Tapcart Review, Competitors and the Best Tapcart Alternative in 2024

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Bottom Line Summary: Tapcart is a reliable and stable platform to build mobile apps for your Shopify store. However, it limits the flexibility and functionality of your app, it can get expensive, and requires you to manage two platforms going forward. MobiLoud is a more flexible and convenient alternative, it's more affordable, and comes with no duplication of effort.

In this Tapcart review, we'll give you an in-depth look at one of the most well-known Shopify app builders. We'll explain what Tapcart is and how it works, it's key features, its pros and cons, and the biggest issue we have with this platform.

We'll then give you a list of Tapcart competitors to consider, including one mobile app builder that we'd argue is a more optimal way to turn your Shopify store into an app.

Overview (What is Tapcart?)

Tapcart is a mobile app builder for Shopify stores, founded in 2017. It lets Shopify merchants create apps without coding, using a visual drag-and-drop editor and pre-coded blocks and templates.

Tapcart is one of many Shopify mobile app builders available today, designed to lower the barrier of entry for brands to launch their own mobile app.

Usually a fully custom native app would take $100,000+ in development costs, with the process taking 6+ months of full-time development. It would then require you to keep developers on staff or hire freelancers whenever your app needs updates or maintenance, which can cost 5-6 figures yearly.

A mobile app builder like Tapcart lets you launch an app for a tiny fraction of the cost, significantly quicker, and without hiring additional staff. However, you do make some sacrifices in customization and flexibility when you use a no-code app builder, as we'll discuss later in this article.

Key Features

Notable features of the Tapcart platform include:

  • A responsive drag-and-drop editor that lets you build an app without coding.
  • Import & sync with your Shopify store for product details, inventory, customer accounts.
  • Cross-platform compatibility; manage your Android app and iOS app from the same backend.
  • Mobile-specific navigation, pages and collections.
  • Custom blocks (use HTML, JavaScript and CSS to customize Tapcart's pre-designed blocks).
  • Integrations with a number of popular Shopify apps.
  • Unlimited push notifications.
  • Abandoned cart, segmented and scheduled push notifications.
  • Support via phone, email and live chat.

Tapcart’s Pros

Tapcart's best features include the usability of their drag-and-drop editor, platform stability and the ability to send free, unlimited push notifications.

Let's dive deeper into the best things Tapcart offers now.

Drag-and-drop editor

via Shopify App Store

Tapcart's drag-and-drop editor is intuitive and easy to use. There are limits to what you can do and how far you can customize your app through the editor, but these limitations apply to any no-code mobile app builder.

Of all Shopify app builders, Tapcart's builder experience is one of the best. It gives sufficient options to customize your app with your store's branding and lets you publish a professional-looking app in the space of around one to four weeks.

Push notifications

via Shopify App Store

Push notifications are one of best reasons to build an app, and Tapcart's push notifications are very powerful.

You get unlimited push notifications, rich media (e.g. gifs and images) push notifications and the ability to schedule push notifications standard in any Tapcart plan.

They also offer some more powerful push notification features such as segmentation, abandoned cart notifications, back in stock notifications and AI-generated copy; although these features are restricted to higher plans.

Stability

Tapcart is well-regarded and generally one of the most stable and reliable mobile app builder platforms for Shopify. This is an important feature, as you need to be confident that the app you build will have as few bugs and crashes as possible.

Developer tools

Tapcart offers a number of developer tools that you can use to extend the capabilities of the platform, assuming you have the technical ability in-house.

These tools include custom blocks that support HTML, CSS, & JavaScript, data collection tools and sandbox environments for testing.

Tapcart’s Cons

The primary downside of Tapcart is the same as most Shopify mobile app builders - a reliance on blocks and templates that makes customizing your app and replicating your web experience difficult.

In addition, their integrations are lacking, and Tapcart's pricing is expensive, with key features limited to higher tiers.

Let's expand on Tapcart's cons now.

Limited customization

There's only so much you can do to customize your mobile app's UI when you use a no-code mobile app builder like Tapcart.

You'll have trouble creating a truly unique app, or replicating the look and feel of your website in the app, which is a payoff you make in order to be able to build fast and without coding.

Limited integrations

At this time, Tapcart has integrations for 38 Shopify apps, third-party marketing tools, analytics tools and device features. Some more are coming soon.

Yet though this might sound like a lot, there are so many more apps, plugins and platforms that your app cannot integrate with if you use Tapcart.

In addition, any custom-built features on your website won't be able to work in the app (without extensive development work and access to expensive Enterprise features).

This means you'll likely have trouble matching the UX and functionality of your website. Customers might end up feeling like your mobile website is actually a better shopping experience than your mobile app.

Platform lock-in

Everything you build in Tapcart is essentially owned by them. This includes your analytics, push notifications and app design.

Let's say you build your app in Tapcart, and after some time, you decide for whatever reason to move your app to another platform.

You won't be able to take your app with you; you'll need to start from scratch with the new platform. Worse, you won't be able to access any analytics from your old app, and you won't be able to access your old push notifications and replicate them for future campaigns. Everything will be a blank slate.

And as Tapcart is exclusively for Shopify stores, you won't be able to migrate your site to another ecommerce platform without ditching and rebuilding your mobile app as well.

Reliance on the Shopify API

Tapcart and other DIY Shopify app builders use the Shopify API to import and sync product information.

This can lead to issues in fully customizing and optimizing your app experience. There are a lot of incremental improvements you might have made on your website that you won't be able to do on your app, because the API doesn't allow it.

You may lose revenue as a result.

See this quote from David Cost, VP of ecommerce and marketing at Rainbow Shops:

“The hybrid solutions on top of Shopify are just too limited. The Shopify API only enables certain things and all the major providers of hybrid apps for Shopify had limitations that the Shopify API would not let them get around.”

Requires effort to maintain

Tapcart provides assistance setting up your app and support via phone, email and live chat, but at the end of the day it's on you to build and manage your app.

This will mean a significant time investment to build and launch your app. If you run into issues submitting your app to the App Store and Google Play, you'll need to deal with these issues yourself. And with any bugs that come up once you're live, you need to fix these yourself, or wait for their support to get back to you with a solution.

Also, app builders like Tapcart require you to manage your app separately from your website. This means duplication of effort any time you make changes to your site, as you need to update both your site and your app, creating a lot of overhead.

Key features restricted to higher plans

There are several vital features that are only available Tapcart's more expensive plans. Most brands will need more than what the lowest plan ("Core") offers.

To customize your product pages, you'll need to be on their second tier ("Ultimate"). And Core only offers 15 types of blocks - for unlimited design blocks, you'll need to upgrade.

You only get three standard integrations on the Core plan, and six on Ultimate.

More key features, including the ability to use custom fonts and icons, premium integrations (including vital integrations like Klaviyo), custom blocks and segmented push notifications are limited to their highest plan ("Enterprise").

Tapcart Pricing

Let's look at Tapcart's pricing in-depth, and what you get for what you'll pay.

Tapcart has three pricing tiers: Core, Ultimate and Enterprise.

Here's a breakdown of each plan:

  • Core: starts from $200/month, plus a percentage of in-app revenue
  • Ultimate: starts from $400/month, plus a percentage of in-app revenue
  • Enterprise: starts from $1,000/month, plus a percentage of in-app revenue

(You'll also need to create an Apple developer account for $99 per year and a Google Play developer account for a $25 one-time fee).

Core comes with unlimited scheduled push notifications, 15 design blocks, three standard integrations.

Ultimate expands to unlimited design blocks, six standard integrations, and gives access to the product page builder, plus abandoned cart notifications on annual plans.

Enterprise provides all features (outside of developer tools and Insights Pro, which require additional fees), plus a dedicated account manager.

The prices above are base fees - there is an additional cost based on revenue generated in the app (from 1.75% to 2.5% depending on the plan).

The slider on Tapcart's pricing page lets you get an estimated cost including performance fees.

Taking performance fees into account, here's what you're looking at depending on the size of your Shopify store.

$500k Annual Revenue

  • Core: $314-$434/month
  • Ultimate: $514-$634/month
  • Enterprise: $1,080-$1,164/month

$1 Million Annual Revenue

  • Core: $433-$678/month
  • Ultimate: $633-$878/month
  • Enterprise: $1,163-$1,334/month

$2 Million Annual Revenue

  • Core: $656-$1,132/month
  • Ultimate: $856-$1,332/month
  • Enterprise: $1,319-$1,652/month

$3 Million Annual Revenue

  • Core: $880-$1,592/month
  • Ultimate: $1,080-$1,792/month
  • Enterprise: $1,476-$1,974/month

*Not including developer tools ($1,500 per month) or Insights Pro.

Stores with more than $3 million annual revenue are required to contact Tapcart for a custom quote.

Bottom Line: Who is Tapcart For and Is It Worth Using?

If you're looking for a DIY app builder for a Shopify store, and you have the budget to go for a premium tool, Tapcart is worth a look. Their feature set is good, their platform is stable and reliable, and they have a solid track record.

But there are issues, and it won't be suitable for a lot of stores.

  • Small to medium stores will find the low plans lacking in features, and the higher plans too expensive.
  • For a Shopify store with custom features or needing integrations with niche plugins or tools, Tapcart will be too inflexible.
  • Tapcart requires a sizeable time investment, which some stores won't want to do.
  • Full customization of your app requires expertise in app development, which most businesses don't have or can't afford.

Tapcart is best for enterprise customers who can support the high price, and who have the resources to do custom development for any features missing from Tapcart's standard plans.

Tapcart Reviews

To learn more about real Tapcart users and what they think of the platform, check out Tapcart reviews at the following sources:

Tapcart Competitors

Some popular Tapcart competitors include:

If you're looking for a DIY mobile app builder, which is less expensive than Tapcart, these are all solid options.

They all come with similar issues, though. As block and template-based app builders, they're inflexible, time-consuming, and come with limited support.

A different approach is MobiLoud, which is a managed service to convert websites into native iOS and Android apps.

Full disclosure, MobiLoud is our own platform - but we steadfastly believe that it is a better Tapcart alternative for converting a Shopify store into mobile apps.

Read on and we'll tell you why.

Best Tapcart Alternative: MobiLoud

MobiLoud turns websites into mobile apps. Your app will keep the same content, much of the same UI and the same functionality as your mobile website, fully synchronized with your website, with small adaptions to make it look and feel like a native app.

These mobile-specific features include native push notifications, native navigation UI, automatic logins and one-click checkout.

MobiLoud is a full-service platform. Our team does everything for you; we build and configure your apps, test them, handle the app store submission process, and do technical maintenance and updates after launch.

There's almost nothing for you to do, and the process from start to finish (your app going live in the app stores) should take less than a month.

There's a one-time setup fee of $1,500 to launch your app (which covers the additional work we do to build your app, prepare it for launch and publish it to the App Stores), and from then on a monthly fee starting at $350 per month (15% cheaper on annual subscriptions).

With the setup fee taken into account, it comes out to be cheaper than Tapcart after a few months, with fewer limits and a higher level of service.

Read about our pricing here, or book a free consultation to learn more about the MobiLoud platform.

Why MobiLoud is a Better Way to Build Apps

For a Shopify store, MobiLoud is the ideal way to create an app.

You don't need anything majorly different in your app than what's on your website. Shoppers are going to use the app the same way they use the website. Why would you want to rebuild your whole app experience from the ground up?

The John Varvatos mobile app (built with MobiLoud) takes the best parts of their mobile website design and uses it to build a beautiful app experience.

An app is primarily a customer retention tool. You want an app icon on your customer's home screen, push notifications to let you reach out to and re-engage your customers, and a user experience that matches up with what they'd get on the web. MobiLoud gives that to you.

“Our apps never had any functionality or usability beyond the web experience. The reason to have an app is not to have something that isn’t on the website, but for people who prefer that way to access Rainbow content. The app just needs to be as functional as the website. It doesn’t need to be better than the website, but the user experience can’t be worse.”

- David Cost, Rainbow Shops

The other key benefit of MobiLoud is that there's no duplication of effort. You don't need to manage two different platforms. Your app is fully synchronized with your website, so whenever you make changes to your site, your app will update automatically.

This saves you countless hours of effort over the lifetime of your app, and lets you iterate and improve on your website more efficiently.

MobiLoud has a number of advantages over Tapcart or other DIY app builders:

  • No limitations; fully recreate your web experience and all the features of your website with no rebuilding.
  • No constraints from the Shopify API.
  • Built-in integration with whatever apps or plugins your website uses, working out of the box.
  • Custom features, such as product configurators, custom checkouts or payment gateways, and anything else will also work in your app out of the box.
  • Fully managed service; not just ticket-based support.
  • App store submission is done for you.
  • App maintenance is done for you.
  • Your web team can update and iterate on your website, and changes will reflect instantly in your app.
  • App analytics come standard (not as an add-on like with Tapcart).
  • No platform lock-in; MobiLoud works with any platform or tech stack, and you own your content, analytics and push notifications.
  • Clear and transparent pricing with no success fees.
  • We give you a 60-day money back guarantee (Tapcart's terms state they will not issue refunds).

MobiLoud apps have all the mobile-specific features your app needs, including:

  • Automated cart abandonment push notifications.
  • Rating prompts.
  • Custom app onboarding screens and push notification opt-in prompts.
  • In-app messages.
  • Smart push notification sequences with OneSignal.
  • Integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce for automated order updates via push notifications.

At MobiLoud we've been turning websites into apps for over 10 years, with more than 2,000 successful apps launched.

Check out real customer stories here, including top ecommerce brands such as Rainbow Shops, Jack & Jones, John Varvatos and rue21.

Want to learn more? Book a free demo now.

Next Steps

This Tapcart review has looked at the key features of the Tapcart platform, its pros and cons, Tapcart's pricing, and the most popular Tapcart competitors.

MobiLoud is a more efficient, more flexible and less time-consuming way to build apps than DIY app builders.

It gives you the app you want in less time, with a fully-managed app development partner behind you to ensure your app will be a success.

"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 at Bestseller (the company behind ONLY, Only & Sons, Jack & Jones, Vero Moda and more high-revenue ecommerce brands).

MobiLoud requires less effort to build and maintain your app; we don't take a chunk of your revenue, and we actively work with you to make your app a long-term success.

If you're interested in creating a low-maintenance app that's just as good as your website (or better), with a full-service team behind you, for less than the cost of Tapcart, get in touch with us now and book a demo.

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