Most Shopify brands, if they don’t have one already, should be looking to build a mobile app in 2024. Those who don’t, risk falling behind as more and more consumers pivot to mobile as their favorite way to shop.
MobiLoud and Shopney both provide a way to build your app without the huge investment of custom development. In this article we’ll give a detailed comparison between the two, and explain why we believe MobiLoud is the best option for you.
MobiLoud vs Shopney: One-Minute Summary
Shopney is a no-code app builder, letting brand owners use templates and drag-and-drop components to build an app without coding, which is linked on the backend to your Shopify store.
The end goal of MobiLoud is the same, allowing brand owners to launch an app for their store, affordably and with no development.
The difference with MobiLoud is that it actually converts what you already have on your website into an app.
Shopney requires you to rebuild your app from the ground up. You can sync and import product details, but the app and website are two distinct platforms.
MobiLoud is also a full-service platform, whereas Shopney is fully DIY.
Read on and we’ll dive much deeper into the comparison between these two platforms, starting all you need to know about Shopney.
What is Shopney?
Shopney is a no-code drag-and-drop mobile app builder for Shopify stores.
While there are a number of tools that you can use to build an app for your store, Shopney ranks among the best, with over 800 reviews on the Shopify App Store, and a nearly perfect rating.
As drag-and-drop app builders for Shopify go, you can make the argument that Shopney is one of the best. However, all of these tools share the same common flaws, which we’ll expand on more as we get deeper into this article.
Shopney Pricing
Shopney has four pricing tiers:
- Silver: $99 per month - features include 7 design elements, unlimited push notifications, 4 themes.
- Gold: $199 per month - features include 20 design elements, abandoned cart notifications, 6 themes.
- Platinum: $499 per month - features include unlimited design elements, most advanced integrations (such as Klaviyo, Smile.io).
- Enterprise: $999 per month - full feature set, including all integrations, multi-store support, dedicated success manager.
All plans come with a 30 day free trial. There don’t appear to be any discounted rates for annual subscriptions, as a lot of tools offer.
Shopney Pros and Cons
Overall, Shopney is well-reviewed, easy to use, and fairly affordable.
The one area you’re might run into issues on their cheaper plans is in the design options provided, but this might not be solved by moving up to a more expensive plan either.
You’ll run into issues with app builders like Shopney if you want to customize the app past their pre-built blocks and templates. This makes it difficult to replicate your site in the app, and can result in a fairly generic, cookie-cutter appearance.
Here’s a summary of Shopney’s pros and cons as we see them:
Pros:
- Well-reviewed.
- Intuitive for beginners to use.
- Pricing is decent, no extensive feature gating to highest plans.
Cons:
- Limited design flexibility, even on higher subscription tiers, due to the block based app builder approach.
- Fewer supported integrations than other app builders.
- Requires additional effort to build and maintain, when you already have a working website.
- Consistency with your website, and carrying over all site features and design might be hard.
Many of the cons of Shopney are shared by all of their direct competitors. Learn more about why no-code app builders may not be good enough in this article.
Shopney Reviews
To see what real users think of Shopney, you can check out their reviews at:
Best Shopney Alternatives
There are a number of other Shopify mobile app builders that you could consider as alternatives to Shopney.
These include:
However, in our opinion, the best Shopney alternative for Shopify brands is our MobiLoud solution. But it's not for everyone.
App builders for Shopify all come with similar issues.
As block and template-based app builders, they're limited and require additional time from your team to maintain and update the app separately from your website.
A different approach is MobiLoud, which is a managed service to convert websites into native iOS and Android apps that update automatically with your site.
Full disclosure, MobiLoud is our own platform - but we steadfastly believe that it is a better alternative for converting a Shopify store into mobile apps, especially if you have any custom code on your site and a complex tech stack.
What is MobiLoud?
MobiLoud is a solution we’ve developed to help brands turn their site into native apps.
We find we're the best fit for Shopify brands under the conditions below:
1) You're a growing or established brand with a loyal group of customers that know you and come back to purchase again and again – an app is just an amplifier of this behavior, helping you bring your customers back again and again.
2) You're already happy with the mobile design of your site. You recognize that your app experience shouldn't be too far from your website experience. After all, if you haven't built a fantastic mobile experience, it means most of your customers aren't getting a good experience most of the time, as most traffic and sales nowadays are on smartphones.
3) You want an app for the benefits it offers in terms of acquisition, through an app store presence, and retention, through a better user experience and push notifications. Our solution gets you this and more. What it won't get you is a totally different customer experience from what your website provides, but our customers agree you really don't need that!
4) You have a complex tech stack i.e. 5+ apps installed on your store and external tools for analytics, CRO, email, SMS. When you're using a number of third party tools and apps for core elements of your customer experience, and all the backend work you do for analytics and optimizations, then no app builder will fully satisfy your needs. With app builders, chances are you'll miss a required integration or more and, even if they had all you need for your frontend experience to resemble what you do on the web, you'll miss having your chosen platforms for analytics and CRO.
Customers like Only & Sons, Vero Moda, Rainbow Shops, Rue21, all agree 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?
MobiLoud will fully convert your site into an app. The app essentially is your mobile website, with small yet significant touches added, such as native mobile navigation, a bottom tab menu, splash screens and native push notifications.
MobiLoud allows you to keep the same functionality, the same design that works for you on your website, and package it in an app that looks and feels like a custom native app.
The service element
MobiLoud is a full-service platform. It’s not a DIY app builder like Shopney (and almost all other Shopify app builders), where you’re left to your own devices to create and maintain your app.
We do all the hands-on work to convert your site and create your app. We also provide custom design assets for your app, and our team of developers and designers collaborate with you to tweak your mobile UI/UX to improve conversions and make your app experience feel truly native.
Along with configuring and building your app, we test it, submit your app to the app stores. After launch, we handle technical updates and maintenance.
We provide proactive service - not just answering your support tickets. In essence, we’re as much of a service as we are a tool, and we’re invested in your app’s success as much as you are.
“By going with MobiLoud you know if there’s a problem, someone will get back to you with a solution – versus other DIY alternatives where you are stuck with those problems and users potentially won’t be able to use the app. The potential effects of that kind of damage can be pretty lingering.”
- Emory Rowland from Testimony Share
MobiLoud Pricing
At MobiLoud we have three pricing tiers (learn more about our pricing options here).
- Professional: $199/month
- Growth: $549/month
- Corporate: $999/month
Plans are 15% cheaper on annual subscriptions. There’s no free trial, but we offer a 60 day money-back guarantee, as well as guaranteed app store approval or your money back.
There’s much less feature gating than there commonly is with no-code tools, since most of the features in your app come directly from your website. The Startup plan offers everything that most growing brands need in an app, while the Growth plan supports higher usage rates for higher-level brands.
It's a little more expensive up front than a no-code app builder, but you get a lot more - it’s more comparable to what you’d get if you hired a development agency or in-house developers, both of which would cost at least 10 times what we charge.
MobiLoud Reviews
Here’s what some of our users had to say about their experience with MobiLoud.
Svend from Bestseller writes:
“Through history we’ve tried doing what MobiLoud does. But we wanted a solution that could enable push notifications, and MobiLoud has a way of doing that with OneSignal. 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.”
Nick from John Varvatos said:
“You can’t beat the price they provided to get an app together. The MobiLoud team held my hand along the way; everything from App Notifications to Analytics and registering with Apple/Google. With MobiLoud’s assistance, we feel super comfortable in this new realm.”
Customers love the level of service we provide for them, and how easy we make the process of turning their website into mobile apps.
Many also talk about how affordable it is, with a lot of our users exploring the option of investing in a custom-developed app, and finding MobiLoud offers much of the same thing for a far lower cost.
Read more reviews here, dive into case studies with real MobiLoud users, or view examples of real, live, MobiLoud apps.
7 Reasons Why MobiLoud is the Best Shopney Alternative
We believe MobiLoud is the best way for eCommerce store owners to launch an app. Though you can make a case for no-code app builders like Shopney in some situations (as we’ll discuss after), we can point to seven reasons why MobiLoud is a better way to do it.
MobiLoud gives you an easier path to launch
Though no-code app builders are undoubtedly easier than coding apps from scratch, it’s not exactly straightforward.
It often takes days or weeks of tinkering, playing with different themes and design elements, trying to build an engaging app that maintains consistency with your site.
And remember, you’re doing it all yourself, so you need to make time in your workflow for this.
You could just go straight from one of the tool’s stock templates and publish an app in a short space of time, but this will leave you with a boring, generic app that won’t deliver results.
With MobiLoud, it’s so much simpler. Since the app is a direct reflection of your website, 90% of the work is done already, assuming your site is mobile-friendly.
And since we do all the technical work for you, there’s almost nothing you need to do to launch. You can more or less sit back and wait for us to deliver your app.
You can keep everything from your website
You want to replicate your website because you know that this is what works. You know your website drives revenue and converts.
Your app doesn’t need to be anything groundbreaking; it just needs to provide the same shopping experience users get on the web, packaged in an app, making it more convenient for users and better for retention.
“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.”
- David Cost, Rainbow Shops
There will always be things you can replicate with an app builder like Shopney, whether they’re related to design, or plugins/custom features that aren’t compatible with the platform.
MobiLoud lets you take everything that already works for you - the same themes, plugins, apps, integrations, custom features, tweaks and customizations you’ve made to your store, all of this is enabled out of the box.
No limitations on design and functionality
With MobiLoud, essentially anything you can do on your website, you can do in your app as well, giving you a greater level of flexibility.
You don’t have the arbitrary limits of a certain number of design elements or integrations. You don’t have to stick to using the only tools that your app builder has integrations for.
Shopney offers a total of 22 integrations. If you rely on any third-party tools that aren’t on this list, you’re out of luck if you want them to work in your app. And forget about any custom features.
You’re not limited by the Shopify API
An app builder like Shopney ties you to Shopify, and what’s possible with their API. The Shopify API itself has some downsides, and being locked into a single platform is not good for your brand.
When it comes to the API, as you grow and optimize your app experience, or try to replicate the same things that have had success on your website, you’ll run into roadblocks.
David from Rainbow Shops found this out with a previous version of their app:
“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.”
They had a custom sort order on their site that had a significant impact on conversions. Yet the options provided by the API were extremely limited, and they couldn’t bring this into their app.
This resulted in a lot of lost revenue, and was a big reason they switched away from their previous app builder and moved to MobiLoud.
Being locked to a single platform is just not good for business. It sets guard rails that can stop your brand’s growth.
If you use a Shopify-specific app builder, and in the future you want to build custom features for your store, or even move away to another platform, it’ll likely cost you a huge amount of time and money to pivot your app as well.
MobiLoud, on the other hand, is platform-agnostic. It works with any platform, any tech stack. Building a custom site or moving to another platform will never be a problem, and you’ll be able to retain continuity with your app.
Get full service from our team
Our service eliminates a whole lot of work for you, as well as the stress of having to build and manage your app.
We offer white-glove support, and full service for the difficult parts that you don’t want to do.
Take the app store submission process as a prime example. Getting your apps approved and listed on the app stores is notoriously difficult for those who haven’t done it before.
Doing this yourself, can lead to a lot of time invested, a lot of stress, and delays launching your app as you go back and forth with the app stores.
We do this for you, using our experience of launching over 2,000 apps to ensure it goes as smoothly as possible.
We also hold your hand through every other stage of launching and managing your app. This full-service approach is not just for elite customers either - it’s for every MobiLoud user.
Maintenance and upkeep is simpler
Many people fail to consider the ongoing work that comes with having an app.
Even with app builders like Shopify, there’s a significant amount of work that gets added to your day-to-day. It gives you another platform to manage, and may double the work required whenever you make a change.
“We would make changes to our website, then have to do the same work again to make sure our apps also updated. This was frustrating for the team and often meant our app was always lagging behind our website.”
- David Cost, Rainbow Shops
Then there are fixes and routine updates you need to make to your app, which are not always the most straightforward.
With MobiLoud, you only have one platform to manage. You just carry on working on your website as you normally do.
Everything on your app updates in real time whenever you make changes to your website, and our team handles the technical side. It leaves almost nothing for you to do to keep your apps running well.
MobiLoud is risk-free
Though Shopney offers a free trial, and is relatively inexpensive, there are a number of risks that come with choosing this option to build your app.
- The risk that you won’t be able to build an app that converts well.
- The risk that you won’t have time to manage your app, and it will fall into disrepair.
- The risk of running into hurdles submitting your app to the app store, and not having your listing approved.
- The risk that your brand will outgrow your app, that future improvements to your site won’t be compatible with what Shopney lets you do.
With MobiLoud, on the other hand, you’re using a formula that you know works on the web. There’s little risk that it will work in an app as well.
There’s no risk that the time investment will be too much, because the time required from you is little to none. We handle the app store submission process (and guarantee approval) too.
And long-term, there’s far less risk that you’ll need to switch to another app platform, because MobiLoud has fewer limitations and supports any customizations or pivots you want to make.
For any brand that’s doing consistent revenue, there’s almost no downside to trying MobiLoud, and only a small increase on revenue is required to deliver a positive ROI.
Advantages of Shopney Over MobiLoud
While overall, we feel MobiLoud offers more (flexibility, functionality) for less (effort, long-term investment), Shopney offers some advantages for Shopify store owners.
If you want to create an app that’s distinct from your website, Shopney lets you do this. You’ll have the freedom to design your app independently from what’s shown on the web.
In our opinion, you don’t need to do anything significantly different in your app than on your website. You can create a mobile web experience (with the help of our designers) that feels native to the end user, and save the effort of managing two different UIs. But if you want to differentiate them, Shopney is for you.
For higher revenue stores, MobiLoud is more than worth the extra cost, for what we save you in time and effort, and for the added flexibility we give you.
Learn More
We encourage you to look at additional resources to learn more about each tool, and get all the information you need to pick the right one for your business.
Here are some ways to learn more about MobiLoud:
- 1 on 1 consultation: talk with one of our experts about your business, your needs, and how MobiLoud fits for you.
- MobiLoud reviews: check out our reviews on Capterra, G2 and GetApp.
- MobiLoud customers: take a look at real apps built with MobiLoud. Browse our collection of case studies and app examples.
- Take a look at MobiLoud’s pricing and our help center to get the full picture of what’s included when you partner with us.
To learn more about Shopney, check out:
- The tool’s reviews on the Shopify App Store.
- Capterra reviews.
- G2 reviews.
Start Your Mobile App Journey the Right Way Now
Your mobile app has the potential to be a valuable revenue stream for your business, as well as a powerful brand asset. Don’t limit your app’s potential by squeezing into limiting templates and discarding key features from your website.
MobiLoud gives eCommerce store owners everything they need to build a professional, high-converting, revenue-generating mobile app for their brand. And you can do it with minimal effort, zero knowledge of mobile development, and an easily manageable investment.
Start your journey towards having your own mobile app now by talking to an expert about how MobiLoud can help your business.
