Instructional developers and others creating apps must choose from a wide variety of app development tools and technologies. Some app development tools have incorporated visual programming features, which enable some drag and drop coding and contextual programming. While those features help novices begin programming with greater ease, questions arise about the overall utility of visual tools for app development. Analyses and comparisons of app development tools and technologies would make their advantages and disadvantages apparent, enabling instructional technologists to make informed decisions about tool selection. Toward that end, this work generated a new framework for comparing app development tools. The criteria that comprise the framework were then used to compare multiple authoring tools and technologies for creating apps. Three app development tools, namely Corona, LiveCode and MoSync, emerged as particularly noteworthy for their utility and flexibility, and because they are free of monetary cost or have a free version.