Comparison · Buying guide
WordPress app builders compared: Memberside, AppPresser, BuddyBoss App, AppMySite and MobiLoud
Five ways to turn a WordPress community or membership site into an app, compared on how the app is built, which plugins it understands, and what one app on both stores costs.
There is no single right way to put a WordPress site in the App Store. Some builders draw every screen natively from your site’s data, some show your website inside an app frame, and some do the whole job for you. They also differ on which plugins they understand, and the price of one app on both stores runs from under two hundred dollars a year to over twenty thousand.
This post compares five of them: Memberside, AppPresser, BuddyBoss App, AppMySite and MobiLoud. It is written for people who run a community or membership site on WordPress and want an app their members install from the stores.
Read this first
We make Memberside, so we are not neutral. To keep this useful anyway, every fact about another product comes from that company’s own pages, linked in the sources at the end and read on 11 October 2026. Where a vendor does something better than we do, we say so. Where we could not confirm something, the table says “Not published” rather than guessing. If we have got something wrong, email support@memberside.app and we will correct it.
The short answer
Each of these is the right choice for someone. Pick by the situation you are in.
Memberside
Pick it if your site runs Ultimate Member, BuddyPress or the other plugins on our list, and you want native screens you arrange yourself.
AppPresser
Pick it if you run LearnDash, BuddyPress or WooCommerce, want store submission handled for you, and want offline pages.
BuddyBoss App
Pick it if your community already runs on BuddyBoss Platform or LearnDash, and you want offline courses and in-app purchases.
AppMySite
Pick it if your site is mostly posts, pages or a WooCommerce shop, and the lowest price, or a one-time lifetime price, matters most.
MobiLoud
Pick it if you want a team to build and run the app for you, need every plugin on your site to work unchanged, and have the budget.
Five different ideas of what an app is
The biggest difference between these products is not a feature. It is what they think an app is. Two questions place each one:
- Who does the work. At one end you build the app yourself in a builder. At the other, a team builds, submits and maintains it for you.
- How the screens are drawn. At one end every screen is your website inside an app frame, so anything that works on your site works in the app. At the other, the app draws its own screens from your site’s data, which looks and scrolls like a phone app but only exists for the parts the builder understands.
Neither end is better in general. A website in a frame gives you everything on day one; native screens give your members something that feels like an app. Most products sit in between and mix the two.
Positioning
Who builds it, and how its screens are drawn
Positions are our reading of each vendor's own description of its product. Hover or tap a dot for the reasoning, which is also listed beside the map.
- Memberside You design it yourself on a drag-and-drop canvas, and every screen compiles to a Flutter widget. Pages it has no screen for open as web pages inside the app.
- AppPresser You build it in a customizer; they submit it to the stores. A hybrid app: list screens read your site over its API, and other pages are your website shown inside the app.
- BuddyBoss App Configured in WordPress admin, with a Managed tier that does it for you. Flutter screens for community and courses; pages without one, such as the shop, fall back to your website.
- AppMySite Fully self-serve. Posts, pages and WooCommerce products get native screens from your site’s API; plugins such as forums and member directories show as web views.
- MobiLoud A managed service that builds, submits and maintains the app. Every screen is your own website inside a native shell that adds navigation and push.
Feature by feature
The table compares what matters for a community or membership app. “Yes” means the vendor says so plainly. “Partly” means on some plans, for some screens, or with a catch the note spells out. Each mark links to the page it came from.
Features
What each builder does, as its own pages describe it
For the plugin rows, Yes means the app has screens built for that plugin. Your website's pages means the plugin works, because the app shows your site.
- Yes
- Partly
- Extra cost
- No
- Not published
| Feature | Memberside | AppPresser | BuddyBoss App | AppMySite | MobiLoud |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How it is built | |||||
| Native screens Drawn by the app, not loaded as a web page | Yes 4 Flutter | Partly 10 Ionic hybrid; API lists plus web pages | Yes 19 Flutter, plus web fallbacks | Partly 25 Posts and products; web view for the rest | No 34 Your site in a native shell |
| Design screens yourself Arrange what a screen shows | Yes 4 Drag-and-drop canvas | Yes 9 Customizer and block page builder | Yes 20 App pages in the block editor | Yes 25 Drag-and-drop home screen, toggles | No 31 They configure it |
| Built for you A team does the setup | No 1 Self-serve only | Extra cost 8 Paid service hours | Extra cost 17 Managed plan | No 24 Self-serve only | Yes 32 The whole product |
| Your plugins in the app | |||||
| Ultimate Member Profiles, directories, extensions | Yes 2 Plus 24 extensions | No 8 Not on its supported list | No 22 Not listed | Partly 27 Custom posts plus web view | Partly 33 Your website’s pages |
| BuddyPress | Yes 2 | Yes 13 AppCommunity, over the API | Partly 21 Needs BuddyBoss Platform, which replaces it | Partly 27 Custom posts plus web view | Partly 33 Your website’s pages |
| BuddyBoss Platform | Yes 2 Its bundled forums excepted | Yes 14 AppCommunity, over the API | Yes 20 Its own platform | Partly 27 Custom posts plus web view | Partly 33 Your website’s pages |
| LearnDash | Yes 2 Courses, lessons, quizzes | Yes 15 AppLMS extension | Yes 18 Courses work offline | Partly 27 Custom posts plus web view | Partly 33 Your website’s pages |
| WooCommerce | Yes 6 Shop and cart; checkout on your site | Yes 16 Checkout in an in-app browser | Partly 23 Web fallback | Yes 28 Products synced natively | Partly 31 Your store’s pages, unchanged |
| Every other plugin Works without a screen built for it | Partly 3 Opens as a web page in the app | Partly 11 Web pages in the app | Partly 23 Web fallbacks | Partly 26 Web view | Yes 33 All of them, as your site |
| Shipping and running it | |||||
| iOS and Android | Yes 1 iOS from Pro | Yes 8 Every plan | Yes 17 Launch; Solo is one store | Yes 24 iOS from Pro | Yes 31 |
| Store submission done for you | Partly 5 Listing prepared, iOS sent to TestFlight; you submit | Yes 8 In your own accounts | Partly 17 Managed plan; pages disagree on the others | Partly 29 You upload; Premium automates it | Yes 32 In your own accounts |
| Your branding only No builder name in the app | Yes 1 Pro and up | Not published 8 | Yes 17 | Yes 24 Starter and up | Yes 31 |
| Push notifications | Yes 1 25,000 a month on Pro; extra cost on Free | Yes 8 10,000 devices on Standard | Yes 18 Unlimited | Yes 24 Unlimited | Yes 31 Unlimited |
| In-app purchases | Yes 6 WooCommerce and Paid Memberships Pro | Partly 8 One subscription, Advanced plan | Yes 22 Eight membership and course plugins | Partly 24 Premium plan | Not published 31 |
| Works offline | No | Yes 9 Offline pages and media | Partly 17 Course content | Partly 24 Premium plan | No 34 Needs a connection |
| Buying it | |||||
| Free plan | Yes 1 Android, 3 builds a month | No 8 14-day trial | No 17 | Yes 24 Android, 1,000 downloads | No 31 Free preview |
| Pay monthly | Yes 1 | Yes 8 | Yes 17 Solo and Launch | Yes 24 | Partly 31 Within a 12-month contract |
| Refunds | No 7 Runs to the end of the period | Not published 8 Its pages disagree | Yes 17 14 days | No 30 | No 34 |
Two rows deserve a word.
Native screens for your plugins is where these products part company most. Memberside, AppPresser and BuddyBoss each build screens for specific plugins, and each covers a different set: Memberside is the only one here with screens for Ultimate Member, BuddyBoss App is built around its own platform and LearnDash, and AppPresser covers BuddyPress, LearnDash and WooCommerce. AppMySite reads posts, pages and products natively and shows other plugins through a web view. MobiLoud shows your whole site, so every plugin works exactly as it does in a browser.
Store submission splits three ways. AppPresser and MobiLoud submit the app for you, in your own developer accounts. BuddyBoss does on its Managed plan. Memberside and AppMySite prepare the build and the listing and leave the final upload to you, from your own account.
What one app on both stores costs
For each builder we took the cheapest plan that puts one app on both the App Store and Google Play, billed yearly where the vendor offers it, and worked out the first year and the first three years. Apple’s developer account ($99 a year) and Google Play’s ($25 once) are the same for everyone, so they are left out.
Cost
One app on iOS and Android, cheapest plan that does it
Hover or tap a bar to see how the figure was worked out.
Year one
The first twelve months, including any first-year discount or setup fee.
- AppMySite Pro $180 AppMySite, year one: $180 $15 a month billed yearly ($19 monthly), or $699 once for a lifetime licence. In-app purchases, offline mode and automated publishing need Premium, $39 a month billed yearly.
- Memberside Pro $490 Memberside, year one: $490 $490 a year, billed yearly ($49 a month otherwise). No renewal increase is published. Pro covers five apps; Free has no iOS builds.
- AppPresser Standard $708 AppPresser, year one: $708 $59 a month billed yearly, which waives the $199 setup fee ($79 a month plus setup otherwise). No renewal increase is published.
- BuddyBoss App App Launch $999 BuddyBoss App, year one: $999 $999 in year one, then $1,999 a year at renewal. The app needs BuddyBoss Platform, which is free; the Launch web plan ($199, then $399) is extra if you use it.
- MobiLoud Business $20,288 · off the scale MobiLoud, year one: $20,288 $1,274 a month billed yearly on a 12-month agreement, plus a $5,000 setup fee, for up to 10,000 monthly active users. Figures from the June 2026 copy of its pricing page.
Three years
Year one plus two years at the renewal price.
- AppMySite Pro $540 AppMySite, three years: $540 $15 a month billed yearly ($19 monthly), or $699 once for a lifetime licence. In-app purchases, offline mode and automated publishing need Premium, $39 a month billed yearly.
- Memberside Pro $1,470 Memberside, three years: $1,470 $490 a year, billed yearly ($49 a month otherwise). No renewal increase is published. Pro covers five apps; Free has no iOS builds.
- AppPresser Standard $2,124 AppPresser, three years: $2,124 $59 a month billed yearly, which waives the $199 setup fee ($79 a month plus setup otherwise). No renewal increase is published.
- BuddyBoss App App Launch $4,997 BuddyBoss App, three years: $4,997 $999 in year one, then $1,999 a year at renewal. The app needs BuddyBoss Platform, which is free; the Launch web plan ($199, then $399) is extra if you use it.
- MobiLoud Business $50,864 · off the scale MobiLoud, three years: $50,864 $1,274 a month billed yearly on a 12-month agreement, plus a $5,000 setup fee, for up to 10,000 monthly active users. Figures from the June 2026 copy of its pricing page.
Show the numbers as a table
| Builder | Plan | Year one | Three years | How we worked it out |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memberside | Pro | $490 | $1,470 | $490 a year, billed yearly ($49 a month otherwise). No renewal increase is published. Pro covers five apps; Free has no iOS builds. [1] |
| AppPresser | Standard | $708 | $2,124 | $59 a month billed yearly, which waives the $199 setup fee ($79 a month plus setup otherwise). No renewal increase is published. [8] |
| BuddyBoss App | App Launch | $999 | $4,997 | $999 in year one, then $1,999 a year at renewal. The app needs BuddyBoss Platform, which is free; the Launch web plan ($199, then $399) is extra if you use it. [17] [21] |
| AppMySite | Pro | $180 | $540 | $15 a month billed yearly ($19 monthly), or $699 once for a lifetime licence. In-app purchases, offline mode and automated publishing need Premium, $39 a month billed yearly. [24] |
| MobiLoud | Business | $20,288 | $50,864 | $1,274 a month billed yearly on a 12-month agreement, plus a $5,000 setup fee, for up to 10,000 monthly active users. Figures from the June 2026 copy of its pricing page. [31] |
The bars hide some things worth knowing:
- AppMySite is cheapest by a distance, and it is the only one here that sells a lifetime licence: $699 once for its Pro plan. In-app purchases, offline mode and automated publishing need Premium, $39 a month billed yearly.
- BuddyBoss App has an introductory first year. Renewals are at full price, so year two of the Launch plan costs $1,999. The app runs on BuddyBoss Platform, which is free, and its web plans are sold separately.
- AppPresser waives its $199 setup fee on yearly billing. Its Standard plan includes push for up to 10,000 devices.
- MobiLoud is priced as a service rather than software. The $5,000 setup and the monthly fee cover design, configuration, QA, submission and ongoing maintenance by its team, for up to 10,000 monthly active users. Compare it with commissioning an agency, not with the other four.
- Memberside Pro is $490 a year billed yearly, or $49 a month, and covers five apps, which matters if you build for clients. The Free plan builds a real Android app; iOS builds start on Pro. Memberside is free while in beta.
Each builder, fairly
AppPresser
- Both stores from
- $708 year one
- Standard
- Approach
- Hybrid app, you build
- Plugins it builds for
- BuddyPress, LearnDash, WooCommerce
- Try it
- 14-day trial
AppPresser is one of the longest-running WordPress app builders, and its focus on WordPress shows. You design the app in a visual customizer and a block-based page builder, and AppPresser submits it to the stores for you, in your own developer accounts. Push is included on every plan, and so are offline pages and downloadable media.
Its apps are hybrid. List screens read your posts and products over the WordPress API, and AppCommunity and AppLMS do the same for BuddyPress, BuddyBoss and LearnDash. Other pages are your website shown inside the app, which AppPresser’s own docs note do not work as well as its API screens. Its FAQ names the plugins it supports, and Ultimate Member is not among them. In-app purchases are on the Advanced plan, limited to one subscription. Two of its pages disagree about refunds, so ask before you buy.
Choose it if you run LearnDash, BuddyPress or WooCommerce, you want submission handled, and offline pages matter to your members.
BuddyBoss App
- Both stores from
- $999 year one
- App Launch
- Approach
- Native (Flutter), you build
- Plugins it builds for
- BuddyBoss Platform, LearnDash
- Try it
- 14-day refund
If your community already runs on BuddyBoss Platform, BuddyBoss App is the natural first look. It is made by the same company, it is the most mature product here for native community and course screens, and its new generation is built on Flutter, as Memberside is. Courses work offline, in-app purchases connect to eight membership and course plugins, and the app carries your branding only. There is a Managed plan if you would rather BuddyBoss built and published it.
The trade-offs are in the edges. The app needs BuddyBoss Platform, which replaces BuddyPress rather than running beside it. Pages without a native screen, including the WooCommerce shop, fall back to your website. The Solo plan covers one store, so iOS and Android together start on Launch, and renewals cost about twice the first year. Its pricing page also gives two answers on whether it submits Solo and Launch apps for you.
Choose it if your site is built on BuddyBoss Platform or LearnDash and you want offline courses and in-app purchases from one vendor.
AppMySite
- Both stores from
- $180 year one
- Pro
- Approach
- Native lists plus web view, you build
- Plugins it builds for
- WooCommerce
- Try it
- Free plan, Android
AppMySite is the low-cost, self-serve option, and it is good at what it focuses on. Posts, pages and WooCommerce products come through your site’s API into native screens, a drag-and-drop home screen builder and simple toggles shape the rest, and push is unlimited on every plan. It has a free Android plan, it puts both stores within reach for $15 a month, and the lifetime licence is unusual in this market. Android builds can also go to stores beyond Google Play.
For a community site the limit is plugins. AppMySite’s docs list Ultimate Member, BuddyPress, BuddyBoss and LearnDash, but as custom post types that you show with a web view, not as screens built for each plugin. In-app purchases, offline mode and automated publishing are on Premium only, and its fees are non-refundable.
Choose it if your site is mostly content or a shop, and the price, or a one-time price, matters more than native community screens.
MobiLoud
- Both stores from
- $20,288 year one
- Business
- Approach
- Your site in a native shell, built for you
- Plugins it builds for
- All of them, as your site
- Try it
- Free preview
MobiLoud is different in kind. It is a managed service: its team designs, configures, tests and submits your app, then maintains it, and you get a working app in the stores in six to eight weeks without anyone on your side running the project. Every screen is your existing website inside a native shell that adds navigation and push, so every plugin, checkout and custom feature on your site works in the app from the start. It has been doing this since 2013.
The cost reflects the service, and it is sold on a 12-month agreement. MobiLoud says plainly that its apps are not strictly native, and they need a connection to work. Its current pages are aimed mainly at online shops, though it still offers apps for BuddyPress and BuddyBoss communities. Its live site could not be read for this post, so its figures come from the Internet Archive’s copy of its pricing page from June 2026; check them with MobiLoud.
Choose it if you want the app built and run for you, every plugin on your site must work unchanged, and the budget is there.
Memberside, and where it falls short
- Both stores from
- $490 year one
- Pro
- Approach
- Native (Flutter), you build
- Plugins it builds for
- Ultimate Member, BuddyPress and 15 more
- Try it
- Free plan, Android
Memberside builds native screens from the plugins your site already runs: Ultimate Member and 24 of its extensions, BuddyPress, BuddyBoss Platform, LearnDash, WooCommerce, The Events Calendar, Paid Memberships Pro, Better Messages, ForumWP, bbPress and others. Members sign in with their WordPress accounts. You arrange navigation and design your own screens on a drag-and-drop canvas, each screen compiles to Flutter, and anything we do not have a screen for opens as a page of your site inside the app. Digital products sell through Apple’s and Google’s own billing.
What it does not do yet, or does less well:
- It is new. Memberside is in beta. The others here have been shipping apps for years; MobiLoud alone reports more than 2,000 published since 2013.
- Native screens only for plugins on our list. If your site’s main feature is a plugin we do not cover, it shows as your web page, which is where a website-in-a-frame product like MobiLoud is stronger.
- No offline mode. AppPresser and BuddyBoss both have one.
- Nobody builds it for you. There is no managed plan, and we do not submit to the stores for you. We prepare the listing, review notes and screenshots and send iOS builds to TestFlight, and you upload from your own developer account.
- iOS needs Pro. The Free plan builds Android only.
- BuddyBoss Platform’s bundled forums do not have native screens yet.
- No lifetime plan, and no refunds for part of a billing period.
- WordPress only. MobiLoud and AppMySite also work with other kinds of site.
Choose it if your site runs Ultimate Member, BuddyPress or the other plugins we support, and you want native screens that you arrange yourself, without a managed-service budget.
Which one fits
If you are still unsure, these questions narrow it down in order. Each one only applies if you answered no to the one before.
Decide
Five questions, in order
- 01 Do you want someone else to build, submit and maintain the app?Yes MobiLoud BuddyBoss App MobiLoud does all of it for any site. BuddyBoss has a Managed plan for sites on its platform.
- 02 Is your community built on BuddyBoss Platform?Yes BuddyBoss App Memberside BuddyBoss App is made for it, with offline courses. Memberside also reads BuddyBoss Platform, apart from its bundled forums.
- 03 Does your site run Ultimate Member?Yes Memberside The only builder here with native screens for profiles, directories and the Ultimate Member extensions.
- 04 Is your site mostly posts, pages or a shop, on a tight budget?Yes AppMySite Both stores from $15 a month billed yearly, or a one-time lifetime price.
- 05 Do you need offline content, or submission handled for you?Yes AppPresser Offline pages on every plan, and it submits the app in your own accounts.
- Then Memberside AppPresser AppMySite Try them side by side on your own site: all three have a free plan or a trial, and the screens your plugins get will decide it.
How we put this together
- Prices and features come from each vendor’s own website and documentation, read on 11 October 2026. MobiLoud’s live site refused our requests, so its figures come from the Internet Archive’s dated copies of its pages.
- Costs use the cheapest plan with one app on both stores, billed yearly where offered, at the published renewal price for years two and three. Where no renewal price is published, we assumed the price stays the same. Taxes, store fees and optional add-ons are left out.
- Where a vendor’s own pages disagree, we said so in the table rather than picking the answer that suits us.
- The positions on the map are our reading of how each vendor describes its own product. They are the part of this post most open to argument.
- Memberside’s figures come from the same files our pricing page is built from.
Prices change. If you are reading this long after 11 October 2026, check each vendor’s page before you decide.
Sources
- Memberside — Pricing
- Memberside — Supported plugins
- Memberside — Product overview
- Memberside — Canvas
- Memberside docs — Submitting your app
- Memberside docs — Selling digital products in your app
- Memberside — Terms & Conditions
- AppPresser — Pricing and FAQ
- AppPresser — Features
- AppPresser — Announcing AppPresser 4
- AppPresser docs — WordPress pages in the app
- AppPresser docs — List pages
- AppPresser — BuddyPress apps
- AppPresser — BuddyBoss apps
- AppPresser docs (AppLMS)
- AppPresser — WooCommerce apps
- BuddyBoss — Pricing and FAQ
- BuddyBoss — Mobile app
- BuddyBoss docs — App Next Gen
- BuddyBoss blog — Native app blocks (25 June 2026)
- BuddyBoss docs — Can I run my app without a website
- BuddyBoss docs — Membership plugins in the app
- BuddyBoss docs — Web fallbacks
- AppMySite — WordPress pricing
- AppMySite — WordPress app builder
- AppMySite docs — Web view for WordPress
- AppMySite docs — Forum plugins
- AppMySite — WooCommerce pricing
- AppMySite docs — Publish your app
- AppMySite docs — Refund policy
- MobiLoud — Pricing (archived 26 June 2026)
- MobiLoud — How it works (archived 10 June 2026)
- MobiLoud — BuddyPress mobile app (archived 10 July 2026)
- MobiLoud — Canvas (archived 16 February 2025)
AppPresser, BuddyBoss, AppMySite, MobiLoud, Ultimate Member, BuddyPress, LearnDash, WooCommerce and other product names are trademarks of their owners. Memberside is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, any of the companies or plugins named here. Corrections: support@memberside.app.