How hard is it to make an app? 3 routes compared (2026)

By Sigsten Gustavii· 26 October 2026· 11 min read

Making an app is as hard as the route you pick: hard if you learn to code it, medium with a no-code builder, and easy to start with an AI app builder, while testing, review and getting found stay work on all three.

Making an app used to mean one thing: learn a programming language, learn the tools, and write it line by line. In 2026 there are three routes, and they are hard in very different ways. This guide compares them honestly, including the parts that stay hard no matter which one you pick, with links to Apple's own pages for the rules.

It depends on the route

What makes one app harder than another

The route matters, but so does the app. A to-do list and a marketplace are not the same project on any route.

Most new app makers overestimate the app they need. Nearly every idea has a simple version that is useful on its own, and starting there is the single biggest thing that makes app making easier.

How hard is it to code an app?

Coding a native iPhone app means learning Swift, Apple's programming language, and SwiftUI, its framework for building screens. You write it in Xcode, which only runs on a Mac. Swift is considered friendly as languages go, and SwiftUI lets you describe a screen in a few lines. The difficulty is that a real app needs much more than screens:

• Data: saving it on the phone, syncing it to a server, handling it when there is no connection.
• Accounts: sign-in, password resets and keeping people's data apart.
• Apple's machinery: code signing, provisioning profiles, bundle IDs and certificates, which confuse even experienced developers.
• Keeping up: Apple ships a new iOS every year, and since April 28, 2026 every upload must be built with Xcode 26 or later, according to Apple's upcoming requirements page.

None of this is impossible, and there are excellent free courses. But going from zero to an app you would put on the App Store is a project of months for most people, and it needs a Mac the whole way. If you want to become a developer, it is the right route. If you only want the app, it is the longest one.

Is it hard to make an app with a no-code builder?

No-code builders replace typing code with a visual editor: you drag components onto screens and connect them with menus and rules. For simple apps that fit the builder's components, this is much easier than coding.

The difficulty moves rather than disappears. Each builder has its own way of doing logic, data and navigation, and you have to learn it. Things the builder does not offer can be very hard or impossible. And it matters what the builder actually produces: some make native apps, some cross-platform apps, and some wrap a website in an app shell, a web-view app, which Apple's review can reject when it offers little beyond the website. Check what you would get before you invest weeks in one. The comparison pages set out what each tool states about itself.

How hard is it to make an app with an AI app builder?

An AI app builder writes the code for you from a conversation. You describe the app, look at what it made, and ask for changes in plain words. This is the easiest route to start: there is nothing to install and no editor to learn, and something working appears within minutes.

It is not effortless, and it helps to know where the effort goes:

• Saying what you want. The AI fills in every detail you do not mention. Clear, specific requests get closer results; our prompts in the Learn section show how to ask for changes.
• Checking the result. The AI can build something that compiles but does not quite do what you meant. You have to try the app like a real person would.
• Knowing what you got. Some AI builders make web apps, some make React Native apps, and Borel makes native Swift apps. That decides what the app can use on the phone and how it feels.

Borel takes several of the classic hard parts off the table. Xcode compiles every version on Borel's Mac before you see it, and when the build fails Borel reads the error and tries to fix it itself. Every change is versioned, so a change you do not like is one revert away. Accounts, a cloud database, file storage and AI features are built in, with nothing to set up.

The hard parts of making an app, on every route

Whatever writes the code, these parts stay real work. Knowing them in advance is most of the battle.

Accounts, data and privacy

As soon as an app stores personal data, it needs sign-in, somewhere safe to keep the data and a privacy policy that says what it collects. Apple requires a privacy policy link for every app, as its App Review Guidelines set out under 5.1.1. On Borel, accounts and a database come built in, and the publish flow drafts a privacy policy for you to read and edit.

Testing on a real iPhone

A simulator is not a phone. Touch, the camera, notifications and speed all feel different on the real thing. You can install your own app on your iPhone with a free Apple ID (it lasts 7 days at a time), or share it through TestFlight with a paid membership. Our guide to testing an iPhone app without an iPhone covers every option. On Borel, the live iPhone in your browser is free for everyone, and on Pro Borel Companion installs the app on your own iPhone.

Getting through App Store review

Every App Store app is checked by Apple's App Review. On its App Review page, Apple says it reviews at least half of submissions within 24 hours and 90% within 48 hours, and that over 40% of unresolved issues come from one guideline: App Completeness, meaning crashes, placeholder text, broken links or missing information. Borel's publish card includes a Run review check that looks over the build for App Review risks before you send it.

Getting people to find it

The App Store is crowded. A clear name, honest screenshots and a description that says what the app does in the opening line matter more than most people expect. No route does this part for you.

Keeping it working

Apple changes iOS every year and raises the Xcode version it accepts. An app that is never updated eventually falls behind. On Borel, rebuilding with the current tools happens on Borel's Mac.

How long does it take?

Difficulty and time go together. A simple app on an AI builder can be running in the same session; the same app coded by hand while learning takes months. Apple's own steps, joining the Developer Program and passing review, add days on any route. Our post on how long it takes to make an app breaks it down phase by phase, and what it costs follows the same routes in dollars.

How to make an app with Borel, step by step

Here is the easy route in practice. Each step below is something you do in Borel today.

1. Describe it. Tell Borel what the app is for in a few sentences: who it is for and the one thing it must do well. Our guide to making your own iPhone app has more examples.
2. Watch it build. Borel plans the app, writes it in Swift and SwiftUI, and Xcode builds it on Borel's Mac. The chat says what it is doing as it goes.
3. Try it. The app runs on a live iPhone in your browser. Tap through it like you would on your phone.
4. Keep chatting. Ask for changes in plain words. Revert any version you do not like.
5. Put it on your phone. On Pro, Companion installs it on your iPhone with your Apple ID, from Windows or a Mac.
6. Publish. With Pro and Apple's Developer Program, the Publish flow builds, signs and uploads the app to App Store Connect, then submits it for review.

A water tracker for runners: log a glass in one tap, see today's total, and remind me in the afternoon if I'm behind.

Make the log button bigger and put today's total at the top in large numbers. Add a weekly chart under it.

The opening message names who the app is for and the one thing it must do well, which is what Borel's own Learn pages recommend. The change names what to move and where, rather than asking to make it better. For the whole walk from idea to App Store, read how to make an iPhone app with AI.

Which route is right for you?

• You have an idea and want the app: an AI app builder. Start with Borel, free with 5 credits a day, and see your app on a live iPhone the same day.
• You want to become an iOS developer: learn Swift and SwiftUI in Xcode. Budget months and a Mac. Downloading the Swift code Borel writes for your own idea can be a useful way in.
• You already know a no-code tool well: use it if it produces the kind of app you need, and check whether it is native before you commit.
• Your app is genuinely complex: build the simplest useful version on an AI builder to test the idea, then decide whether it needs a team.

The bottom line

Making an app is easier in 2026 than it has ever been, but not on every route equally. Writing the code is no longer the hard part if you use an AI builder; deciding what to build, testing it on a real phone, getting it through review and getting it found still are. If you want to see how easy the start can be, describe your app to Borel and try it on a live iPhone in your browser, free.

I think the code stopped being the hard part. Deciding what to build and testing it on a real phone still are, so start small and tell me how it goes.

– Sigsten

Make your iPhone app in Borel

Describe the app you want and see its first screens before you pay anything.