Why build apps from ready templates?

The future of app development: Why build apps from ready templates?

Moving into 2020, there is a new sense of urgency. Businesses are now in competition with mobile-first companies that have already disrupted the market with new competitors coming in from everywhere.

This can be attributed to the ever-increasing numbers of smartphone users across the globe. With 2.7 billion smartphone users, it’s becoming imperative for organizations to appraise the potential impact of enterprise mobility trends. While organizations understand that mobility is no longer just a ‘nice-to-have’, many are still struggling to make the mobile transformation at scale. 

Given all the technological disruptions, the need for immediate solutions can be best met with ready templates. Leveraging templates for specific types of applications can be important for business users who require a quick, basic solution.

What are templates?

Templates are used as guides to make something- you use the ruler as a template to draw a precise line, a presentation template for your sales pitch, a spreadsheet template for your financial budgets, a template for that facebook post, template for your first website and today, you also have templates to build mobile applications. 

From an enterprise perspective, until a few years ago, the template business-focussed mainly on website templates and WordPress templates. This is quickly changing now with the templatizing trend being picked up for/by the mobile app ecosystem as well. 

App developers and tech experts say that the majority of app development is a repeat process. This is particularly applicable to scenarios where organizations are building apps that may not be exact clones but are actually using very similar components in them. This gives rise to the modularization of the app development process. App templates are ready-made, preconfigured solutions that give a headstart in the development journey. 

With the growing rise in app-based startups, it is imperative for developers to use a modular way of app development which costs least time and money. That is where app templates come in.

What are the templates good for?

Imagine you are the HR Head who has set out to establish an HRMS for your organization. What are some of the must-haves? Attendance and Leave management? Payroll? Employee Database management? Benefits management? Onboarding? Learning and Training? Analytics & Reporting? Now imagine getting each of these components in the form of a ready-to-use template from a Marketplace of apps that can be customized as and when required. You can plug into it your business logic and get it ready for your organization. This way you save a ton of development cost and time. 

Template apps have the following major advantages to them: 

1. Cost-effective: You instantly save thousands of dollars that are spent in UI development. This is a crucial stage where many enterprises end up spending a high amount of time and money in app development [rather than other equally important necessities]. 
2. Fast (faster time-to-market): You save months of time which otherwise would have gone in the designing and developing of the app’s UI. Faster time to market is often the deal maker or breaker for an app development solution.
3. Small teams: You do not require to hire employees only to develop the app. Using a ready template nearly halves the efforts. The need to program or understand coding is very little to none at all.  

DronaHQ’s Marketplace

There are plenty of services out there that will let you build simple mobile apps without the need to learn how to code. The problem with most of these is that you quickly reach their limits once you want to build more complex apps. DronaHQ, a cloud-based no-code app development platform, wants to provide businesses with a bridge between their fundamental mobility goals and more complex features. With DronaHQ’s Marketplace, you can build your apps 10 times faster with its ready app templates. The templates act as a baseline module that companies can deploy in just a few clicks, with the power to customize to the nth order.

In addition to saving time and cost, you get

1. Infinite customization: You can easily customize the template apps for complete adherence to your requirements. These apps can further be integrated with other enterprise systems. This allows you to extend the more rigid functionalities of certain enterprise systems that otherwise may require the intervention of the IT or DevOps.
2. Backend integration: These app templates provide you ready-made back-end integrated with the app with no-code workflows and the data going to DronaHQ columnar database Sheets.
   While the choice of back-end technology may vary for different companies, it is not difficult to quickly switch from the already existing setup to that of your choice.
3. Security: Being a no-code platform, every module is battle-tested against all security threats and bugs along with ISO 270001 and SOC II certifications. You cut costs, save time and get better quality code!
4. Architecture: You will not have to think about element placement. You get a ready-made structure with examples/pre-filled data for your understanding
5. Possibility to edit structure and code: Unlike most other template providers/service owners who limit this capability, DronaHQ lets you make significant modifications to the structure of your selected template. 

The need for app templates is only going to rise

Increasing apps for traditional businesses :

In order to counter the rising mobile-first enterprises/competitions, many traditional businesses are also slowly moving up in their app-sphere, even if just to support their brand image. These types of apps do not require complex functionality and can be best made from app templates.

Apps for shorter time-periods :

 At times organizations require time for shorter spans of time such as for events, one-off deals etc. For such situations, hiring developers to create UI from scratch is mostly overkill. Hence, app templates are going to be popular in such cases.

Everyone wants an app :

According to new research, Americans check their phones 80 times a day. Even for simple school assignments, institutes are using apps. For quick turnaround time, an app template is an ideal solution.

Who are these marketplace templates for?

The templates are ideal for both technical and non-technical users alike. Project managers and line of business leaders who have a deep understanding of the requirement can get started in no time with the ready template apps and can further customize them without any coding required. At the same time, these templates will help our fellow developers/coders speed up their app development projects where they get a baseline module ready.

Where to get started? 

As a starting point, you can browse through this Marketplace of ready templates to get a feel of the many possibilities for your organization. These templates are built on No code platform by teams who know the product inside out and ready to assist you with any queries that you may have.