Recommendations for how to build a Q&A based app?
August 16, 2019 1:13 AM Subscribe
Having spent many years training candidates for my profession's professional exams I would like to create a fun and simple Q&A app that candidates can use when revising. How should i go about doing this? (and is an app even the right solution??)
Specific features:
- would need to be for iOS
- UK based
- would have a database of about 1,000 questions across six categories that are selected randomly
- ideally would allow two subscription pricing levels - Basic which asks one question per day with a push notification and Full which allows unlimited questions
- no need for links to social media, videos etc
- the profession is fairly niche so it will never be a massive money spinner, at the very most there would be a couple of hundred subscribers at any one time
- the interface would need to be OK but nothing flashy
From my research it seems that my options are as below, none of which seems ideal:
1) Use an App Builder programme such as BuildFire or Appy Pie. These appear to cost minimum $50/month which seems steep as an ongoing expense, particularly once you take into account the slice the App stores take. Plus I am not clear if they would be able to provide the kind of database-based product I am envisaging, all the examples they have are quite different e.g. apps for a firm's internal communications.
2) Hire someone to build the app bespoke. This feels like overkill to me, and sounds like it would be expensive (howmuchtomakeanapp.com suggests it would be £31,000!).
3) Learn to code my own app. I have no serious previous coding experience and also don't have a Mac which i believe is required for an iOS app. Courses like this start from $99 which seems very reasonable. But I don't know if they are any good or how much time it would take to learn enough to produce my app, I assume it is pretty difficult!
4) Change it to being a website instead of an app. My sense from Squarespace and their ilk is that it is easier and cheaper to get a functioning website off the ground than an app.
So my questions for anyone with any experience of this field:
A) Which of these options would you pursue?
B) What the next steps, how do you find the right app builder / developer / course etc?
C) Are there any other options I am missing in the above?
Many thanks for your thoughts!
Specific features:
- would need to be for iOS
- UK based
- would have a database of about 1,000 questions across six categories that are selected randomly
- ideally would allow two subscription pricing levels - Basic which asks one question per day with a push notification and Full which allows unlimited questions
- no need for links to social media, videos etc
- the profession is fairly niche so it will never be a massive money spinner, at the very most there would be a couple of hundred subscribers at any one time
- the interface would need to be OK but nothing flashy
From my research it seems that my options are as below, none of which seems ideal:
1) Use an App Builder programme such as BuildFire or Appy Pie. These appear to cost minimum $50/month which seems steep as an ongoing expense, particularly once you take into account the slice the App stores take. Plus I am not clear if they would be able to provide the kind of database-based product I am envisaging, all the examples they have are quite different e.g. apps for a firm's internal communications.
2) Hire someone to build the app bespoke. This feels like overkill to me, and sounds like it would be expensive (howmuchtomakeanapp.com suggests it would be £31,000!).
3) Learn to code my own app. I have no serious previous coding experience and also don't have a Mac which i believe is required for an iOS app. Courses like this start from $99 which seems very reasonable. But I don't know if they are any good or how much time it would take to learn enough to produce my app, I assume it is pretty difficult!
4) Change it to being a website instead of an app. My sense from Squarespace and their ilk is that it is easier and cheaper to get a functioning website off the ground than an app.
So my questions for anyone with any experience of this field:
A) Which of these options would you pursue?
B) What the next steps, how do you find the right app builder / developer / course etc?
C) Are there any other options I am missing in the above?
Many thanks for your thoughts!
This thread is closed to new comments.
Rather than developing a whole new app to do the same thing, maybe have a look to see if any of the existing apps offer some sort of subscription service for Q&A databases that you could provide this service through?
posted by automatronic at 3:30 AM on August 16, 2019 [3 favorites]