Design your own app for free: a picture of an app, or one you can use?
A mockup tool gives you screens that don't work. A builder gives you an app you have to style. Here's how to get both from one description.
Leanfinit · 5 min read
Updated
Two things people mean by “design your own app”
Some people want a picture of an app: screens to show a developer, an investor or a friend. Free mockup tools do this well. Figma has a free starter plan, and Penpot is open source and free. The result looks like an app and does nothing; nothing you type into it is saved.
Others want an app they can use, designed the way they like. That needs a builder, and the design work moves from drawing screens to making five decisions.
If your end goal is to use the app yourself, skip the mockup. A working first version is faster to judge than a picture of one.
The five design choices that matter on a phone
- 1One screen does the daily jobToday’s list, a counter or the next item. The rest is one tap away.
- 2The main button sits under your thumbLogging is the most frequent action; it goes in the lower half.
- 3Numbers are big when the number is the pointA weight or a balance reads at a glance.
- 4Colour carries status, not decorationRed overdue, green done, grey skipped. Three meanings at most.
- 5The look fits the moment of useHigh contrast mid-set; dark mode at night.
That's the whole brief. Everything else is taste.
Designing by describing the look
You don't need a design tool to set those five choices. Put them in the description:
“A reading log: book, pages today, total. Big numbers, warm paper colours, a serif font, one button to add pages at the bottom. Dark mode at night.”
The first line sets the content, the rest sets the design. If the result is too busy, say “remove the history from the first screen”. If the colours feel wrong, say “make it sage and ivory”.
To see how far the look alone changes an app, compare five trackers with similar content: the Beginner Gym Workout Log is light with big buttons, the 75 Hard Calendar is black and acid-green, the Weight Loss Progress Tracker is sage and ivory, the Pilates Workout Tracker is dusty rose and sand, and the Calisthenics Progress Tracker is black type with one orange. Pick the one closest to your taste and describe the difference.
Free, and what stays yours
Leanfinit is fully free during the beta, including publishing to the web. The app runs on your phone and keeps entries there. If you later want a designer to polish it, code export is available.
For the fields and the one rule that make an app useful before it's pretty, see how to write a description that becomes a good app and starting an app from scratch. For designing for someone else, see the blog guide to designing without a designer.
FAQ
What is the best free app designer software?
For mockups, Figma's free plan or Penpot. For an app you actually use, a builder where you describe the screens.
Can I design my own app without design skills?
Yes. Decide the five things above and describe them; change what you don't like with another sentence.
Can I change colours and fonts later?
Yes. Describe the change, for example “make it pink” or “use a serif font”.
Is designing an app for free really free?
Mockup tools have free plans. Building and publishing to the web with Leanfinit is free during the beta.
Describe your own app →
Takes a few sentences. Private, yours.
“A reading log: book, pages today, total. Big numbers, warm paper colours, a serif font, one button to add pages. Dark mode at night.”