Does Sharetribe have a mobile app? Your options for iOS and Android

The short answer

No. In Sharetribe's own words, “Sharetribe doesn’t offer a mobile app out of the box.” What you get is a responsive website that works in mobile browsers. Sharetribe's help center lists three ways into the App Store and Google Play: wrap the website with Twinr, a no-code wrapper Sharetribe partners with; use a certified mobile template, by Journeyhorizon or DevsCrew; or build your own app on Sharetribe's APIs. All three run on the same Sharetribe backend as your website, so listings, users and transactions stay in sync and you keep managing everything in Console. Whichever you choose, Sharetribe says you need its Live plan to put the app in front of real users; you can build and test on the Build plan.

Do you need an app yet?

Sharetribe's template pages are frank about this: “For many early-stage marketplaces, a responsive website is enough.” An app earns its keep when people come back often and act on things that can't wait:

• Providers who need to accept a booking or answer a message quickly, where a push notification beats an email.
• Sellers who list from their phone and want the camera built in.
• Buyers who use the marketplace every week, not once a year.

If most customers find you through Google and buy once, put the money into the website first. An app doesn't replace the website in search, and every option below adds an ongoing cost.

Option 1: wrap the website with Twinr

A wrapper puts your existing marketplace website inside an app container that can be published to both stores. Sharetribe calls it “the quickest, simplest, and least expensive option.” Twinr is built to work with Sharetribe, and on top of the wrapped site it lets you add native tab screens, onboarding screens and push notifications through Firebase. Sharetribe customers get a lifetime 25% discount, and there's a 14-day free trial.

• Cost: a monthly or annual Twinr subscription. Twinr's pricing page says the app is deactivated if you stop paying, so budget for it for as long as the app is live.
• Native feel: the lowest of the three. Sharetribe notes that the experience “mirrors exactly how your marketplace site will look like on mobile browsers”, and some native capabilities aren't available.
• Maintenance: the lowest. Changes to your website show up in the app without rebuilding it.
• Review risk: the highest. This is the kind of app Apple's guideline 4.2 targets, so use the native screens and push notifications Twinr offers rather than shipping the bare website.

Option 2: a certified mobile template

Sharetribe currently certifies two native app templates, by Journeyhorizon and DevsCrew, both independent Sharetribe Experts. Each is a separate mobile app rather than your website in a container, already connected to Sharetribe and Console, so your listing fields, categories and transaction settings carry over. Journeyhorizon's is built in Flutter and includes push notifications, Stripe payments and social login with Apple, Google and Facebook. Both providers can host and update the app for you and help submit it, and both publish under Apple and Google developer accounts your business owns.

• Cost: a setup fee plus a monthly subscription to the template provider, on top of Sharetribe and the store fees. Journeyhorizon also sells a licence to its codebase if you'd rather modify it yourself.
• Native feel: high. It's a real app with native screens, built for marketplaces.
• Maintenance: handled by the provider on a managed plan, including keeping up with new Sharetribe features where possible. The trade-off is dependence: changes beyond the template are quoted by the provider, and if your website has custom code, they have to review what can be reused and what must be rebuilt for mobile.
• Ownership: read the terms. Journeyhorizon keeps the copyright to its template and licenses the code to you. DevsCrew says you own the customisations it builds for you, though a minimum support commitment may apply before the code is handed over.
• Review risk: much lower on 4.2, since these are native apps. The other store rules below still apply.

Option 3: build your own app on Sharetribe's APIs

Sharetribe is headless, so a developer can build a fully custom app in React Native or Flutter against the same backend your website uses. The pieces that matter:

• The Marketplace API is built for this. It covers what users do (signing up, managing listings, transactions, messaging) and is designed to be called directly from a user's device. Sharetribe's JavaScript SDK works with React Native and handles authentication and token renewal for you.
• The Integration API is not. It can reach all marketplace data, and Sharetribe's docs say: “Never expose your Integration API application credentials to an untrusted device or application, such as end user’s browser or mobile app.”
• You still need a small server. Privileged transitions, such as setting custom prices and commission with privileged-set-line-items, can only be called from a trusted context using your client secret, which must never ship inside an app. The Sharetribe Web Template's server already does this for the website, and a custom app needs the same.
• Payments go through Stripe, so the app needs Stripe's React Native SDK, or a Flutter equivalent, for card entry and authentication.

• Cost: the highest up front, since every screen is designed and built. Development and testing can happen on the Build plan; real users need Live.
• Native feel: the best, with no limits on device features, offline behaviour or design.
• Maintenance: you own a second front end. New Sharetribe features and changes to your transaction process have to be built into the app as well as the website.
• Review risk: low on 4.2, as long as it's a real app rather than a WebView of your site.

What App Store review means for a marketplace app

Apple reviews the app, not the platform behind it, and a marketplace app has a few rules of its own to clear:

• Minimum functionality (4.2). Apple wants “features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website”, and a bare wrapper of a marketplace site is the classic rejection. I've covered what to change in a separate guide on this site, “Apple rejected your app under Guideline 4.2”, at /guides/app-store-guideline-4-2-minimum-functionality.
• Your own developer account (4.2.6). Apps made from a template or app-generation service are rejected unless they're “submitted directly by the provider of the app’s content”, which is why every route above publishes under accounts your business owns.
• Payments (3.1.3(e)). If your marketplace sells physical goods or services used outside the app, such as rentals, bookings or products, Apple says you must use a payment method other than in-app purchase, so Sharetribe's Stripe checkout is the right tool. If it sells digital content used inside the app, guideline 3.1.1 and in-app purchase apply instead, so check before you build.
• User-generated content (1.2). Listings, reviews and messages count. Apple requires a way to filter objectionable material, a way to report it with timely responses, the ability to block abusive users, and published contact information.
• Login (4.8). If users can sign in with Google or Facebook, offer an equivalent privacy-focused option as well; Sign in with Apple is the usual one.
• Account deletion (5.1.1(v)). If people can sign up in the app, they must be able to delete their account in the app.
• Demo accounts (2.1). Put working logins for each side of the marketplace, such as a buyer and a provider, in the App Review Information notes, and make sure there are listings to browse.

Which route fits

• Still proving demand: stay on the responsive website, or use Twinr's free trial to see whether customers actually install and use an app.
• Standard Sharetribe flows, and you want a real native app soon: a certified template.
• A heavily customised transaction process, a mobile-first product, or a need to own every line of code: a custom app on the Marketplace API.

Whichever you pick, open the Apple Developer and Google Play accounts in your company's name early. Organisation accounts need extra verification before you can publish (Apple asks for a D-U-N-S number), and the apps should belong to the business, not to whoever built them.

If you want it built

If you're weighing a custom app against a template, or need one built on Sharetribe's backend alongside your website, that's part of my marketplace development work.