Publishing
Publish any project as a website, web app, or native app for iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS.
Jump to publishing guides for:
Before Designware, our team custom developed over 100 apps and websites for all sorts of audiences and devices. It got old recycling or reinventing the wheel for each new project.
Designware was conceived and built from the ground up to make new apps for every device—regardless of screen size or OS—all in one spot. Frictionless publishing has been our goal from the beginning.
What does publishing in Designware do?
Any project can be published as a fully-hosted website or web app, which works for any OS, or downloaded as native apps for iOS, Android, Windows, or macOS.
Once a website or app goes live, you can push new content updates to them over the cloud.
Are you hosting everything?
Yes, all websites and apps have fully-hosted content, which can be updated in realtime. Projects run off a global CDN with automated load balancing for the most demanding use-cases, so you never have to worry about backend infrastructure.
What's the best publishing format?
That's determined by the use case of your project and expectations of your audience. Plus, in Desigware, you can publish to any or all formats from a single project, so it's no longer necessary to limit your thinking to a specific screen size or form factor. Generally speaking:
Websites are usually a business' main marketing asset, where visitors decide whether to engage or purchase. It's a corporate CV, business card, and showroom all in one.
Web Apps (PWAs) are downloadable websites that run like an app on mobile or desktop. They enjoy the portability of a website combined with the quick accessibility and product-like feel of an app. Use them for interfaces that get frequently used, need to get installed directly on multiple OSs, or want to avoid native app version management. Signage is a common use case.
Native Apps are local applications for mobile or desktop—specifically a native wrapper around the project. These offer a more traditional app version management experience, where you can export subsequent app versions in sequence (i.e. V1, V2, V3).
Keep their following capabilities in mind:
Subscription Plan
Free Site (default)
App
App
App
App
App
Publishing Requirements
Yes*
Downloaded
Yes**
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Runs Offline
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
App Store Compatibility
Yes✝
Yes✝
Yes✝
Versioning
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
* iOS publishing requires a Mac, USB cable, Apple Developer Account (with an admin role), and an App Store Connect account (if distributing through the App Store).
** Web apps are downloaded directly from the browser when visiting the project's website.
✝ App Store (iOS), Google Play Store (Android), Microsoft Store (Windows).
More About Native Apps
Apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS are more nuanced than websites and web apps for a number of reasons: they only work on their OS, can have multiple versions for each OS, can be distributed in various ways to end-users, and those end-users can be using separate versions. Here are some core concepts to keep in mind when publishing apps with Designware:
App Versioning
A project can export unlimited apps for each OS, with each new entry being a new build, or "version," in a related series of apps. This is important for allowing subsequent versions to supersede prior versions on the app stores.
Unlike a website or web app—which are experienced by all users in a consistent way—app experiences can diverge when end-users elect to download new versions at different times, and when any particular version was last updated over the cloud.
OS Updates
Operating systems routinely update themselves, and require apps to update with them. From time to time, this may require you to create and distribute a new app version.
iOS Requirements
Creating an iOS app requires you to have access to a Mac computer, USB cable, and an Apple Developer account (with an Admin role), which will be used to certify your app during Designware's export process. All other native app formats are certified automatically by Designware.
iOS apps can only be distributed to your registered iOS devices for testing, or to anyone through the App Store (via your App Store Connect account). This differs from all other native app formats, which can be deployed to devices in a larger variety of ways.
Ownership & Distribution
Unlike other app exporting platforms, Designware signs and certifies your apps with you defined as the owner and developer, as opposed to us. As such, we do not make app store submissions on your behalf, which gets done through your store accounts.
You own all apps you download and can distribute and monetize them however you choose.
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