects, and a 4.8 rating across thousands of customer references on FeaturedCustomers. 

"OSF has been a stellar partner in our transition to the Salesforce Commerce Cloud platform. Their extensive experience and expertise was invaluable in navigating the significant complexities inherent in replatforming."
- Mary Brown, Director of Ecommerce Product and Customer Experience, Title Nine

5. Valtech: For Enterprises That Want Agency-Grade Native App Craft

Key features: 

• A global digital agency and Salesforce Summit partner with a substantial B2C Commerce practice spanning implementations and composable storefronts
• Fully native apps with separate Swift and Kotlin codebases, built bespoke to your specification
• Commerce Cloud delivery and native app craft from the same partner

Valtech is a global digital agency and Salesforce Summit partner with a substantial B2C Commerce practice that spans implementations and composable storefronts. 

On mobile, it builds native apps with separate Swift and Kotlin codebases, which suits brands that want a bespoke, design-led app built to their own specification. 

For an SFCC brand, the appeal is getting heavyweight Commerce Cloud delivery and serious native app craft from the same partner.

Valtech holds a 4.8 out of 5 across 75 reviews on Clutch, which lists a typical minimum project size of $250,000. Its Commerce Cloud work includes replatforming Deciem, the parent of The Ordinary, onto Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Pricing is quoted per project.

Obviously, we’re again talking custom development price ranges (and complexity), not a productized approach. It’s up to you if that’s the road you want to go down for your app.

"Valtech worked closely with DECIEM to transform our monolithic homegrown commerce solution into a modern e-commerce integrated ecosystem empowered by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Valtech delivered an MVP product adhering to the agreed timelines and continued working with our teams to enhance and support the product once in production."
- Julio Torres, Director of Technology, Deciem

The Best Mobile App Approach for Salesforce Commerce Cloud Brands

I’ll start by saying that there’s no single way to build an app that’s “better” than any other. The ideal approach could change for each store, each business, in line with their own requirements.

But here’s my take. Admittedly, it’s biased, as our product (MobiLoud) is one of the options to build a mobile app for your Salesforce store. But it’s a take that comes from the real conversations we’ve had with ecommerce leaders running on SFCC.

In terms of the user experience, your existing SFCC store can do virtually everything your app needs to do.

You can ship powerful, mobile-first experiences through your website. You probably already are.

Your site isn’t the limitation. The browser is.

MobiLoud lets you ship a custom, powerful native app, without adding a new channel to manage in parallel to your site. It’s a custom experience - not a basic wrapper, not a website in a box - yet your existing team can update the app, make changes, add new features, through your existing systems.

This is a major competitive advantage, and changes a lot about the long-term viability of your app.

Building In-House

For most people we talk to, the first instinct is to see if you can build a mobile app in-house.

As mentioned earlier, SFCC provides all the wiring you need to create a mobile app for your store. There’s PWA Kit and Composable Storefront, the SCAPI, and headless architecture you can use to do this.

It’s not that you can’t build a custom app yourself. But it’s probably not the best use of your resources.

Nick from John Varvatos told us this, about the process they went through to find the best way to build their app: 

“I educated myself on how to create it [the app]. To find who can do it for us, what price, amount of time, amount of money. When I saw how high priced it was and I looked at my budget, I thought, maybe I can learn how to do this myself. So I took a couple classes and figured it out. It was still super hard, especially around updates and maintenance and things like that. You can get it to a certain point, launch it, and then you're still monitoring, you're still maintaining it. It needs approvals, screenshots, downloads, documents, certifications.”

That’s the real tax of a custom build.

You, or your team, can learn how to build a native app. It’s not rocket science. But the problem is, then you have a product you’re responsible for, every little bit of maintenance and upkeep that comes with a native app.

With a managed solution like MobiLoud, it’s just easier. And the end result, realistically, is essentially the same as you’d get with a custom build, anyway.

There’s just no reason to spend 50-100x as much, and take on the ongoing work that a custom build requires.

Final Thoughts

Your store should have an app. And if your goal is to launch a high-performing mobile app on Salesforce Commerce Cloud (without delays, dev strain, or duplicated effort) MobiLoud is the way to do it.

Full development agencies are an option too. So are productized app builders like JMango360 and Poq Commerce.

But we stand by what we do at MobiLoud - the flexibility of our solution, and the level of service we provide, which is exactly what you need as a busy enterprise brand.

If you want to see what your app could look like, get a free preview now. We’ll build an interactive demo for you, and walk you through our process, what you need from an app, and how we can help you launch as efficiently as possible.