Branded App by Wix: Postponing the deadline for the third time. What is the strategy?

Ask the community
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To all Wix partner community,
Happy New year. Have success in the business and be healthy.

The reason for my post is the Branded App by Wix. I like the concept, the performance is OK, I would like to purchase it. But …

Over my Budget and Perception

As I have mentioned before, Branded App by Wix is way over my budget and expensive compared to Spaces by Wix, which is free. If you compare Branded App and Spaces, there are no key selling points that will attract you to switch your customers/members to Branded App. The only reason perhaps is because it is standalone app with owner’s logo. On the other side, being standalone app, is obstacle for the users. With Spaces you are able to connect to other sites (spaces) and with Branded App you are stuck to only one site.

I have noticed that the deadline for 50% discount was postponed several times. First was end of September, then end of 2021 and now it is postponed to end of January. It looks like that Wix is not having enough early adopters even for the half of the price. This is not showing good reputation and will not attract new customers. If I am not satisfying with the pricing and/or added functionality, I will still wait for my decision.

About My Site and Site Members

My site has around 2000 site members. I am saying around 2000 because I do not know what is the number. In some reports/screens is saying 4000 and in some 1700 or something. Nevertheless, my site member base is several thousand site members. Out of them, I do not know how many are connected to the site via Spaces. There are some reports that are showing new Spaces users, but I cannot see how many users are in total because the reports are telling the ‘truth’ way after Spaces by Wix (formerly, Wix App) was introduced.

So, even though I might be good fit for purchasing Branded App by Wix, I am not confident that I will know how many people will be connected to Spaces and how many via Branded App. If I do not know how to track the usage, looks like throwing money without benefits. Also, Branded App is in essence Spaces by Wix with owner’s logo. There is no compelling reason to purchase Branded App. If at this stage Wix needs money for development, they could charge not more than 10 USD monthly for the owner’s logo.

Some Thoughts for Branded App

From what I know about strategy, postponing deadline with 50% discount is not sound strategy. I believe it will not generate more sales. It only allows to buy some time to understand what will be next steps - and in that matter, this could be some sort of strategy. In order all parties to be more satisfied, my opinion is Branded App to be developed in two directions:

Richer Product Functionalities. Adding more functionalities that will differentiate from the Spaces. Or add functionalities for both. (1) For example, we made few tools using Wix Velo on the site, but site members are not able to consume that applications/tools with Branded App and/or Spaces. (2) More options should be added in Branded App so that we might configure the App to be really ‘our app’.

I have attended webinar about Branded App last September and there used to be ambitious plan for new functionalities - I am not sure or informed if those functionalities are implemented.

Adjusted Pricing Structure. Users that are paying for the web site subscription, should have lower fee (if at all) because they are already paying Wix for the Wix and 3rd party apps plus Wix Editor including hosting. Provided that the Branded App can be used without having a Wix site, it is not fair someone to pay only for the Branded App, and me/us to pay the Wix Editor, Platform and Apps and Branded App all together - twice.

…

Dear Wix Team,
I like what you have done so far and my feedback is some kind of encouragement for you to make changes that will attract more users. More importantly for me, it will ease my decision to purchase Branded App by Wix.

Thanks for understanding and your willingness to take in consideration this feedback.

Regards, Venko Gligorov

3 Likes
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Dear Venko,
Thank you for your feedback, I’m Shaked, from the Branded App Marketing team.

The Branded App concept is a game-changer for business and we’re already seeing it from our users how have launched their apps to the App Store and Google Play. The performance is OK, as you said, and we’re working on it hard to make sure the experience will be faster and smoother every day.

I’ll touch the things you pointed out:

Budget:
Although a professional website is a must for every business, a native mobile app is not.
With a mobile app, businesses can increase their loyalty and engagement with the ease of use for customers, a native experience, and the fact that it makes interaction with the business way simpler. It will strengthen the brand precision, reliability, and will provide the customers an experience that fits 2022, where the majority of digital usage is via mobile. You can look at it as an “investment” to help you boost your business revenue. Yet one thing that it’s important to understand, a mobile app will help you to generate more from your existing customer base and it won’t work as a new funnel.
About the pricing - it’s not cost as, such as creating a website with Wix cost, but its way cheaper than developing one by yourself [agencies will start with $5,000 (not including submission to the stores, app updates, ongoing maintenance, website integration, content edits, payments providers, push notifications management, analytics and more)]

Spaces and Branded App Comparison: Spaces is an awesome product(!) that provides a great mobile experience for customers and great value for our users - for free. As you know, It’s more like a marketplace that features other businesses, and it might work for some business owners - if Spaces gives you the right solution for your business keep using it.

Branded App Lifetime Discount Extention: Yes, I don’t like the way it looks too, but here at Wix, there’s only one thing that is more important than what we like or do not like, and it’s our users. The reason for the 2 extensions is that we gradually rolled out the product to our users, over a few months, we wanted that all of them will have enough time to consider and purchase their own fully branded mobile app. If you’re still considering - hurry up.

Features Releseaes: we’re releasing new stuff pretty often - I’ll take that feedback back to our team to make sure we’re communicating it better so you and all of the relevant Partners around will know about it first.

And about us:
We’re still ambitious, very hungry, and above all, we work with all our might to allow business owners to create their own professional native mobile application - exactly the way they want, for them to grow and have success in their businesses.

Hope that it somehow helped you with the decision of purchasing a mobile app, one that you can create by yourself with the Branded App by Wix (and without code :slight_smile:

Wish you a happy new year!
Thanks,
Shaked

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It’s just way overpriced even at $100. You can build an actual app on Adalo, App gyver and more for $30 to $60, and create a real app instead of a branded spaces app. I’m not sure why the price is so high for this product and i’m assuming at some point wix will allow us to create actual apps but $100, $200 is just way too much.

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Whilst you can build custom apps on Adalo, and other platforms, they don’t have the same level of integration with your website.

I hope, as do you, that there will be greater levels of customisation in the future, however, those that actually have a NEED for a branded app can afford it. If you can’t afford the branded app, there is a strong chance you don’t need it and you just want it for novelty.

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You can build a website with these platforms as well. That’s not a excuse for these prices, they’re ridiculous and has very limited customization capabilities. You can’t actually design a app, it’s just a branded spaces app.

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Dear Noah,
We are already paying for the Web site and Ascend. The point is, why to pay twice? I understand that there should be fees, but the difference between free Spaces and Branded App in functionality is almost Zero. For Wix Site users and this level of development of Branded App, the fee should be in the range of the 10 to 30 USD a month.

If Wix is satisfied with the level of sales of Branded App, then it makes sense to keep the current price. But if Not, then either should include more features or to lower the price for Wix Site owners.

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@ajpe1989 Oh I’m not disagreeing. But there has to be a reason why you have become a Wix partner and choose to use Wix over those platforms.

I agree that the price seems high for what we have at the moment. But knowing how much Wix has developed its product, I’m sure they are working on greater customisation options. Had they launched at a lower price, added more functionality and then changed the price, that would have caused problems within its self.

But yes I agree that at the moment it feels like you are simply paying to add your own branding :facepunch:

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@venkog97743 Each product is stand alone, you pay for the services that you need. This is why you have to pay extra, because you pay for what you need. I agree that the functionality feels limited and the branded app feels like you are simply paying to add your own branding, and I agree the price feels a little high.

But, Wix is always innovating, and they are likely to bring greater customisation options. Setting the price as it is allows them room to grow rather than having to constantly adjust prices to the latest features they release.

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Thanks for the reply, @shakedh . I appreciate this.

I understand your points but still I am not convinced. You said tha you position the Branded App price by having in mind how much it will cost to hire a developer for mobile app. But you should consider that there are competitive products as a supstitution that are much cheaper than Branded App. Also, as you know, if someone hires a developer, the solution might be more costly, but it will be unique solution and different than all others generated in Spaces and Branded App.

As I mentioned before, my Web site is having Wix Velo apps that I would like to have them in Branded App. So far this is not possible. So I do not have compelling reason to purchase Branded App even though I have cca 2000 site members, a number that is respectable for most of the Web sites based on Wix.

Instead of calculating the individual coats, I believe Wix should consider the Total Cost of Ownership for Wix site and Branded App. If I am paying considerable amount for Wix site, Ascend and other 3rd parties, and the mobile solution Branded App is having quite nice portion of the costs per year, then there is a danger for switching over other platform completely. I do not have plans for such thing in the moment but if no news are introduced in Branded App, and the total cost is high, everything will be possible in future.

Hope that you will take in consideration feedback from this post and comments as well from the discussions in the previous posts related to Branded App.

Finally, there was a webinar on Branded App in Sep last year, and the experts shared some plans for improving the Branded App. My guess is that very little was implemented so far. Or at least I am not aware.

Thanks again and all the best in the New year.

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@noahlovell ,
What Wix can do is to have standard and premium Branded App. This level of customization of Branded app to be in the range of 10 to 30 and the premium to be 100 to 200. That way, the owners will pay according to their needs and level of functionality. And Wix will not change prices often.

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Time to chime in on this… again. The only “communication” we receive is that its 50% off and to get it now or we’ll be sorry. In other forum posts we’ve requested updates but nobody replies. I think the frustrating thing is instead of forcing the sale with a time limit and effectively threatening everyone why not just sell us on the functionality and why we should buy it. Telling us more people are using mobile to browse and apps are easier to navigate is pretty meaningless as we know how apps work. Tell us what features make it worth buying. At the moment its spaces with your own logo.

I understand not integrating velo… but at least integrate datasets. Datasets are the backbone of editor. Without datasets, galleries and info sections in branded app are pretty useless as images and data won’t be fully integrated. So the most sellable element of branded app (which is its integration / connectivity with web / editor) is actually not totally true. I run a site which host events. We allow our members to post events on our site. I had to do this in velo because wix events currently doesn’t allow site members to create events through a site. Branded app only uses wix events (can’t plug in our custom events dataset) so there are some connection issues. Our other revenue stream is selling products. Without apple pay implemented globally the branded app store is pretty useless. I also struggle to see how the branded app store is different from mobile store… just my own thoughts.

Please stop telling us to buy something that doesn’t exist or hasn’t been developed yet. It didn’t work out so great for Elizabeth Holmes (jokes)…

Sorry for the rant but we’ve been asking for feedback for months… also please know that this frustration is because we all know how great it could be and we all want you guys to smash it out the park.

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I am a branded application user and we are very disappointed, there is a team that says that there should be very simple features, but this cannot be done, there is a team behind this work and a request we have created is already not returned with a logical explanation. They even say why this can’t be done by returning 3 weeks later, unfortunately we are experiencing a great disappointment.

it’s really not a mobile app it’s a spaces app!!!

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I am also a user and can’t even get the AppStore to accept my submission because the “icon” has a transparency when it’s a jpeg, there are no transparent elements at all. It’s for www.dargenta.com

I want a tail period of a year for less than half of what we did pay, it’s not a Rhono shed product yet but hopefully soon. Still expensive comparing to wix, not comparing to a normal app development.

Dear Wix, you are all about scalability, making it real cheap to achieve design for not tech savvy people. You don’t have to develop each app, you just did it once and sell it to thousands of website owners, and I’m sure you can lower the price way more while still making a good profit.

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@simon8144 Our business offers a health service, this is registered on wix. According to apple policies, the moment you provide health services, it definitely does not allow private companies to publish applications. I just set up a limited liability company for this job and this process has been approximately 2 months, neither the application period has been extended nor a refund has been made. It is managed in a complete chaos. I have a mobile app, but I can’t send a notification to remind my customers of an appointment and the team says I can’t do that at all. The work done may be suitable only for very very small businesses, but the price is not suitable for it. I’m thinking of returning it, but I’m sure they won’t refund the process, it’s like a student job, we can’t even change the location of the navigation bar, it’s already zero in design, and problems such as not being able to connect the contents to the data is an almost unusable application, except for professional and medium-sized businesses

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@zubapete I believe Datasets are part of Wix Velo and that is why I mentioned Wix Velo. If Wix is able to introduce only Datasets/Collections in Branded App, that would be one big step forward, for sure.

The thing is that the only certain thing for Branded App by Wix is 50% lifetime discount. What Web site owners actually need is value based pricing. If Branded App is Spaces (which is free) with site owners logo, the pricing should be accordingly - 10 or 20 but not more than 30 usd per month.

Once they add Datasets, Velo and/or other functionalities, they could charge more.

Charging 50% off 200 EUR for something that is provided to others for free (Spaces) is so disappointing and upsetting.

@noahlovell ,
If Wix needs resources/money upfront for the development, than is more appropriate and fair to say so. If we need to pay in advance for something that is not developed yet, except discount, perhaps we need to get something like shares, coupons, you name it, for our investment in Branded App.

I like Wix and I am long time user. I spent many hours providing feedback, beta testings including testing Wix App (predecessor of Spaces). I am proud that I have invested my time in activities to improve Wix platform and products. But this trick with 50% discount out of 200 eur is annoying and drop Wix credibility dramatically. Hope that they will change this pricing scheme soon.

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@venkog97743 totally agree. You can use datasets with no velo knowledge and for me its a simple enough thing to implement on apps. The store and wix events are based on datasets and are already implemented… so why not datasets in general? Velo in general is probably quite a bit more complex? The pricing has been discussed in other forum posts on branded app. Numerous people have suggested a pricing structure as far back as December. Its something which wix never replies about. I personally suggested a price structure based on functionality - so charging low for non-commercial use and then charge higher for activating shops and higher for activating bookings etc… basically exactly how the web pricing structure works. There are many other ways to do it (which have been suggested since day one) but I don’t think they’re going to change it any time soon…

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@pete-ross
The danger for not creating the actual users and partners is that people will start to explore alternatives. The demand for branded mobile apps is increasing and if Wix is not offering at affordable price, then it is normal for people to try to shop around. Mighty Networks are very aggressive and their offering is promising.

As I said before, I have plans for long-term with Wix. That is why I try hard to provide input and arguments to Wix so that they try to adapt the offering to the needs. If I am not competitive on the market for mobile app for the longer run, then will be forced to find a (another) solution. It is simple as that.

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@saidsevgili
I am very satisfied with the support that I got from Wix. It is sad to see that support for Branded App, even though is costly, is not at the level like for other things.

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@venkog97743

I am very pleased with all the services I have received from wix, they are excellent from the service they provide to the support. but branded app is like the work of a new and inexperienced team and provides zero satisfaction as there is zero customizability from support to design, from application errors to the notification system, except for the logo. wix is no longer a small company and it had to be full of new projects. Creating content with data should be allowed and this is a very sensitive situation in order to be able to customize and manage the content. I think the design processes are very simple for wix, adding a classic bottom navigation bar and draggable design contents, even customizing the element colors will allow us to really customize the application. Adola allows you to do very good and unique work in this regard, I believe wix will be better, but not soon, you upset us branded app team.

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Very well written, @saidsevgili . Fully agree.