Every attraction director has had this conversation with their board: “We need a mobile app.” What follows is usually a debate between building something custom and buying an off-the-shelf solution. Having watched dozens of attractions navigate this decision, we’ve seen a consistent pattern — and it almost always favors the platform approach.
Here’s why.
The True Cost of Custom Development
When an agency quotes you $200,000 for a custom app, that number is just the beginning. Here’s what the quote typically doesn’t include:
- Ongoing maintenance: iOS and Android release updates 1-2 times per year. Each requires testing, bug fixes, and resubmission. Budget $30,000-$50,000 annually.
- Feature additions: Want to add push notifications six months later? That’s a new project with new estimates, typically $15,000-$40,000 per feature.
- Server infrastructure: Hosting, monitoring, security patches, and scaling for peak season. Budget $500-$2,000 per month.
- App store management: Screenshots, descriptions, review responses, and compliance with ever-changing store policies.
- Content management: Without a custom CMS (which costs extra), every content update requires a developer.
By year three, that $200,000 app has cost you $400,000 or more — and it still only does what you specified in the original requirements document.
The Hidden Risk: Developer Dependency
Here’s the scenario that keeps CTOs up at night. Your custom app was built by a talented three-person agency. Two years in, the lead developer leaves for a FAANG company. The agency assigns a junior developer who spends months understanding the codebase before making any progress. Meanwhile, your app needs a critical security update and your operating hours are wrong for the new season.
This isn’t a hypothetical. We’ve spoken to multiple attraction operators who found themselves held hostage by developer dependency — unable to make simple changes without expensive contractor engagements and multi-week timelines.
What You Actually Need
Strip away the technical jargon, and what attraction operators really need is straightforward:
- A branded app that looks and feels like theirs
- An interactive map with wayfinding
- Real-time schedules and event information
- Push notifications for timely communication
- A dashboard where non-technical staff can update content
- Reliable performance on the busiest days of the year
Every one of these requirements is a solved problem. There’s no competitive advantage in re-solving them from scratch. Your competitive advantage lies in your animals, your exhibits, your staff, and your programming — not in your app’s codebase.
The Platform Advantage
A purpose-built SaaS platform for attractions gives you everything on that list from day one, plus something custom development can never match: continuous improvement funded by an entire customer base.
When one zoo requests a feature and we build it, every attraction on the platform benefits. You get dozens of feature releases per year that would cost hundreds of thousands in custom development. Accessibility improvements, performance optimizations, new integrations — they all ship automatically.
Your team focuses on what they do best: creating incredible guest experiences. The technology just works.
When Custom Actually Makes Sense
We’ll be honest — there are cases where custom development is the right call. If your attraction has truly unique interactive experiences that require custom hardware integration, augmented reality tied to specific exhibits, or deep integration with proprietary ticketing systems, a custom layer on top of a platform (or a fully custom build) may be warranted.
But for the 90% of functionality that every attraction needs? Building that from scratch is like building your own email server instead of using Gmail. You can do it. The question is whether you should.