Alternatives
Median.co Alternative: A Simpler, One-Time-Fee Way to Ship a WebView App
Median.co starts around $66/month and scales toward enterprise pricing. Here's when that's worth it — and when a flat one-time build makes more sense.
Median.co — the platform formerly known as GoNative — is one of the more capable webview app builders around. It handles authenticated sessions, native plugins, and app-store submission workflows well, which is why it's a common choice for SaaS teams wrapping a logged-in web app. But that capability comes with a subscription: plans start around $66 per app per month and scale toward multi-thousand-dollar enterprise contracts. If you're evaluating alternatives, it's usually because that pricing model doesn't match what you're actually trying to do.
When Median is overkill
Median earns its price when you need session handling, native plugin access, and ongoing platform support for a product that's actively evolving. But a large share of 'website to app' requests are simpler than that: a marketing site, a content site, a booking page, or a small business site that just needs to exist as an installable Android app with a proper icon. Paying a recurring fee for infrastructure you don't need is the classic sign you should look at a lighter tool.
Capsule as a Median.co alternative
Capsule does one thing: it turns a URL into a signed, branded Android APK. You provide your site's URL, upload your icon and splash screen, and get a downloadable build made through transparent GitHub Actions — with your own package name, not a shared one. It costs $100 once per app, with unlimited rebuilds after that, instead of a monthly line item.
Median.co figure uses its published $66/mo starting price × 36 months
| Median.co | Capsule | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | From ~$66/mo per app, scaling to enterprise | $100 one-time per app |
| Best for | Authenticated SaaS apps, native plugin needs | Marketing sites, content sites, small business apps |
| Setup | Builder + configuration | URL + icon + splash screen |
| Rebuilds | Included in subscription | Unlimited, no extra charge |
| iOS | Supported | On the roadmap |
The honest trade-off: Median's plugin ecosystem and session handling are more mature, and if your app genuinely needs that, the subscription is doing real work. Capsule doesn't try to compete on that axis — it competes on being the fastest, cheapest path to a real Android app for sites that don't need a native plugin architecture.
- 1
Paste your URL and upload assets
Your site's URL, an app icon, and a splash screen — that's the entire setup.
- 2
Build runs via transparent GitHub Actions
No black-box builder — you can see exactly what the pipeline does.
- 3
Download your signed APK
Install it to test, or upload it straight to the Play Console. Rebuilds are unlimited.
Who should stay on Median
- Teams shipping an authenticated SaaS dashboard that needs deep session/token handling
- Products that rely on native device plugins beyond a standard WebView
- Teams that need dedicated enterprise support and SLAs
If none of those apply — you're packaging a website, not building a plugin-heavy native app — a one-time build is usually the better fit financially and operationally.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Median.co the same as GoNative?
- Yes. GoNative was rebranded as Median.co; the product and pricing model carried over.
- What does Median.co cost?
- Plans start around $66 per app per month, with business/enterprise pricing scaling well beyond that for support and larger usage.
- Is there a one-time-fee alternative to Median.co?
- Yes — Capsule converts a website into a signed Android APK for a flat $100 one-time fee per app, with no monthly subscription.