Top 6 Web App Builders Designers Choose to Create an MVP or an App Prototype in 2020

Whether you’re a mature product designer, or only starting your design career, regardless of your knowledge in web design, UI/UX, development, you can build and design a working prototype, or a minimum viable product (MVP) on your own. Today, it’s possible due to the existence of visual app builders.

We’ve compiled a list of the visual web app building platforms popular among UI/UX designers in 2020. Some of these app development & design tools are more feature-rich than others. Some lock you inside the platform, while the others allow you to download your app code, and go your own way. Consider all the factors when choosing your perfect match.

Let’s now look at the app makers designers choose to build & design MVPs and prototypes – clear, simple, viable enough to show the real value, created at minimal costs, and with almost no development skills (like you can do in Webflow, for example).

#1. Bubble.io

Bubble is a full-stack app development platform allowing you to create and design pixel-perfect web apps. You can build social network apps, SaaS, marketplaces, and more.

Pros:

• An intuitive interface with a convenient drag-n-drop editor.
• Mobile-friendly design.
• A variety of free and paid templates.
• An ability to create hybrid mobile apps.
• About 1,000 plugins you can integrate your app with.
• Code’s editable with Javascript.
• SQL Database Connector’s available to connect the built app to databases.
• An ability to deploy & host your app on the Bubble.io domain.

Cons:

• No code export.
• Limited functionality’s available for free.
• You need to buy a separate plan for each new app.
• Interface is rather complex, which makes it difficult to onboard for a newcomer.
• No ability to host an app on a custom domain.

#2. Fluid UI 

Fluid UI is a tool helping designers, developers, product managers to wireframe and design apps, build minimum viable products using pre-built UI kits for Wireframing, Material Design, etc.

Pros:

• Over 2,000 built-in components are available in pre-built UI Kits for Material Design, iOS, Windows, Wireframing, and more.
• An ability to add existing graphic assets to your prototype.
• An ability to use mouse and touch gestures to build & design interactive app prototypes.
• Built-in review and feedback collecting feature.
• Downloadable Android and iOS preview apps.
• An ability to retrieve a ready-made project by scanning QR code with your smartphone.

Cons:

• App code is not downloadable.
• Only for app prototyping – no ability to build a full-fledged web app with a responsive design.
• Only 1 project you can create for free.

#3. UI Bakery 

UI Bakery is a visual app builder allowing to create & design minimum viable products, white-label apps, and fully-functional web apps with the connected data & integrated APIs.

Pros:

• A very intuitive and understandable apps builder.
• Responsive design.
• Nebular Open Source UI library and Eva Design System – under the hood.
• A range of predefined layouts, widgets, and UI components.
• Downloadable code allowing you to use an app outside UI Bakery.
• Free ready-made web app templates & dashboards with an ability to request the one you need.
• Data connection & API integration’s available within the platform.
• An unlimited number of pages you can create in one project.

Cons:

• No ability to build a backend within the platform.
• Few third-party integrations available for now.
• Reusable UI components are not available (yet).

#4. Marvel

Marvel is a web app prototyping and design platform allowing you to create interactive prototypes and MVPs without writing even a line of code. 

Pros:

• An intuitive and user-friendly UI.
• An ability to download assets, and generate CSS, Swift, or Android XML code.
• A big collection of pre-made assets, images, icons are available for use.
• An offline working mode.
• Third-party integrations (Jira, Confluence, Sketch, Microsoft, and many others).
• An ability to use GraphQL API to customise your workflows.
• An integrated user testing feature.
• Built-in collaboration for reviewing & collecting feedback in real-time.
• A lot of educational articles and video tutorials.

Cons:

• You can build only 1 project for free.
• Only 1 user working on the project is included in a free plan.
• An app branding feature is paid.

#5. Glide 

Glide is an app-building tool you can use to turn Google spreadsheets into easy-to-use apps with no coding. You can build an app on top of a spreadsheet, or use a customizable template. 

Pros:

• A convenient drag-n-drop editor.
• A huge library of ready-made templates, both free and paid.
• Allows you to build apps based on Google spreadsheets.
• Easy onboarding with no needed technical experience.
• Google and Zapier integration is available.
• A free app deployment feature to the glideapp.io domain.

Cons:

• Custom branding is paid.
• Very few integrations are available for now.
• Lacks customization flexibility.
• Limits in a number of data rows available in a free plan.
• Only a mobile layout is included in a free plan.

#6. AppSheet

AppSheet is an online app builder allowing you to create & design full-fledged mobile and desktop applications that are automatically compatible across different devices.

Pros:

• Quite a big choice of free ready-made templates.
• A created app fits for different screen sizes automatically.
• Custom app branding.
• Integrations with Salesforce, Dropbox, Amazon Web Services, and other third-party services are available.
• Useful videos, tutorials, etc., and how-to webinars on the YouTube channel.
• Offline working mode.
• Built-in application lifecycle monitoring & management.

Cons:

• The need to pay for each end-user (“active user”) of your created application.
• Only 10 users are available for free.
• Very limited development & design functionality you can use for free.
• The need to reach the support team to build your app on your SQL databases.

On a final note

The visual development platforms mentioned above greatly decrease the time from a product ideation and its MVP creation to its successful implementation. Once you build your app, you might want to export the code, give it to developers, let them connect a backend to a frontend you’ve created, etc. Be careful when choosing an apps builder that gives you as much development & design freedom as you need. 

There’s a great number of other visual web app builders allowing designers and developers with different skill levels create MVPs before building a full-fledged product to test their ideas without overpaying for it.

Hope this overview of the most popular visual app makers will help you bring your next software solution to life faster, easier, with less costs and efforts.

Is it too early to get ready for the winter holidays? Starbucks says no!

We are all so excited for the holiday season. Not only does it mark the end of the year 2020, but it also means all those holiday traditions we have a love/hate relationship with will start again.

One of the traditions we have grown to love is the re-launching of Starbuck’s holiday drinks. And alongside the drinks themselves, Starbucks has released a new set of Holiday-themed cups! 

Starting November 6th, drinks will be served in one of the four new holiday cups. 

Starbucks has also added an additional bonus alongside the four newly designed cups. Whenever you purchase a handcrafted holiday drink, you receive a reusable holiday cup!

The brightly colored designs were crafted with the idea of spreading seasonal joy in mind.

According to Starbucks in their press release,  “This year’s holiday design brings forward all the joyful elements of the holiday season in ribbons of Starbucks greens and a jolly red like a cozy holiday sweater.” 

Starbucks has been carrying on this tradition of redesigning their holiday cups for over 20 years. 

However, contrary to the mainstream traditions, Starbucks did not use the traditional red and green color pallet the holidays are known for.  In fact, Starbucks ’ first sets of holiday cups were actually purple. (very festive) 

This year, their designs are meant to invoke the look of a silly, tacky, and joyful holiday sweater, similar to ones worn at office holiday parties. In our opinion, This design works well and is a welcomed choice that makes us recall nostalgic moments in the past holiday seasons.

Alongside its new design, Starbucks also has a new motto. Last year’s motto was “merry coffee” which appears to be a clever spin on the commonly used phrase “merry Christmas.”

“Carry the merry” is this year’s new slogan to accompany these new cup designs. We believe the main idea behind these words is to bring joy to those around us in this season (because we all need a little joy in 2020).

Whatever your opinions are on these new designs, we hope you have a happy holiday season this year!

This year has been a lot, and if there’s one emoji that could accurately explain it all, it’s probably this:

I’m currently updating my phone as we speak, because I absolutely can. not. wait. to start using these new emojis.

With 117 new emojis being released, and counting, I can’t help but think that there is officially an emoji to describe everything you could ever think/feel.

…Or at least they’re getting close.

“The new 117 icons, which were released in iOS 14.2, iPadOS 14.2 and macOS 11 Big Sur on Thursday, and it includes my personal favorite, the absolutely most relatable emoji ever, which is the ‘Smiling Face with Tear’ emoji.”

While Emojipedia defines it as mainly an expression of feeling “touched, relieved, or grateful,” I know i’ll be using it when I feel like this:

There are lots of other emojis that we’re looking forward to like the happy person wearing a mask.

Prior to this update, the emoji wearing the mask used to be sad, but taking into consideration all the changes that have been going on this year, wearing a mask isn’t that bad after all and you can still smile and be happy while wearing your mask, just as this emoji suggests.

Some other new emojis that we’re looking forward to seeing are the otter, the italian hand, boomerang, ninja, bubble tea and so many more!

What emoji are you looking forward to using in the near future?

Don’t forget to update your phones, peeps!

And of course, until next time,

Stay creative!

It is finally November.

And with this new month comes some wonderful seasonal traditions.

While many people are looking forward to Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, or just relaxing around the house with friends and family, millions of people all around the world are celebrating Movember (or no-shave November). 

Movember Means Mr. Pringle Gets A New Look

https://www.instagram.com/p/CG9i29GlOQB/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

As the name implies, this tradition encourages people to shave once at the start of November and then put their razors away till the end of the month. 

This fairly new tradition came about to help raise awareness of men’s mental, physical, and sociological issues. 

Many brands have taken up the cause and decided to shave their mascots’/logos’ facial hair.

 In our opinion, Pringle’s new cleanly shaven face has stolen the spotlight. 

This will be the first time Mr. Pringles has shaven off his mustache. 

The brand began in the mid-20th century, meaning he has not shaved in over 50 years. 

The real question we have on our minds is, “how long will it take to grow it back?”

 Will the stache slowly grow back over the course of November? Will it be thicker and more gnarly by the end of November? Only time will tell.

Pop, Share. Chat

Pringles also decided to change its motto to “Pop, Share. Chat.” 

This new slogan is designed to encourage men to talk openly with those close to them about the struggles they are facing as men.

According to one study in 2018, men were 3.65x more likely to end their own lives than their female counterparts. 

While many experts disagree on what is the underlying cause of this discrepancy, our hope is that all men around the world this month will take up the true meaning of this cause.

Gather around with your friends and try to enjoy this season with others who care for you. 

Happy holidays and let that facial hair grow wild!

Italy is responsible for some of the world’s greatest creations. 

While not everyone may appreciate all of the fine arts produced by Italy, one thing nearly everyone can agree upon is that Nutella is one of the greatest gifts Italy has brought into the world.

Nutella’s marketing team has decided to design 30 new casings for their creamy jars of goodness. They are designed to show off Italy’s beautiful scenery.

And boy is Italy beautiful. Not only does Italy have some of the most notable natural landmarks in the world, but it also contains some of the greatest marvels of the ancient world.

Nutella’s parent company, Ferrero, created these new designs to increase awareness of tourism in their county. Working together with Italy’s board of tourism, the team is attempting to spark interest in tourism one travel restrictions are lifted. 

Because a certain virus has crippled much of the countries tourism industry, Nutella is offering a new way to visit these historic landmarks.

If you simply scan the QR codes on the newly designed jar of Nutella, your mobile device will take you on a virtual tour of these landmarks.

The CEO of Ferrero said, “In this difficult moment for [the] tourism sector of our economy, Nutella and ENIT [will] showcase to Italians their greatest national wealth: the beauty of Italy itself, the true and real one, made of nature and art, cities and villages, seas and mountains, the envy of the world.”

We look forward to the day when we can go see these landmarks in person. Until then, we will just have to enjoy the great taste of Nutella and look forward to that day! 

Breaking news is not always easy to keep track of, especially if you’re the one that’s supposed to report it.

With news stories happening as we speak, all over the world, how are you meant to not only keep track but document it in an efficient way?

The answer to that question is a free, simple REST API for live news and blog articles. The answer is Mediastack. 

What is Mediastack?

Mediastack is a scalable JSON API that delivers world-wide news, headlines, and blog articles.

By using their easy-to-implement REST API, you can have news information of any type delivered to you on a silver platter from over 7500 different news sources.

Features

Being such an incredible API, Mediatsack comes with every feature that you could possibly need to get the job done. 

Real-time news data – Gather real-time news data from major news sources around the world, as it’s happening. Don’t wait for the news to come to you, have Mediasack retrieve it for you.

Historical news data – Not only can Mediastack retrieve news as it’s happening, but it can retrieve historical documented news data as well.

New headlines – Grab the latest and greatest headlines from articles and other news sources from all over the world.

7,500+ News sources world-wide – Mediastack collects information and data from over 7,500 news sources all over the world. With over 50+ countries currently supported, you can rest assured that you are getting every angle. 

13 languages supported – With news happening all over the world, Mediastack gathers from news sources in 13 different languages. 

Scalable JSON REST API – Mediastack’s REST API is built on a scalable apilayer cloud infrastructure and delivers news results in a lightweight and easy-to-use JSON format.

Pricing

Mediastack offers a variety of subscription-based plans that are sure to meet anyone’s needs, starting with a free-plan, and moving all the way up to custom, enterprise-level packages.

With the free plan, you get all the basics and access to all their news sources. With this plan, the news data is slightly delayed, but still reliable and, of course, free.

As you move through pricing plans, features and benefits become richer, and all the news data is live as it’s happening. Like many SaaS companies, pricing becomes significantly cheaper if billed yearly instead of monthly.

When you get to the custom pricing level, you have the option to basically get unlimited news data with zero restrictions. This is very helpful if you need to sort through a lot of news data quickly.

Conclusion

The Mediastack API was built to be extremely powerful yet scalable and easy-to-use while delivering live world-wide data. The REST API makes it easy to collect and understand data as it’s coming in JSON format. 

With Mediastack, the conclusion is simple: there’s nothing else like it. It is both intuitive and easy to use, basically giving you news data without you having to lift a finger.

If this is something you’re interested in, you definitely have to check Mediastack out. Sign up for the free package and test it out for yourself.