Why You Should Choose A Custom App Over A Clone App?

By Author: Maulik Shah
Total Articles: 16
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Considering the $189 billion expected revenue generation of mobile apps in 2020, the significance of it becomes quite apparent. In fact, looking at the popularity, many businesses are rolling out mobile apps to stay relevant in the dynamic environment.
New startups are emerging, owing to the demand for mobile applications. With readily available solutions like the Uber clone app and the Airbnb clone app, companies are entering the competitive race.
Nevertheless, is the clone app well suited to meet the demand of dynamic businesses?
Or should you go for custom development?
Let's find out the answer to these questions.
Before that, a quick definition of custom apps and clone apps.

● Custom App
When you hire custom developers and designers to build an app based on your requirements, it is a custom app.
Here, the time required to develop an app is more as it is developed from scratch after thorough research and planning.

● Clone App
If you're using a readily available solution with a pre-existing structure and a ready code, then the modified app is a clone one.
You might have heard about the Uber clone app and the Airbnb clone app. All these solutions follow the same code of market leaders.
Though the development can be faster and in less time, many reasons make clones - not a great option. Let's see those drawbacks.

Drawbacks of Clone App
No matter how good the idea of cloning sounds, it is not feasible. With multiple readymade options available in the market, businesses are hesitant to go for custom development and thus end up facing a lot of problems such as lack of functionalities, terrible UI/UX, less scalability, and others. Here are the drawbacks of having a clone app and how a custom-built solution can help you with it.

● Scalability
As clone apps are a replica of their existing modules, they don't provide room for better scalability. On the contrary, custom solutions are from scratch and thus are customizable according to the business needs.

● Poor Quality
Clone apps don't deliver quality, be it in terms of functionality or design. Many times, it even lacks the basic functionality or is just too complex to use. With custom app development, you can be assured that your software has better functionality, is robust, and easy to use.

● Bad User Experience
Going with the clone product means choosing that handful of available features with some plus and minus. This hugely impacts customer experience as they are always looking for some unique features.
And it is the reason why custom solutions intrigue more customer attention. Everything from scratch gives them the power to build an app with a taste of personalized user experience.

● Unwanted Features
Copying someone or something is always a daunting task. Because with good points, you have to burden yourself with irrelevant stuff like the unwanted features in the clone software. As these are the features of an existing original solution, you need to carry this extra baggage no matter how much you despise it. However, in custom development, you can eliminate the features you don't like or are irrelevant to your business requirement.

● Non-lucrative
Keeping all the drawbacks of the clone app aside, you might be thinking that at last, it's the affordable choice and saves a lot of time. And you can start your business in a week rather than wait for months for custom development.
Let me remind you that the clone app has low quality and lacks a lot of features. Besides, it's a replica of an existing successful product, which means the scope of your business growth is negligible. Therefore, trying to build a clone solution would only cost you more in the long run, even more than a custom app.

● iOS App Store Laws
Who likes copies?
No one does!
Even Apple hates it. They have strict laws for their App Store against clone apps. Any app that is built through generation services or by modifying the existing templates, Apple rejects it.
It doesn't happen with custom apps because everyone likes the original. So think before you make a decision.

Endmost Decision
And finally, we are at the intersection of clone and custom apps. What you choose depends entirely on you. There's no doubt that clone solutions can be affordable initially, but a custom made product and its success ratio cannot be ruled out.
In fact, looking at the advantages of custom solutions, it's wise to say that a custom app would be a perfect business fit.

Maulik Shah is the Founder and CEO of Biztech Consulting and Solutions, a fast growing IT solutions provider specializing in Mobile App Development and Web Development Services. Maulik is a tech enthusiast and writes about the various Aspects of ecommerce technology.