In this article, we'll give you a brief overview of Drobile, how it works, and the pros and cons. We'll compare it to 5 different Drobile alternatives including our own platform, MobiLoud, which we believe is the ideal choice for serious businesses to convert web stores to professional eCommerce apps.
What is Drobile?
Drobile is a mobile app builder for Shopify eCommerce businesses.
Now let's take a look at Drobile's pricing.
Drobile Pricing
Drobile has 3 tiers of pricing:
- Pro: $80/mo
- Plus: $150/mo
- Premium: $500/mo
In their Pro plan, you'll get both Android & iOS apps with unlimited push notifications, app analytics, and Google & Apple pay integrations. The Plus plan is an upgrade with an integrated rewards program, multi-language, and multi-currency support. If you need premium integrations and advanced analytics, then the Premium plan is for you.
Drobile Pros & Cons
Drobile is relatively inexpensive and seems to have a good level of service. However, as a drag-and-drop app builder it will never be able to completely recreate your web store's functionality.
Now we've had an overview of the tool, its pricing, and its pros and cons. It's time to move on and start looking at some Drobile alternatives, starting with our own site-to-app platform, MobiLoud.
Drobile Alternative #1: MobiLoud
MobiLoud powers thousands of top apps, and allows you to convert your site into native eCommerce apps in just days, for a fraction of the cost of custom development.
Our eCommerce app platform integrates with any CMS - whether it's Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop or any other - and let you reuse every plugin, feature and functionality from your main web store.
MobiLoud is the best way to convert your web store into native eCommerce apps for iOS and Android, as well as the best alternative to Drobile.
There are several key reasons why:
- No templates, no blocks, no APIs - we don't restrict you to our pre-built front-ends, we allow you to convert your web store completely, and to reuse all your existing plugins, themes, and tech stack.
- Keep what works - you already built your ideal site for the web, tweaking it endlessly for conversions and sales. With MobiLoud you can translate that directly into m-commerce native apps, without needing to reinvent the wheel. You already did the hard part, we handle the rest!
- Easy Management - many app builder platforms like Drobile gives you an extra CMS to manage, adding work for you and your team. Since MobiLoud apps sync with your web store in real time, this work is eliminated, you just need to keep managing and updating your store as usual, and if you want to change something specifically for the apps, use our easy no-code UI.
- Done for you - there's no need for you to fiddle, drag-and-drop, or waste time trying to set the apps up. You just need to tell us any special requirements, add some key information, and our team handle all technical aspects of the app build including submissions to Google Play and the AppStore.
MobiLud Pricing
We have two standard pricing tiers:
- Startup - For fast launching and validation: $170/month
- Growth - Perfect for more established businesses: $382/month
We also have custom, corporate plan for more demanding projects. Read more about our pricing here.
The difference between MobiLoud and Drobile is clear.
MobiLoud takes you beyond what is possible with a templated solution like Drobile, allowing you to build apps that completely match the features and power of your Shopify store. You can leverage Shopify's entire ecosystem of plugins and tools to build truly custom and unique apps.
Want to skip the rest and get your questions answered by one of our team?
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Now we've blown our own trumpet, here are a few other Drobile alternatives that you're likely to see around the web.
Drobile Alternative #2: Tapcart
Tapcart is a straightforward platform that empowers businesses to build mobile apps for Shopify without coding knowledge. It's favored by small and medium-sized eCommerce businesses. Still, some users may find the templates and blocks to be somewhat constrained when compared to a more customizable solution like MobiLoud.
Tapcart Pricing
Tapcart has three plans:
- Core - with 15 blocks, basic features, and basic integrations - $200/mo
- Ultimate - with unlimited blocks, advanced features, and integrations - $400/mo
- Enterprise - with unlimited custom blocks, dedicated customer success manager, and premium integrations - $1K/mo
The more costly the plan is, the better app features and benefits you get.
Drobile Alternative #3: Vajro
Vajro is a budget-friendly Shopify-focused drag-and-drop app builder, and a decent option for smaller eCommerce apps. It heavily relies on templates and drag-and-drop widgets to create branded apps connected to Shopify through API. However, due to this reliance on templates, you will not be able to recreate the functionality of your web store, even on higher-tier plans.
Vajro Pricing
Vajro has four plans:
- Starter - basic features and integrations - $99/mo
- Core - advanced features and integrations - $249/mo
- Premium - premium features and integrations - $499/mo
- Plus - premium features, integrations, and priority support - $999/mo
The more costly the plan is, the better app functionalities and benefits you get.
Drobile Alternative #4: Shopney
Shopney provides an intuitive, drag-and-drop app builder for Shopify eCommerce stores. It's notable for its durable integrations, themes, and features. It can be a good choice if you're after a simple app reflecting your site's product catalogue. However, as a template-based builder, it can't fully change your site into iOS and Android apps or utilize all your plugins, themes, and features. For complex and unique businesses, this will be limiting, forcing your store to conform to their pre-set templates.
Shopney Pricing
Shopney has four plans:
- Silver - basic features with flexible design - $99/mo
- Gold - basic features with flexible design with 20 elements - $199/mo
- Platinum - advanced features and unlimited design elements - $499/mo
- Enterprise - premium features and functionalities and a dedicated success manager - starting from $999/mo
Drobile Alternative #5: Apptile
Using "tiles" or blocks, Apptile provides an app builder platform that allows users to create eCommerce apps for iOS and Android. Generally well-reviewed, Apptile offers a thoughtful selection of integrations and features. However, as a block-based editor, it's hard to create more than a basic, "cookie cutter" app that can't replicate the richness of your web store. Apptile supports ~15 integrations for Shopify, covering a number of the biggest ones. However, since Shopify offers thousands of plugins and tools, this is just a drop in the ocean.
Apptile Pricing
Apptile provides three plans:
- Core - basic features - free with a 5% success fee
- Plus - enhanced features - $600/mo
- Enterprise - premium features - $1200/mo
The more costly plans remove success fees and add advanced benefits.
Let's Build Your eCommerce Apps
We've looked at a few Drobile alternatives, and given you some key information about each.
As we've seen, many of these tools share the same fatal flaws. On the one hand - their reliance on blocks, themes, templates, and pre-built widgets does allow you to build and launch (some kind of) eCommerce app fast, affordably and easily compared to custom development. On the other, this same reliance puts you and your brand in a straightjacket.
It means that you will only ever approximate your web store, and you'll be forever at the mercy of whatever pre-built features they have as well as whatever data they can fetch via API (which can change). The apps will be a branded shell with some of your data pulled in and not much more.
While this is OK for simple stores is basic and small product ranges and features, this will almost always be a deal breaker for serious eCommerce brands. You probably have a finely-tuned tech stack, along with all the plugins, third-party integrations, and custom features you need to drive sales and revenue optimally. To discard all this hard work for cookie-cutter apps with your logo on will rarely make strategic sense.
That's why, although we're biased of course, we believe MobiLoud is not only the best Drobile alternative but a superior alternative to every eCommerce mobile app builder on the market.
The first key reason: we allow you to reuse everything from your site in the apps.
If it already works well on the mobile web, it'll be even better as iOS and Android apps. It makes no sense to ditch that winning formula and those painstakingly chosen tools just to compromise with restrictive templates. That's too much of downgrade from what you've already built, and with MobiLoud - unnecessary. Keep what already works.
The second core reason: it's so simple to manage MobiLoud apps.
Platforms like Drobile will often add hours per week to your workflow with effectively a new CMS to manage. In contrast - MobiLoud apps sync in real time with your site. There's no need to manually add new product lines, update pricing, or worry about keeping the apps up to date. The apps will reflect changes and updates to your site instantly.
This goes for any core changes you make to your site too. You can switch out plugins, pull off a major rebrand, or build whatever custom functionality you choose. It doesn't matter what it is - it'll work straight out of the box in the apps, which can grow with your brand into the future.
On top of this, our team handle any ongoing updates and maintenance needed as part of our service, along with all fiddly aspects of the app build and bringing them live to Google Play and the AppStore. We work with you to ensure your apps are a success, and we're only ever an email or phone call away.
MobiLoud allows you to combine the best of the web with the best of native apps. It's a winning formula, check out the success these eCommerce brands have had:
Over 1000 other businesses have used MobiLoud to build winning apps - and you can too.
Unlike with Drobile, there's no risk. We don't do long-term contracts and we'll refund you if you're unhappy with the apps. If you're like most of our eCommerce customers - the apps will pay for themselves almost immediately.
It all starts with a call with one of our app experts, where we go over your exact requirements for the apps and answer your questions.
