Buildfire vs MobiLoud: Two Different Ways to Build Your App
Buildfire and MobiLoud are two prominent names in the no-code mobile app space. Learn the core differences in each one's approach, and which one suits your project the best.
Unlike Buildfire, you won't need to spend time rebuilding your website as an app, trying to fit your web experience into their templates.
We're a complete service, that actually converts your site into an app, keeping all the features of your website in the app.
Your website and app will be fully synced, with any changes to your website automatically carrying over to your mobile apps.
MobiLoud is perfect for websites built on any platform, and all kinds of web-first businesses, including ecommerce stores, web apps, and online communities.
We let you launch apps for iOS and Android, while continuing to manage only one platform - your website.
Our experts handle maintenance and updates for your app, while you enjoy the benefits of having your own native apps, with push notifications and everything that goes into a fully native user experience.
Trusted by 2,000+ brands including:
We guarantee your app's success
Our team doesn't just build your app - we partner with you to make it successful, from launch through ongoing optimization and growth.
"We couldn’t find another company that could offer the same features at the same price point, same time to market, and make it as easy as MobiLoud could."
Svend Hansen
Product Owner
"We wanted to give our loyal customers a convenient way to keep coming back and reach them directly with push notifications. Our app now drive 10% of our total revenue with minimal effort from our team."
Damien Smith
eCommerce CTO & COO
"Your level of service is unmatched. You are always there when we need you, and go above and beyond to make sure everything runs smoothly for us.”
Keep Everything From Your Website, Launch your App in 30 Days
Launch a fast, fully branded app without rebuilding anything. Keep every feature from your site while our team handles the entire process from start to finish.
Everything just works, no rebuilding required
Your entire tech stack - from custom features to third-party tools - works in your app from day one. No integrations needed, no features lost, no compromise on functionality.
Forget managing multiple platforms. When you update your website, your app updates automatically. No extra development, no duplicate work, no delays. Your team keeps working exactly as they do today.
Skip the complexity of building and maintaining an app. Our team handles everything - from development to teaching you the exact strategies that drive results. We'll help you promote your app, craft high-converting push notifications, and turn it into a reliable revenue channel.
If you're creating an app from scratch, Buildfire is an excellent choice.
But if you're already doing business on the web (ecommerce stores, for example), and you want to extend your website to native apps, MobiLoud is a much better choice.
It's much less effort to build, and you get to keep all the features from your website in the apps.
You're not limited by blocks, templates and integrations - everything that works on your site will carry over seamlessly to your mobile apps.
And once you're live it's so much easier to manage. The apps are fully synced with your website, with only one codebase to manage.
All this, with the full support of an expert team behind you, to take care of all the technical aspects of building and maintaining native apps.
We even work with headless CMS and custom builds. There are no restrictions to the kind of website you can turn into an app.
How much work is it?
With MobiLoud, it's zero work.
As long as your website is mobile-friendly, it's already 90% of the way to being a native app.
Our engineers do all the work to bring your app to life. You can give your input, and test and give feedback on your apps, or just sit back and wait, until your apps go live (typically within four weeks).
Can I convert my website into a mobile app?
With Buildfire? Not exactly.
For a start, you'll need to rebuild your app UI and UX within their platform.
You may be able to integrate your app with the backend of your website, if you're on a popular website platform like Shopify or WordPress.
But it's still not a straightforward conversion process.
With MobiLoud? Yes.
That's exactly what we're made to do. As long as your website is already mobile-friendly, it's super easy to turn your website into an app.
There's no effort required from you. Just sit back and wait to see your website converted into beautiful native apps!
What does the MobiLoud process cover?
We handle everything to do with turning your website into an app.
We write the native code that allows your website to run in mobile environments. We handle testing, QA, revisions, and app store submission.
Once you're live, we'll handle all technical maintenance and updates for your app, while you continue to focus on your website.
Is MobiLoud a no-code app builder?
While there's no coding required with MobiLoud, it's more than an app builder.
We're a fully managed service, dedicated to helping you navigate the world of mobile apps, and ensure your app is a success.
Think of us more like an app development service - only closer to the price of an app builder than a typical agency.
Convert your website into a mobile app
Schedule a 30-minute call with the MobiLoud team to explore when a mobile app makes sense for your business and how brands use it as an owned channel to strengthen engagement, retention, and repeat revenue.
Buildfire and MobiLoud both produce native mobile apps. But they're different types of products that do different things for different people.
Buildfire is a no-code app builder; it lets you create a standalone app from scratch using their visual editor and plugin marketplace.
MobiLoud, on the other hand, is a managed service that takes an existing ecommerce website and turns it into a native app.
The fundamental question is whether you're building a new app from a blank canvas, or extending a website you've already built.
What is Buildfire?
Buildfire is a no-code app builder that lets you create native iOS and Android apps using a drag-and-drop editor and a marketplace of plugins.
It’s suitable for a wide range of industries: churches, fitness, events, real estate, education, restaurants, construction, healthcare, and ecommerce.
You pick a template or start from scratch, add features through their plugin marketplace, customize the design, and publish to the app stores. Buildfire also offers professional services where their team designs and builds the app for you.
For ecommerce, Buildfire can connect to Shopify to pull in your product catalog. But the app itself is a standalone product. You're designing screens, configuring layouts, and managing content inside Buildfire's platform, separate from your website.
Businesses that want to build a standalone mobile app from scratch. Buildfire is strongest for non-ecommerce use cases (churches, fitness studios, events, internal tools) but has ecommerce capabilities through Shopify integration and in-app purchase features.
It's a good fit if you don't have an existing website to work from, or if you want an app experience that's intentionally different and independent from your website.
What is MobiLoud?
MobiLoud is a premium managed service for mid-market and enterprise ecommerce brands that want to turn their websites into native mobile apps.
Everything's done for you: build, testing, app store publishing, ongoing maintenance. Our approach ensures everything from your website carries over to your app, and the app and website always stay fully in sync, reducing the operational lift that comes with launching a mobile app.
MobiLoud works with any ecommerce platform: Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Shopware, and custom builds.
"We went with another company because they promoted how heavily involved in Shopify... essentially had to maintain two different storefronts. MobiLoud made a lot of sense because it literally uses Shopify." -- Eric Lowe, Director of Ecommerce at XCVI
MobiLoud pricing
MobiLoud starts at $799/month, plus a one-time setup fee. That includes the app build, app store management, QA, and ongoing support and maintenance.
Who MobiLoud is for
Established ecommerce brands, typically doing a minimum of seven figures in annual online revenue. Brands that already have a well-built website and want to extend that experience to a native app, with a team handling the technical side.
Running a mid-market or enterprise ecommerce brand?
If you already have a website generating real revenue, MobiLoud can turn it into a native iOS and Android app, with your full checkout, integrations, and customer experience intact. Our team handles everything: build, app store publishing, and ongoing maintenance.
Book a free strategy call to see if it makes sense for your brand. No commitment.
Let’s break down the core differences between how MobiLoud and Buildfire build mobile apps - so you can get a clear idea of which one suits you the best.
Development process
This is the core difference. Buildfire builds standalone apps. MobiLoud turns websites into apps.
With Buildfire, you start from a blank canvas (or template) and create something new. The app has its own content, its own design, its own feature set.
If you’re building an app for an ecommerce brand (with an existing website), Buildfire can pull products from Shopify, but it's fundamentally a separate platform from your website.
With MobiLoud, the app is your website. Same content, same checkout, same integrations, same everything. You manage your website, and the app stays in sync automatically.
If you want a standalone app that lives on its own, Buildfire is designed for that. If you want your existing website delivered as a native app, MobiLoud is designed for that.
Scope
Buildfire is a broad tool. It builds apps for dozens of industries. That flexibility is its strength, and it means the platform isn't deeply specialized in any one vertical.
MobiLoud does one thing: ecommerce website-to-app. The product, the service, the team's expertise are all focused on that.
Buildfire has a wider scope. You can build apps with in-app purchases with their platform (non-ecommerce purchases, like premium content, subscriptions, ad removal) - MobiLoud’s not built for apps that need this functionality.
How ecommerce works
Buildfire can connect to Shopify and pull in your product catalog. But your website's full tech stack (review apps, loyalty programs, search providers, personalization tools, subscription management) won't carry over automatically.
You work within Buildfire's plugin ecosystem to put together the functionality for your app, which covers a lot of ground, but isn't a 1:1 mirror of your website.
It’s better for ecommerce use cases where the app is the primary surface; a restaurant app, an app for a local grocery store. It may not be the best way to take a high-traffic ecommerce website and turn it into an app.
MobiLoud is powered by your actual website. Every tool that works on your site works in the app. Your checkout is your real website checkout, not an API-based version.
It’s the best option when your goal is to recreate everything from your website in the form of a native app - rather than building a new, standalone mobile app.
Maintenance
With Buildfire, you manage the app yourself. They offer support, but the day to day management; updating content, adding new features, fixes is primarily your responsibility.
WIth MobiLoud, there are two key differences.
It’s a managed service. MobiLoud’s team handles the app-specific maintenance for you.
The core content and functionality of your app comes from your website - so when you update your site, your app syncs up with these changes instantly.
This difference is reflected in the price difference: MobiLoud’s lowest plan is higher than Buildfire’s highest plan. It’s the difference between a DIY model and a service model, closer to what you’d get with an app development agency.
Quick Comparison
Buildfire
MobiLoud
Type
No-code app builder
Managed website-to-app service
Price
$209-549/mo
$799/mo + setup
Approach
Build a standalone app from scratch
Extend an existing website into an app
Ecommerce
Shopify integration + in-app purchases
Full website parity, any platform
Management
Self-service (optional pro services)
Done for you
Best for
Standalone apps across industries
Ecommerce brands with existing websites
Which One Should You Choose?
Buildfire makes sense when:
You want to build a standalone app from scratch, not tied to an existing website
Your use case isn't ecommerce (churches, fitness, events, education, internal tools)
You want an app with its own content and features, independent of a website
You want ecommerce functionality but are OK with a Shopify integration rather than full website parity
You want to use their professional services team to design and build something custom
MobiLoud makes sense when:
You're an ecommerce brand with an existing website that you want available as a native app
You need your app and website to be fully in sync, same products, same checkout, same promotions
Your website uses a stack of third-party tools that all need to work in the app
You want a team managing the app so your people can focus on the business
The app is a retention and lifetime value play, built on your existing web experience
They're different products. Buildfire builds apps. MobiLoud extends websites. If you know which of those you need, you've already made the decision.
Final Thoughts
Both Buildfire and MobiLoud occupy specific lanes in the no-code mobile app market. It should be clear which is the right one for you.
Visit buildfire.com to explore their platform and pricing, and learn more about what they can do for you.
To learn more about MobiLoud, check out our home page, and browse the customer case studies to see how ecommerce brands use MobiLoud.
When you’re ready to talk, book a free strategy call to discuss whether it makes sense for your brand.
Get weekly insights on retention and growth.
Convert your website into a mobile app
Schedule a 30-minute call with the MobiLoud team to explore when a mobile app makes sense for your business and how brands use it as an owned channel to strengthen engagement, retention, and repeat revenue.
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