Android and iOS Native apps from your Joomla site
A Joomla mobile app for Android and iOS, managed from the site you already have
If the same people keep coming back to your Joomla site, to reorder or to finish a course, an app puts you on their home screen. They stay signed in with their website account and get your push notifications. Your site stays as it is: you keep editing in Joomla, and the app shows the change.
- Joomla developers since 2016
- We submit to the App Store and Google Play for you
- Published under your own Apple and Google accounts
- Works with HikaShop, VirtueMart, J-BusinessDirectory and more
Supported Joomla extensions
Works with the extensions your site already runs
If your shop runs on HikaShop or your quote form is built in RSForm Pro, the app works with them as they are. Your orders and form entries stay in Joomla, and nothing has to move.
Shops
HikaShop
VirtueMart
EasyStoreDirectories and reviews
J-BusinessDirectory
JReviewsForms
RSForm Pro
Convert FormsRunning another directory, form builder or course extension, or something else entirely? Tell us what your site uses and we'll check it before we quote.
Trusted by 1,000+ sites for our Joomla extensions and services
App or website
When a Joomla app is worth it, and when it isn't
An app is worth building when the same people come back to you again and again: customers who reorder, members who sign in, students halfway through a course, businesses checking their listing. If most of your visitors find you once on Google and never return, an app won't change that.
What an app does that a mobile website can't
- Your icon on their home screen. It sits next to their banking and messaging apps, one tap away, instead of in a browser tab they closed last week.
- A message on the lock screen. A push notification reaches everyone who said yes to notifications, even when nobody has your site open.
- No password every visit. They sign in once and stay signed in, with the same basket and profile they have on your website.
- Pages that open in a lift. What they've opened is kept on the phone, so it loads with one bar of signal or none.
- A listing in both stores. Someone who types your business name into the App Store or Google Play finds your app there.
When we'd tell you to wait
- Most visitors arrive once, from Google. Nobody installs an app for a single visit. A faster site and better rankings will do more for you: look at EasySpeed and our Joomla SEO service first.
- You can't think of a reason to open it twice a month. Then your customers won't either, and push notifications with nothing to say get switched off.
- The plan is to wrap the website and call it an app. Apple's App Store Review Guideline 4.2, "Minimum Functionality", asks for features, content and interface that go beyond "a repackaged website", and Apple can turn down an app that doesn't. That's why we design app screens of our own.
By type of site
What a mobile app does for your kind of Joomla site
A mobile app brings back the people who use your Joomla site, and what that looks like depends on why they come back. A shop is after the second order. A training site needs the student back for lesson four.
Bring back the customer who already bought once
Repeat customers should be your easiest sales, and a phone makes them harder than they need to be. Find the site again, sign in, type the address with one thumb. Every step is a place to give up.
A HikaShop, VirtueMart or EasyStore mobile app keeps them signed in, with the same account and basket as your website. They get a notification when the order ships, and the link in your next newsletter opens the product in the app, not the browser. We know HikaShop from the inside, because we make an extension for it: HikaShop Meta Pixel.
HikaShopVirtueMartEasyStoreGive searchers and listed businesses a reason to come back
A directory has two audiences, and both forget about you between visits: the people searching it, and the businesses listed on it.
A J-BusinessDirectory or JReviews app puts your search on their home screen, and owners get a notification when a new review appears. For a business owner, a review of their own business is hard to ignore.
J-BusinessDirectoryJReviewsQuote replies that don't get lost in an inbox
Brokers, insurers, accountants and agencies live on forms: a quote request, a claim, a renewal. On a phone, the quote you email back sits unread under everything else in their inbox.
The app works with the forms you've already built in RSForm Pro or Convert Forms, so entries still arrive in Joomla as they do today. Clients sign in once and stay signed in. When their quote is ready, a notification tells them, so it doesn't sink under the rest of their email.
RSForm ProConvert FormsCourses and member areas that work on the train
Your students and members have paid for access. Then the browser asks them to sign in again, and the lesson stops loading when the signal drops.
In the app they stay signed in with their Joomla account. The next lesson downloads ahead, with a notification when it's ready, and one they opened on Tuesday evening still opens on Wednesday's train, signal or not.
If you sell courses, plan for one Apple rule: the iPhone app may open courses bought on your website only if they're also on sale through in-app purchase (guideline 3.1.3(b)). We settle that with you in week 1.
Club news that lands on the lock screen
If you publish news, fixtures or a magazine on Joomla, the app sends a notification to the members who asked for that topic, and tapping it opens the article itself.
What's in the app
What every Joomla app we build includes
Whatever kind of site you run, the app gets its content and its user accounts from Joomla, and it comes with everything below. Payments go in only if you sell.
There's no second site to manage. Change a price, publish an article or approve a listing in the Joomla administrator, and that's what the app shows. Your staff don't learn a new system, and nobody types anything in twice.
Push notifications
One message to everyone, one to a segment such as customers in one country, or an automatic one when something happens, like an order shipping.
One login with Joomla
Customers sign in with the account they already have on your site. Their basket and profile are the same in the app and on the website, so nobody ends up with two accounts.
Opens what they've seen, without a signal
Content is fetched ahead and kept on the phone. Paying or sending a form still needs a connection.
Deep links
A link in an email, a text message or a notification opens the exact article, product or account page inside the app.
Payments
Physical goods and services are paid through Stripe, PayPal or a gateway that only works in your country, which we add on request. Courses and other digital content sold inside the iPhone app must use Apple's in-app purchase (guideline 3.1.1).
Multilingual and right-to-left sites
Every language your Joomla site publishes appears in the app. For Arabic, Hebrew or Persian the whole layout flips to read right to left.
Scrolls like any other app on their phone
Lists scroll at 60 frames a second, a swipe from the edge takes you back, and pictures are resized for a phone screen before they're sent.
Locked down
The app keeps each sign-in in the phone's secure storage and renews it in the background. SSL pinning means it refuses to talk to anything that only pretends to be your server. There are controls against bots and abuse as well.
Technology
Flutter or React Native, Firebase and Joomla's own API
The app is written once in Flutter or React Native and reads your site through Joomla's own API, while Firebase and Apple carry the notifications. The names will be in your proposal, so here's what each one does.
Flutter
React Native
Firebase- Android
- iOS
Joomla
One codebase, an Android app and an iOS app
Flutter and React Native both let us write your app once and compile it into a native Android app and a native iOS app, so a fix or a new screen reaches both phones in the same release.
How we choose
Per project. Flutter draws every screen itself, so the app looks the same on every phone. React Native builds with each platform's own parts and suits a team that works in JavaScript.
Firebase and APNs
Firebase Cloud Messaging carries notifications to Android phones, and to iPhones through Apple Push Notification service. Firebase Analytics reports into GA4 and shows which screens people open and what they tap, such as Add to basket.
Joomla's Web Services API
Joomla 4 and later have a REST API built in, and the app talks to your site through it, with the same user accounts. If an extension doesn't share its data through the API yet, we find out in week 1, before the build starts. Still on Joomla 3? Say so when you ask for a quote, and the site review will show what has to change first.
How it works
Four steps from your Joomla site to the app stores
The first three steps take about a week each. The fourth starts in week 4 and runs until the app is live, because it includes Apple's and Google's review. More screens or integrations add time.
- 1
Week 1 Discovery and app plan
- What the app has to do, and for whom
- The screens, and the menu people tap through
- Which parts of your site the app reads: the shop, the listings, the forms
- A check that your Joomla site is ready for API access and login
You get The app plan: every screen, where its data comes from, and the numbers you'll judge the app by.
- 2
Week 2 Build and theming
- Core screens and navigation
- Login, offline caching and push notifications
- Your logo, colours and fonts
You get The core of the app, tested on Android phones and iPhones.
- 3
Week 3 Integrations and testing
- Payments and deep links
- Single sign-on and basket sync with Joomla
- Analytics, languages and accessibility
You get A beta on your own phone, through TestFlight on iOS and Google Play Console on Android.
- 4
Week 4 onwards Store submission and launch
- Store screenshots, descriptions and policies
- Submission to the App Store and Google Play
- Fixes if a reviewer asks for changes
- Support on launch day
You get Your app submitted to both stores under your own name and live once Apple and Google approve it.
What you'll need
- An Apple Developer Program membership. US$99 a year, paid to Apple (Apple's programme page, checked October 2026). A company enrols with a D-U-N-S Number, which Apple says can take up to 5 business days to arrive (Apple's D-U-N-S page), so ask for one in week 1.
- A Google Play developer account. US$25 once, paid to Google (Google's help page, checked October 2026). A personal account opened after 13 November 2023 must run a 14-day closed test with at least 12 testers before going live (Google's testing rules), so open it as an organisation if you can.
- Administrator access to Joomla, or a staging copy if you'd rather we stayed off the live site.
- Your logo and brand colours, and fonts if you have them.
Why the accounts are in your name
The apps are published under your own Apple and Google accounts, so the store listings and their ratings sit in your name. If you ever change developers, all of that stays where it is.
Support
What we do once the app is in the stores
Launch day is when customers start finding the things testers didn't, so we stay on call while the app settles and show you how people use it. After that, ongoing maintenance is your choice.
Updates without the wait
Short release cycles and automated builds, so every version is built the same way. Images and other assets can be updated over the air, without waiting for a store review.
Numbers you can act on
Firebase and GA4 show which screens get used, where installs came from, whether people who installed in March still open the app in May, and where they drop out of a checkout or a form.
Support with clear SLAs
Priority support with response times agreed in writing, and a stabilisation period after launch. If you want to keep adding to the app, we plan a feature roadmap with you.
Pricing
How much a Joomla mobile app costs
A Joomla mobile app is priced by quotation, because the work depends on your site and on what the app has to do. We review your site first, then send a proposal with the timeline and milestones.
Joomla app development
By quotation
After a review of your Joomla site
- Android and iOS apps from one codebase
- Push notifications, Joomla login and offline caching
- App Store and Google Play submission
- Support and stabilisation after launch
What moves the price: how many screens the app needs, which extensions it connects to and whether it takes payments. A club app that shows news and sends notifications sits at the small end; a VirtueMart shop with sign-in, basket sync, Stripe and a local gateway sits at the other.
To keep the first version affordable, start with the screens your returning customers use most and put the rest on the feature roadmap.
Apple's and Google's own account fees (see What you'll need above) are paid to them, in your name.
FAQ
Questions Joomla site owners ask about apps
What owners usually want to know before they ask for a quote.
Will I have to manage my content twice?
No. The app takes its content from your Joomla site, so you keep adding products, articles and listings in the Joomla administrator as you do now, and the app shows them. Orders, form entries and accounts created in the app end up in Joomla as well, next to the ones from your website.
Will Apple reject my app as a website in a wrapper?
Not for that reason, because it's a real app, with native screens built in Flutter or React Native. A website loaded in a frame is what Apple turns down under App Store Review Guideline 4.2. If a reviewer still asks for changes, making them is part of step 4.
Will my customers actually install the app?
The ones who come back will. Expect repeat buyers, members, students and listed businesses to install it, and most first-time visitors from Google not to. Mention it on your order confirmations and in your newsletter.
Flutter or React Native: which will you use for my Joomla app?
Whichever suits the project. Both turn one codebase into a native Android app and a native iOS app, and the proposal says which one we recommend and why.
Which Joomla extensions can the app work with?
Shops built on HikaShop, VirtueMart or EasyStore, directories and review sites on J-BusinessDirectory or JReviews, and forms made with RSForm Pro or Convert Forms. Other extensions can be connected too. If yours isn't listed, name it in your quote request.
Does the app work without an internet connection?
Partly, which is usually what people need. Articles, products, listings and lessons people have opened still load on a weak signal or none at all. Paying, sending a form or anything else that has to reach your server needs a connection.
How do push notifications work in a Joomla app?
There are three kinds: a broadcast to everyone, a message to a segment such as members who follow one topic or students on one course, and automatic ones set off by an event, such as a quote being ready. They go out through Firebase Cloud Messaging and Apple Push Notification service.
iPhones and recent Android phones ask people to allow notifications first, and anyone can switch them off later. Send too many and they will, so we'd rather you sent fewer and better ones.
Who owns the app and the store listings?
They're published in your name. Both apps go out under your own Google Play and Apple Developer accounts, so the listings, the ratings and the app's place in both stores are yours, and they stay yours if you ever change developers.
How long does it take to build a Joomla app?
The first three steps take about a week each: the app plan in week 1, the build in week 2, and integrations plus a beta you can install in week 3. Store submission starts in week 4 and lasts as long as Apple's and Google's review takes. More screens or extensions add time, and a new personal Google Play account adds a 14-day closed test before launch.
How much does a Joomla mobile app cost?
It's priced by quotation, and the number of screens and the extensions the app connects to matter most. Before any work starts, we look at your site and send a written proposal with the price, the weeks and what you get at each stage. Apple's US$99 a year and Google's US$25 once are separate and paid to them.
Does it work with a multilingual or right-to-left Joomla site?
Yes. Each language your Joomla site publishes appears in the app, and Arabic, Hebrew and Persian screens are laid out right to left.
Tell us what your app should do for your customers
Send us your Joomla site's address and a few lines about who comes back to it, and why. We'll look at it and send you a proposal. If an app isn't the right step yet, we'll say so.