You can build apps for clients without writing code. Standard templates are free to create, changes use credits, and the plan that covers the work is $5 a month. Whether that turns into a side hustle building apps for local businesses depends on what you sell, what it costs you, and who owns what. The last one is the one people skip.
What you are selling
A finished app, installed on the client’s phone with their name on the icon and their colour on every screen, running on its own backend. The templates cover the businesses that ask for apps most: bookings, a shop, loyalty rewards, courses, events with tickets, invoices, a members club. You claim one, pick the client’s colour, put their name on it with your plan, and test the preview before proposing it as a client deliverable.
Then you sell your work defining the brief, configuring the app and testing it. “Add a Sunday closing time.” “Let regulars rebook in one tap.” Each change is a sentence in the app’s chat and a few credits of computing, and it lands on the client’s phone with the next update.
What it costs you
To start an app business without coding you need one account and one plan. Standard templates never cost credits; premium ones, like the shop, cost credits to claim. The Basic plan is $5 a month and comes with 50 credits, and a small change is a few of them. Android installs from a link the client can forward, and it always serves the newest version. For iPhone installs through Glassly, connect an Apple developer account (standard fee $99 a year). Agree who owns the publishing account and has authorised you to act on it. Publishing to Google Play is a one-off $25 for whichever account owns the listing.
Who owns what
This is the part to get straight before you quote anyone. The app lives in your Glassly account, so the plan and the credits are yours and your fee sits on top. The client does not need a Glassly account at all: they sign up inside their own app like any user, and you make them the admin from the app’s settings. Nobody becomes admin by signing up first.
- The backend starts on a managed one and can move into a Supabase project you control.
- Store listings belong to whichever developer account publishes them, so plan for the client to hold those.
- There is no button that moves an app between Glassly accounts today. If a clean handover matters to a client, say so up front and price for it.
Price a defined scope
Start with a business you know and a template that fits. Agree the screens, integrations, testing, account ownership and maintenance you will deliver. Estimate credits separately from your time and external fees, then test before quoting a completion date. Source export can support a developer handover, but it does not transfer the Glassly account or back up live user data. The pricing breakdown covers platform costs.