Hygraph sits at the center of your content architecture. It's where your editorial team manages product stories, landing pages, campaign content, and rich media, all delivered through a single GraphQL API that feeds your frontend.
But Hygraph is your content layer, not your entire stack. You've paired it with a commerce engine for checkout and orders, a search provider like Algolia, a payment processor, and a frontend framework (probably Next.js) that stitches it all together.
If you're using Content Federation, you might be pulling product data, pricing, and inventory from multiple external APIs into one unified endpoint.
That's a lot of moving parts. And now you want a native mobile app.
The good news: you don't need to rebuild any of it. Your website already has everything, the content, the commerce logic, the integrations, the UX. You just need a way to deliver that same experience as a native app in the App Store and Google Play.
Can You Build a Mobile App with Hygraph?
Not with Hygraph alone.
Hygraph is a headless CMS, it manages and delivers content, but it doesn't handle checkout, payments, inventory, or any of the transactional side of ecommerce. And it doesn't include a mobile app builder.
What about Hygraph's "App Framework"?
Hygraph does have an App Framework, but it's for building CMS extensions, things like custom fields, sidebar widgets, and editorial tools. It has nothing to do with consumer-facing mobile apps.
What about your commerce engine's app builders?
This depends on which commerce platform you've paired with Hygraph. If you're using Shopify as your commerce backend, there are third-party app builders in the Shopify ecosystem.
But here's the catch: those builders work with Shopify's Liquid templates and Storefront API. They don't know anything about your Hygraph content, your Content Federation setup, or your custom Next.js frontend. You'd end up with an app that shows products but misses all the editorial content and custom experiences that make your site yours.
If you're paired with Commercetools, BigCommerce, or Spryker, there's no real app builder ecosystem at all.
PWA?
Your Next.js frontend can be configured as a PWA.
But you already know the limitations: the add-to-home-screen process is unintuitive, very few customers actually install it, there's no App Store presence, and push notification support on iOS is limited.
Your Options for Launching a Mobile App
For brands running on Hygraph, there are two real paths to launching a (real) mobile app.
Custom Native or Cross-Platform Development
You can build a native iOS and Android app (or use React Native or Flutter) that queries your Hygraph GraphQL API and your commerce API directly.
This means rebuilding your frontend from scratch in a mobile framework. Every content model, every Content Federation source, every dynamic page, every component your Next.js frontend renders needs to be re-implemented for native.
And it's not just the content layer. You also need to rebuild your commerce integration (cart, checkout, payments, order tracking), your search integration, your personalization logic, and any other services wired into your web stack.
Each of these integrations works in your frontend today. In a native app, every one of them has to be set up again.
Costs for a custom build run from $200,000 to $500,000+ upfront, with annual maintenance of $50,000-$150,000+. Timeline is 6-12+ months. And you're now maintaining two separate frontends that both need to reflect every content model change, every campaign update, every new landing page your editorial team creates in Hygraph.
The most likely outcome: the app gradually falls behind the website.
Content updates that go live instantly on the web take days or weeks to reach the app. The two experiences drift apart, and eventually the app becomes a liability rather than an asset.
Website-to-App with MobiLoud
There's a simpler path: take your existing Hygraph-powered website and extend it into a native mobile app with MobiLoud.
MobiLoud delivers your live website as a native iOS and Android app. Your entire stack, Hygraph content, commerce engine, search, payments, Content Federation, all of it carries over because the app renders the same frontend your customers already use.
The cost is a fraction of custom development. You launch in weeks, not months. And every content change your editorial team makes in Hygraph shows up in the app instantly, the same way it does on the web.
Why MobiLoud is the Best Way for Hygraph-Powered Brands to Launch an App
MobiLoud converts your existing website into native iOS and Android apps. It's 100x more efficient than building a custom native app, yet the end result is essentially the same as you'd get if you built from scratch.
Here's why this is a natural fit for brands running on Hygraph:
Your Content Federation stays intact
This is the biggest one. If you're using Content Federation to pull product data, pricing, reviews, or inventory from external APIs into a unified GraphQL endpoint, rebuilding that for a native app is a massive undertaking.
You'd need to replicate the entire federated data-fetching architecture client-side.
With MobiLoud, your app renders your frontend, which already queries your federated GraphQL endpoint. Every data source you've connected continues to work exactly as it does on the web. No new integration layer to build.
Every content update goes live instantly
Your editorial team manages campaigns, landing pages, product stories, and rich media in Hygraph.
On the web, those changes go live as soon as they publish. With MobiLoud, the app works the same way. Publish in Hygraph, and it's live in the app.
No app store review cycle for content changes. No separate mobile content workflow. No channels drifting out of sync.
Your full composable stack carries over
Hygraph is one piece of a larger architecture. Your Algolia search results, your payment processor, your loyalty program, your personalization engine, it all runs through your Next.js frontend.
MobiLoud delivers that same frontend as a native app, so every integration works automatically.
With a custom native app, each of those services would need its own mobile SDK or API integration. Some may not even have native mobile SDKs. MobiLoud skips all of that.
Real push notifications
This is where the native app unlocks something your PWA can't reliably deliver. Native push notifications have 10-15x higher opt-in rates than web push.
For abandoned cart recovery, flash sales, content alerts, and loyalty engagement, that translates directly to revenue.
You also get full App Store and Google Play presence, which means customers can find and download your app the way they expect to.
Launch in weeks, not months
A custom app project for a Hygraph-powered composable stack takes 6-12+ months. MobiLoud apps typically launch in about 4 weeks. And you already know what you're getting, because the app is a direct reflection of your live website.
Fully managed service
MobiLoud handles the build, app store submission for both Apple and Google, ongoing maintenance, and support. Your team stays focused on your website and your content. We handle everything to do with the app.
Ready to see what’s possible? Get a free consultation now, to see if MobiLoud is the right way to launch your Hygraph-powered mobile app
How It Works
The process doesn't require your development team to take on a new project.
- Get a free consultation. We'll put together an interactive preview so you can see exactly what your Hygraph-powered site looks like as a native app before committing to anything.
- App build. Once you give the go-ahead, we put your apps together. Native layer with push notifications, native navigation, app icon, splash screen, deep linking, and any extras needed.
- Testing and QA. We run comprehensive tests across iOS and Android devices. You test on your own devices and provide feedback.
- App store submission. MobiLoud handles Apple App Store and Google Play submission, including all compliance requirements and metadata.
- Launch and ongoing support. Your app goes live. MobiLoud handles OS updates, app store policy changes, maintenance, and support on an ongoing basis. You keep managing your content in Hygraph.
Your composable stack isn't touched. Hygraph, your commerce engine, your search provider, your frontend, it all keeps running exactly as it does today.
Next Steps
If your website runs on Hygraph and you want to extend that experience to a native app, MobiLoud is the most practical way to make it happen.
The cost could be less than 1% of what it takes to build a custom mobile app for a composable commerce stack.
Your website already works. Your content pipeline is dialed in. Your integrations are live. Your editorial team is publishing daily.
Why spend $500K rebuilding all of that from scratch for mobile?
MobiLoud lets you launch a native app risk-free, building directly off the website you've already invested in.
Book a consultation to learn more about the process and talk through whether this is the right fit for your business.
