Search for a website-to-app converter and you will find a dozen products that describe themselves in almost identical words. Comparison articles then rank them one to ten, usually with the author's own product at the top, and the prices are out of date by the time you read them.
So this is not a ranking. It is the set of questions that actually separate these tools, and an honest note about where each kind wins. We make one of them, which you should keep in mind — it is why the last section says plainly when ours is the wrong choice.
The one distinction that matters
Almost every tool in this category is a hosted subscription. Median, Appilix, Twinr, AppMySite, MobiLoud, Convertify, Appy Pie — you sign up, connect a site, and pay monthly or per app. The platform runs on their servers.
A much smaller group is self-hosted: you buy the software and install it on your own server. Siberian CMS is the long-standing open-source option; Flangapp is a commercial script in the same shape.
Nearly everything else follows from that choice: how costs behave as you grow, who owns the client relationship, what happens if the vendor changes direction, and whether you can modify anything.
| Hosted subscription | Self-hosted | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost shape | Monthly, often per app | Licence plus a server |
| Cost at 50 apps | Rises with every app | Roughly unchanged |
| Setup effort | Minutes | An install, a database, PHP |
| Updates and security | Vendor's job | Yours |
| Customising behaviour | Feature request | Edit the code |
| Where client data lives | Vendor's infrastructure | Your server |
| If you stop paying | Depends on their terms | It keeps running |
| Support | Usually faster | Usually a small team |
We are deliberately not printing prices. Every source we checked disagreed with every other on what these tools cost, and the numbers move. Read them off the vendors' own pricing pages on the day you decide.
The questions worth asking any of them
What happens on day two?
Every tool demos well: paste a URL, watch an app appear. The interesting part is the second week, when the client wants the footer hidden, a tab renamed and the fonts changed. Ask how those edits are made and whether they need a new build each time.
Who holds the signing keys?
Whoever holds the iOS signing certificate controls whether the app can be updated. If the platform holds it on your behalf, find out what happens to that key if you leave. This is the single most consequential question in the category and it appears on nobody's comparison table.
Does it need a Mac?
Some tools build iOS apps for you; others hand you a project and expect you to compile it, which means macOS. If you are on Windows or Linux, check before buying, not after. The workarounds are covered in publishing an iOS app without a Mac.
What does the app do that the site does not?
Push notifications, native navigation, offline handling, biometric unlock. These are not luxuries — without them Apple rejects the app under Guideline 4.2. A tool that produces a bare URL wrapper is selling you a rejection.
How does the price behave at your tenth app?
Pricing pages are designed around the first app. If you intend to build many, multiply. Per-app monthly fees that look trivial at one app are a different business at twenty.
Which kind fits which situation
One app for your own business, and you want it done this week. A hosted platform. Do not install anything. The subscription is cheaper than your time, and operations are someone else's problem.
An agency building apps for clients occasionally. Still probably hosted, until the per-app fees start to show up in your margin. Watch for the crossover rather than assuming it will never come.
App building is the business. Self-hosted. The economics invert in your favour, the client relationship is yours, and you are not building equity in someone else's platform. This is the case our own product is built for.
You need an app that is genuinely native. None of these tools. Offline-first data, gesture-driven interfaces or heavy device use mean a real build — see WebView vs native.
Our bias, stated plainly
Flangapp is self-hosted and sold once, so we think the ownership argument is the important one. But if you are converting a single website and have no intention of running a server, a hosted subscription is the better buy and we would rather say so than sell you something you will resent installing.
The reasoning behind the self-hosted trade, including the parts that are worse, is in self-hosted app builder.