If you’re looking to build a mobile app for your eCommerce store, you’ll come across a number of platforms that will help you do it without the massive investment and hassle of building a custom app. NewStore is one of these platforms.
If you’re considering using NewStore to build your eCommerce app, take a few minutes to read this first. We’ll explain what you need to know about the NewStore platform, and what kind of businesses it’s a good fit for. Then we’ll dive into a few NewStore alternatives for you to consider, helping you find the perfect app development partner for your brand.
What is NewStore?
NewStore positions itself as “Omnichanel as a Service.” It provides retailers with solutions for POS, order management, inventory management and integrated native shopping apps.
There’s a lot to NewStore, but suffice to say it’s a broad and in-depth platform that provides the backend for high-level retailers, primarily those who operate both physical and eCommerce stores.
NewStore Mobile Apps
The part of NewStore’s offering that we’re going to focus on is their native eCommerce app platform.
NewStore offers brands the ability to build native apps, fully integrated with the rest of your operation. For mid-level brands, this is the most valuable piece, potentially saving you a hefty amount compared to the cost of hiring app developers, not to mention the complexity of coordinating with them and the ongoing cost and complexity to keep your app up to date.
The biggest point of value for these apps is the integration with other parts of the NewStore ecosystem. If you’re mainly just looking for an app, NewStore may be overkill compared to simpler solutions, while still not measuring up to the full experience you’d get from a custom app.
NewStore Pricing
NewStore is a service targeted at enterprise customers. They don’t provide pricing details on their website, and the assumption we can take away is that their pricing is:
- Custom for each user
- Quite high.
We’ll assume that it’s less than what you would spend to build custom native apps (likely $100,000+, plus ongoing maintenance costing 5 figures per year), but a lot more than all of the alternatives we’re about to introduce.
Pros and Cons: Should You Go With NewStore?
NewStore, as a whole, is a lot more than just an app builder.
It provides some really valuable tools for businesses that juggle online and in-store locations, and the ability to integrate everything, together with building a mobile app, is extremely powerful.
They provide full white-glove service as well, which is another big value add for busy brand owners.
The main con is that it’s likely not suitable for anything less than enterprise-level brands. Pricing is only available by request, which indicates that it’s not cheap. And a lot of brands have no use for a lot of the omnichannel solutions (particularly in-store tools).
As for their mobile app platform, they don’t provide a lot of details on how these apps get made (are they fully native? How do they integrate with your store?). We do know they have APIs that allow you to connect different platforms and share information between them.
In summary, NewStore is best for high-level brands with both a digital and physical presence. Their mobile apps appear to be a good fit for brands utilizing headless eCommerce, as it should be easy to transfer information between your website and the app using their APIs (assuming you have a development team in place).
But for purely online businesses, particularly those using Shopify, WooCommerce or similar eCommerce platforms, NewStore is likely overkill compared to the following competitors.
The Best NewStore Alternatives for eCommerce Mobile Apps
If the main thing you want to do is build mobile apps for your store, there are a number of NewStore alternatives that allow you to do this, more straightforward and much cheaper.
These alternatives vary in quality, price, service, and the range of eCommerce platforms they work with. We’ve aimed to give you a diverse range of options, to help you pick the one that suits the needs of your brand the best.
#1: MobiLoud
First is our own site to app platform, MobiLoud.
MobiLoud is a platform that allows any website owner to convert their site into mobile apps. It fits perfectly for eCommerce sites, where all you really need is your web experience slightly tweaked and ported to a mobile app, which is exactly what MobiLoud does.
There’s no rebuilding, no templates, no limits on integrations or APIs. The app is your website, with a few mobile-specific features added (e.g. search adjustments, native bottom tab bar, hamburger menu adjustments and native push notifications) to make your app feel like a true native app.
It works with your entire tech stack, no matter the platform (Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, even custom-built websites - see Tobi as an example). Any features on your website will continue to work in the app, it’s fully synced with your website (making it easy to maintain), and there’s little to no work needed to launch.
All this comes with white-glove service from our team. We do the technical work to build your app, we handle updates and maintenance for you after launch (which could easily take a team of 2-6 people to manage with a custom app), and we handle the app store submission process.
All in all, you can go live with your app in less than a month, making few to no sacrifices on quality, and with basically no work required on your end.
MobiLoud Pricing
We offer two standard pricing tiers:
- Startup - For fast launching and validation: $350/month, plus a one-time $1,500 setup fee
- Growth - Perfect for more established businesses: $650/month, plus a one-time $2,500 setup fee
These plans are cheaper on an annual subscription.
We also have a custom plan for more demanding projects. All come with a 60-day money-back guarantee, and feature full service, including all technical work, design assets, tweaks to your mobile web UX, and guaranteed app store submission.
Read more about our pricing options here.
Why MobiLoud vs NewStore?
MobiLoud is the ideal solution for most eCommerce brands to launch an app. It’s affordable for any brand making steady revenue, and doesn’t put limitations on you that many other app builders do.
Compared to NewStore, it’s (likely) much cheaper and less complex, without the added extras that are overkill for a lot of brands.
MobiLoud is a lot easier to navigate if you rely on eCommerce platforms like Shopify to manage your web store, and you don’t have a big development team in place. With NewStore, you may need to do a bit of custom development to link your site with their app, which is out of the scope of many mid-level brands.
We’re also fully focused on mobile apps. We devote our entire attention to your app, and mobile apps are our team’s area of expertise.
With NewStore, it’s just a part of what they offer. It’s not their number one focus, and this may take away from the quality of your app.
If you want to learn more about MobiLoud, get in touch now and talk with an expert about how we can help you.
#2: Vajro
Vajro is a drag and drop app builder for Shopify stores. As a template and block-based tool, it puts certain restrictions on what you’re able to do - in particular, it limits you to their pre-built integrations for external plugins and tools, so some things from your site (such as marketing/analytics tools or email/SMS providers) may not be able to work in the app.
That being said, you can build a decent app using Vajro, it’s a stable and dependable platform, and it’s affordable. If you’re just dipping your toes into mobile commerce, or you’re not quite making the revenue to justify a large investment into an app, you can do a lot worse than Vajro.
Vajro Pricing
Vajro offers four different pricing tiers:
- Starter: basic features and integrations - $99 per month
- Core: advanced features and integrations - $249 per month
- Premium: premium features and integrations - $499 per month
- Plus: premium features, integrations, and priority support - $999 per month
It’s worth noting that Vajro puts a limit on mobile app sales you can do at each tier. If you cross that limit, you’ll need to move up to a higher plan.
If you’re on the Plus subscription and you cross the monthly sales threshold, you’ll be charged an additional monthly fee for every $100,000 mobile app sales.
#3: Tapcart
Tapcart is another highly-regarded Shopify app builder. It works much the same way as Vajro and other DIY app builders, with a smooth integration with your Shopify store and a decent selection of integrations to work with.
Tapcart is stable, dependable, and well-reviewed. It’s a little pricier than other template-based app builders, but still a more affordable (and easier to use) option than NewStore.
Tapcart Pricing
Tapcart has three pricing tiers, which rise in price based on your annual revenue.
- Core: 15 blocks, basic features, and three basic integrations, starts at $200 per month
- Ultimate: unlimited blocks, advanced features, and six standard integrations, starts at $400 per month
- Enterprise: unlimited custom blocks, dedicated customer success manager, and premium integrations, starts at $1,000 per month
#4: Mowico
Mowico is another DIY app builder. Like other app builders, it uses templates, pre-built blocks and integrations and syncs the backend with your web store.
Where it’s different to Vajro and Tapcart is that it works for other eCommerce platforms, not just Shopify. That means it presents a nice alternative if you’re on a platform like WooCommerce or PrestaShop.
It’s affordable, and relatively simple (though this also means your app will be quite simple), which are the two main reasons to choose Mowico over NewStore.
Mowico Pricing
Mowico has three pricing tiers for each eCommerce platform. For Shopify this is:
- Startup: $79/month
- Growth: $399/month
- Enterprise: custom
WooCommerce and PrestaShop are a little cheaper, while other eCommerce platforms require you to contact them for a quote.
#5: ConstApps
ConstApps is a mobile app builder for WooCommerce, Shopify and Magento. Its primary point of value is the price - plans at less than $100 per month, without even requiring an annual subscription.
Of course, you can expect the quality of your app to fall in line with the price. If you want a professional, high-end app that looks and feels like a custom app, don’t expect to get it by paying less than $100.
But if you’re looking for the most affordable option - let’s say you’re just testing to see what an app could look like, or presenting an MVP to stakeholders, ConstApps is a decent choice.
ConstApps Pricing
ConstApps has four pricing tiers.
- WooCommerce: $39.99/month (Android + iOS)
- Basic: $69.99/month (Android-only)
- Standard: $99.99/month (Android + iOS)
- Enterprise: custom
All their plans are extremely cheap, but also quite limited. Their custom Enterprise plan may suit brands with slightly more advanced needs.
NewStore vs the Competition
Let’s look at how NewStore stacks up against other eCommerce app platforms.
First, though it doesn’t appear to be a DIY app builder like many other eCommerce mobile app solutions, looking at their example apps, there are definitely a lot of similarities with their UI.
It’s reasonable to expect that, though it’s not strictly a template and block-based app builder (learn why that’s an issue here), their team would follow a similar pattern for all the apps they create in order to streamline their operations.
So if you’re comparing the potential of NewStore apps against other options, you can expect a higher-quality, more customizable app than a DIY app builder (e.g. Vajro, Tapcart), but not the same level of flexibility as a fully custom app.
Is it worth the cost? That’s hard to say without making their pricing available. It also depends if you’re utilizing the rest of what NewStore provides, or if you’re paying a premium and basically only making use of the mobile app.
If you also consider the added complexity of connecting to your store via API, for a lot of Shopify/WooCommerce store owners, it’s not worth the hassle unless you’re going to invest in a headless eCommerce build as well.
If you’re an enterprise-level brand, the investment in a higher quality app from NewStore is likely worth it, compared to limiting yourself with a DIY app builder. But you can get the same results, for a lower cost and a lot less effort, with MobiLoud.
Why MobiLoud is the Best Way Forward for Your App
For the majority of brands, MobiLoud is the best way to go.
It lets you fully recreate your web store in the app, which is all you really need. You likely don’t need any complex new features or major design changes. You just need to replicate what already works on your website, and deliver that in an app.
We helped Rainbow Shops build an app for their Shopify store, and this is what David, their VP of Ecommerce and Marketing, had to say about building an app:
“The app needs to be at least as functional as the website. It doesn’t need to be better than the website, but the user experience can’t be worse.”
MobiLoud apps are at least as good as your website, though likely better with the small enhancements we provide.
MobiLoud is the ideal mix of functionality (not limiting yourself the way an app builder does) and affordability (you’re not spending six figures upfront and five figures each year on your app).
It’s also easy. With the white-glove service we provide, there’s little to no stress for you or your team, no learning curve, no major changes to your workflow. We handle everything to do with the app, including making sure it stays up to date and bug-free.
"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, Bestseller
As long as you have the revenue to justify between $500-$1000 per month on your app (which could easily bring you 5 figures per month in additional revenue), MobiLoud is the best way to build your app.
Get Started Now: Launch Your App in As Little As Two Weeks
MobiLoud has helped build apps for numerous high revenue brands, including Rainbow Shops, SYN•DI•CATE, Bestseller and John Varvatos.
If you want to do the same, now is the best time to start. Mobile commerce is taking off (mobile eCommerce sales eclipsed desktop during Cyber Week 2023), and brands that don’t have an app will soon be left behind.
Building an app doesn’t have to be a year-long project, or take hundreds of thousands in capital. Not if you go with MobiLoud.
Just get in touch with us now and schedule a free 1:1 demo, and see if MobiLoud is the right app development partner for you.
