10 Best App Builders in 2026
Short answer: Bubble, on the web-only Starter plan at $29/mo billed annually, when the product is a custom web app with its own logic. FlutterFlow Basic at $39/mo when the deliverable is a Flutter app you can download. AppSheet Starter at $5/user/mo when the data already lives in Google Sheets.
The mistake is treating a marketing site, an IDE assistant, and a published app as the same purchase, because each one bills a different job. Dupple data: Toolradar, our software directory, tracks 153 app builders as of September 2026. This page is the tool that ships a logged-in product or a store build, so brochure sites belong in best website builders, the wider stack is best no-code platforms, and prompt-to-code editors are vibe coding tools. Prices below were checked on each vendor's site on September 23, 2026.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Standout |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bubble | A custom web app with its own logic | $29/mo web Starter, billed annually | One project plan covers web, mobile, or both |
| FlutterFlow | A Flutter app you can take the code of | $39/mo Basic, monthly billing | Code and APK download start on Basic |
| Adalo | Native store apps on a flat fee | $36/mo Starter, billed annually | No per-action meter |
| Glide | An internal app from a sheet or a prompt | $25/mo GlideOS Basic | Classic and GlideOS are separate subscriptions |
| Softr | A portal with team and client logins | $19/mo Basic, billed annually | Extra client users start at $1/mo on Pro |
| AppSheet | Field apps on Google data | $5/user/mo Starter | Core is included with most paid Workspace plans |
| Power Apps | Unlimited apps inside Microsoft 365 | $20/user/mo Premium | That list price rises on January 1, 2027 |
| Retool | Internal tools when someone writes queries | $10/mo Team builder, billed annually | External users are free through 50 on Business |
| Lovable | A web app from chat, with code on paid plans | $21/mo annual Pro, 100 credits | Free caps daily build credits at 30 a month |
| Draftbit | Mobile plus web, with your own AI key | $12/mo Standard, billed yearly | Store publishing is locked until Standard |
What an app builder is
An app builder produces a logged-in application, a mobile build, or both, from a visual editor or a prompt, and hosts or packages the result.
Bubble, FlutterFlow, Adalo, and Draftbit ship the product customers use, while Glide, Softr, AppSheet, Power Apps, and Retool point that job at staff, so skip them for a public store app. Lovable generates the app from chat as a first draft, and a page with no accounts is a website, while an editor seat is an AI code assistant.
How we chose
Toolradar's app builders category lists 153 tools, updated September 2026, and I ranked 10 you can publish from without a sales call as the first step. Plan names and USD prices come from each vendor's site or official docs on September 23, 2026. No vendor paid for a slot, I did not run one shared build, and the directory's own order is a different list in Toolradar's no-code app builders guide.
Enterprise platforms that start on a quote are in low-code development platforms.
Bubble, the default for a custom web app
Bubble is the buy when users log in, records relate to other records, and a template will fight the logic. Plans are per project on the pricing manual, so web and mobile in one project share a plan and a second project bills again.
Building stays free, which covers design and not a live audience. The table row is web-only Starter billed annually, and month to month that web Starter is $32/mo. Web plus mobile Starter is $59/mo billed annually, or $69/mo month to month. Growth is $119/mo billed annually for web only, and Team is $349/mo on that same annual web rate. A new app can start a 14-day Starter trial within 10 days of creation, with a $1 card pre-authorization that is not the subscription.
The catch: The pricing FAQ charges overages at $0.30 per 1,000 workload units with no workload tier. Free and Starter have no collaborators, Growth allows two, and extra storage is $3 per 100 GB a month. A live mobile app needs a paid mobile plan, and if you drop it live versions pause, so after 14 days you need a new build.
The first pick for a custom web product, and a surprise bill if mobile and web are two projects.
FlutterFlow, when you need the Flutter project
FlutterFlow builds mobile, web, and desktop apps visually, and Basic is the first plan that downloads the project or an APK. The pricing page lists monthly rates and marks annual billing as a saving of about 25 percent, and a second editor arrives only on Growth.
Free covers 2 projects, web publishing, 5 AI requests for the life of the account, and 10 Lite credits. Basic is the monthly rate in the table, with unlimited projects, code download, store deployment, 50 AI requests a month, and 100 Lite credits. Growth is $80/mo for the first seat and $55/mo for the second, and it adds GitHub. Business is $150/mo for the first seat and $85/mo for seats 2 through 5.
The catch: Two editors on monthly Growth pay both seat rates, and Free cannot download code, use a custom domain, or pass 2 API endpoints, and AI agents are capped at 1 on Basic.
The mobile pick when you need the Flutter project back.
Adalo, a flat fee for native stores
Adalo publishes one app to the web, the App Store, and Google Play from a single canvas. The pricing page says paid plans have no usage or token charges, and the rates below are billed annually.
Free includes unlimited test apps, unlimited screens, 500 records per app, and one editor. Starter is the table row, $432 for the year, for 1 published app, a custom domain, and store publishing. Professional is $52/mo, for 2 published apps and 5 editors, plus geolocation and push notifications. Team is $160/mo, for 5 published apps and 10 editors, plus Xano and the collections API.
The catch: A second live app is a plan change, not an add-on, and Free cannot publish. Ada, the prompt editor, is on every plan, including Free, and Apple and Google bill their own developer accounts.
The flat native bill for one app, and the wrong plan for a second.
Glide, two products under one name
Glide sells GlideOS and Glide Classic as separate subscriptions. The pricing page says there is no migration between them. GlideOS builds internal apps from a sheet, a prompt, or a file, while Classic is the original builder, billed in US dollars.
GlideOS Basic is the table row: 100 credits, 2 published apps, and 1 workflow, and annual GlideOS plans are not on sale yet. Plus starts at $50/mo with 250 credits, and Pro starts at $125/mo with 5 members and a per-member fee after that. On Classic, the plan article lists Explorer at $19/mo billed annually, Maker at $49/mo billed annually or $60/mo monthly, and Business at $199/mo billed annually or $249/mo monthly for 30 users. Extra users are $6/mo on monthly billing, and extra updates are $0.02.
The catch: Ten extra users on annual Business can erase the discount versus monthly Business. Maker allows personal-email users and blocks work email, and keeping both products means two bills.
The fastest internal app when the sheet is the product, and a double subscription if the new agent is assumed to include the old apps.
Softr, portals with a user meter
Softr builds portals and internal tools, priced in USD on the plan docs. Builders edit the workspace and app users log in, so the seat has to match the job. Team users share a company domain with a builder, and a Gmail address counts as a client.
Free allows up to 3 builders and 5 app users. Basic is the table row, $228 for the year, with 1 builder and 5 team plus 5 client users and no user add-on. Pro is $99/mo billed annually, or $119/mo monthly, with 2 builders, 10 team users, and 50 client users. Business is $329/mo billed annually, or $395/mo monthly, and a first signup includes a 7-day Business trial, and a card adds another 7 days.
The catch: On Pro, extra clients are $1/mo and extra team users are $3/mo, with a 7-day grace period, capped at 50 team users and 250 clients. Basic cannot buy those seats, an extra domain is $13/mo billed annually, and workflows pause at the monthly execution cap.
The portal pick when you already know the user count.
AppSheet, the Google per-user seat
AppSheet turns Sheets, Excel, and its own database into mobile and web apps. The pricing page labels rates in USD, and a prototype allows up to 10 test users at no cost. A license covers signed-in users plus guests, counted by device.
Starter is the table row, and Core is $10/user/mo, included with most paid Workspace plans. Enterprise Plus is double that Core seat and adds databases, APIs, and governance, and it requires an admin to buy. Public apps without sign-in use a separate per-app Publisher plan, and AI-assisted creation needs a paid Workspace license.
The catch: One person on two devices can count as two guests, so a public app multiplies the Starter seat. Security controls can jump the seat from Starter to Core.
The cheap field app on Google data, and a bad fit when each phone becomes a license.
Power Apps, before the January increase
Power Apps is the Microsoft seat for unlimited custom apps, including Dataverse and premium connectors. The September 9, 2026 notice lists current USD prices per user per month, and the May 2026 licensing guide marks the older per-app subscription as end of sale in January 2026.
Premium is the table row, or $12/user/mo with a 2,000-seat minimum on new licenses. On January 1, 2027 those rates become $22/user/mo and $14/user/mo, and existing terms keep the old price until renewal. The pay-as-you-go meter is $10 per active user per app per month. A free Developer Plan covers non-production builds, and limited Microsoft 365 use sits outside this increase.
The catch: Ten Premium users are $200/mo through the end of 2026, and $220/mo on a term that starts in 2027. A Microsoft 365 seat can include some rights without including premium connectors.
The Microsoft default for many apps per person, and a dated quote if it still assumes the per-app subscription is for sale.
Retool, queries first, portals second
Retool builds internal web apps, mobile apps, and workflows, priced per builder and per internal user on the pricing page. Annual billing is 20 percent under monthly, and the rates below are cloud prices.
Free includes unlimited apps, 500 workflow runs a month, up to 5 users, and 250 AI credits. Team builders are the table row, or $12/mo month to month. Internal users on Team are $5/mo billed annually, or $7/mo monthly. Business builders are $50/mo billed annually, or $65/mo monthly, and Team raises workflow runs to 5,000 a month. SSO, Git, and white-label mobile apps are the Enterprise quote.
The catch: Business external users are free for the first 50, then $8/mo billed annually through user 250. Portals are Business, not Team, so clients wait for Business. A viewer priced as a builder wastes the seat, and self-hosted plans below Enterprise cap the user count.
The internal-tool pick when the data is already in a database, and a poor client portal until Business.
Lovable, chat until the credits run
Lovable builds web apps from messages. The plan docs price Pro and Business by credits, not seats, with unlimited members and one balance for building, hosting, and in-app AI. Editors are a different buy, covered in vibe coding tools.
The table row is Pro at 100 credits, $250 for the year. Month to month, that tier is $25/mo, dearer across a year than the annual total. Business starts at $50/mo for 100 credits, or $500 for the year, and adds SSO. Free grants 5 build credits a day, capped at 30 a month, plus 20 Cloud credits and 4 AI credits. Paid plans keep a daily build grant without that cap.
The catch: Code download, custom domains, and badge removal start on Pro. A top-up is $15 for 50 credits, $0.30 per credit, against a $0.25 plan rate in the credits doc, and monthly credits expire after two months. An authentication prompt is listed at 1.20 credits, and heavy traffic can spend the balance on hosting after the Cloud grant.
The fastest prompt-to-web-app, and a second bill once visitors spend the credit balance.
Draftbit, your model key or theirs
Draftbit is a visual builder for mobile and web, with Claude Code, Codex, and Supabase in beta. The pricing page prices plans in USD, the yearly card shows monthly equivalents, and the cost FAQ lists month-to-month rates, so quote the term you will actually pay.
Free includes 5,000 one-time credits, 3 projects, and web publishing on a draftbit.dev address. Standard on the yearly card is the table row, $144 for the year. Month to month, Standard is $15, Pro is $30, and Team is $150. Yearly Pro is $288 for the year, and yearly Team is $1,440 and includes 10 editor seats. One-time credits are 1,000 per dollar, and your own API key skips Draftbit credits.
The catch: Store publishing, code export, and custom domains begin on Standard. Extra yearly seats are $8/mo on Standard and $16/mo on Pro and Team, and the FAQ's month-to-month add-ons are higher. GitHub and the simulators start on Pro, and funded model calls add a markup on the provider price.
The mobile builder when you want the repo, and a stalled launch if you stay on the draftbit.dev URL.
Pricing: what you'll really pay
Softr Basic cannot buy user 11, Bubble bills a second project as a second plan, and Retool's first 50 external users are free only on Business.
| Cost that the sticker hides | Figure | Who feels it |
|---|---|---|
| Bubble workload overage, no tier | $0.30 per 1,000 units | A launched app with flexible overages on |
| Bubble extra storage | $3 per 100 GB a month | File-heavy products |
| Adalo Starter, paid annually | $432 for the year | One published app, one editor |
| Softr Basic, paid annually | $228 for the year | Five team users and five clients, then a hard stop |
| Power Apps, 10 Premium users | $200/mo, then $220/mo in 2027 | A Microsoft tenant |
| Lovable Pro, 100 credits | $250 for the year | The annual checkout, not the monthly toggle |
| Draftbit Standard, yearly | $144 for the year | Store publishing and code export |
| Retool external user 51 | $8/mo annual, on Business | A client portal |
How to choose
Start with the file you must hand over, because a custom web product with branching logic is Bubble. A store binary you can also open in a Flutter repo is FlutterFlow, and a store binary on a flat annual fee is Adalo. A spreadsheet the team already trusts is Glide, with Classic and GlideOS chosen on purpose. A client login on top of business data is Softr.
For an internal app, stay in the suite you already pay: AppSheet when the data is in Google, Power Apps at the current Premium rate rather than the per-app subscription Microsoft stopped selling, and Retool when someone will write the query.
Use Lovable when the first version should appear from a paragraph, and Draftbit when that version should be a mobile project on your own model key. Writing the feature in an editor is AI for coding, and the database under the app is database software.
Common mistakes
Buying two Bubble projects for web and mobile, when a shared backend belongs on one Web + Mobile plan and a second project bills the ladder again.
Quoting FlutterFlow Free as a shipped app, because code download, the APK, and store deployment start on Basic, and a second editor waits for Growth.
Assuming Adalo's flat fee includes a second published app, when Starter is one app and one editor and push notifications arrive on Professional.
Mixing GlideOS credits with a Classic app, which does not share data, while extra Business users can erase the annual discount.
Inviting Gmail users into Softr as if they were staff, because free email domains count as clients and Basic stops at 5 team and 5 client users.
Counting one AppSheet phone as one person on a public app, because guests are counted by device and Core is the Workspace tier rather than the table row.
Renewing Power Apps in 2027 on the 2026 quote, because the per-user rate rises on January 1, 2027 and the old per-app subscription is end of sale.
Treating Lovable Free or Draftbit Free as the launch plan, because code download and store publishing sit on the paid tiers and Lovable's free build credits stop at 30 a month.
FAQ
What is the best app builder in 2026?
Bubble, for a custom web app, on web-only Starter at $29/mo billed annually. Choose FlutterFlow Basic at $39/mo on monthly billing when you need a Flutter project and a store deploy. Choose AppSheet Starter at $5/user/mo when the app is a Google sheet with field staff. The directory tracks 153 tools in the category, and this shortlist is the 10 you can publish from.
How much do app builders cost in 2026?
In September 2026, entry prices run from the AppSheet and Softr rows in the table, through Retool's annual Team builder and Power Apps Premium at $20/user/mo, up to Glide Classic Business at $199/mo billed annually. Lovable's 100-credit Pro tier is $250 for the year, Draftbit Standard is $144 for the year, and enterprise quotes sit outside this list.
Is there a free app builder in 2026?
Yes, with a ceiling: Bubble lets you build before you pick a plan. FlutterFlow Free stops at 2 projects and does not download code. Adalo Free stops at 500 records per app and does not publish. GlideOS, Softr, Retool, Lovable, and Draftbit each lock store publishing, a custom domain, or a user cap on the free tier. AppSheet's no-cost period is a prototype for up to 10 test users.
Should I use Bubble or FlutterFlow?
Use Bubble when the app is a hosted web product and the hard part is data and workflows, on the annual web Starter in the table. Use FlutterFlow when you want the Flutter source and an APK, which begins on Basic, with GitHub held for Growth. A native app that should stay a flat annual fee, without a code repo, is Adalo, at the Starter year of $432.
What is the difference between GlideOS and Glide Classic?
GlideOS starts at the Basic rate in the table and spends credits while an agent builds the app. Plus starts at $50/mo, and Classic Explorer is $19/mo billed annually, and Classic Business is $199/mo billed annually for 30 work-email users, or $249/mo monthly. The products do not share data, and Glide publishes no migration between them.
Is Power Apps cheaper than AppSheet?
For one Google-connected app and a handful of users, AppSheet Starter is the smaller invoice, and Core is often already inside a paid Workspace plan. Power Apps Premium is the smaller invoice when each person runs many apps and the tenant is Microsoft. Ten Premium users are $200/mo until a renewal on or after January 1, 2027, when the list price is $22/user/mo. The single-app path still for sale is the per-app meter in the Power Apps section, not the retired per-app subscription.
Do Lovable and Draftbit replace a developer?
They replace the first draft, while Lovable withholds code download until Pro, and a Pro top-up costs more per credit than the included plan rate. Draftbit withholds store publishing until Standard, at $15 month to month or the yearly total in the Draftbit section. If you want an editor instead of a builder, start with how to use AI for coding and the developer AI stack.
Bottom line
Ship a custom web app on Bubble, a Flutter binary on FlutterFlow, or a flat-fee native app on Adalo. Match internal users to the suite you already pay for, and budget the paid tier on Lovable or Draftbit where the code and store buttons turn on.
Dupple X is the weekly briefing on these price changes, or start the trial. No vendor paid for a slot, and the about page names the editorial team.
Cite this: Dupple, "10 Best App Builders in 2026", September 2026.
Related guides
Across our whole catalogue the median is $24 a month and 33% of tools advertise a free tier. Figures are the lowest recurring monthly price quoted in our own review of each tool, read on 2026-08-19. Full method and every category.
