A builder or custom mini app development
A mini app can be assembled yourself in a builder or ordered from a studio. Both work, and the choice depends less on budget than on how ordinary your task is.
| What is compared | Builder | Custom development |
|---|---|---|
| Time to a first version | An evening from a template: the screens are assembled, you fill in your own. | Weeks and up: discussion, mockups, development, testing. |
| Cost | A monthly plan fee from 1 290 ₽; building is free. | A one-off fee for the work plus maintenance, usually far higher. |
| Changing something after launch | A price or a row is changed from a phone in a minute, with nobody else involved. | A ticket, a queue and a release — even for a single number. |
| Hosting and updates | The builder’s side: the server, the certificate and the runtime are not your concern. | Yours: the server, the domain, monitoring and dependency updates. |
| Unusual logic | Limited to the blocks: screens, tables, forms, payments, transitions. | Anything: calculations, integrations, your own algorithms. |
| Who owns the result | The project is yours and lives in the service; it cannot be exported as code. | The source is yours, if the contract says so. |
Choose a builder when
- The task is ordinary: a catalogue, booking, requests, payments, a timetable.
- Changes are frequent and urgent, and no developer is at hand.
- Demand has to be tested before paying for development.
Choose development when
- You need logic the blocks do not have: your own calculations, complex integrations.
- You need to own the source and host it yourself.
- The app is the core of the business rather than a sales channel.
Other questions
- Can we start in a builder and order development later?
- Yes, and it is a sensible order: first learn what people use, then pay for code. A project cannot be exported into your own code — it is rewritten, but against requirements you now know.
- What if we need an integration with our system?
- Data can be pulled from an address serving JSON, from a Google spreadsheet or from Yandex Disk, and submissions leave by webhook. There are no ready connectors to particular CRMs.
- What happens to the app if we stop paying?
- It stops opening for visitors, but the project is kept and returns the moment it is paid for. Worth weighing when choosing between renting and owning code.