SkieShould I use an MDM or a kiosk app to lock an Android tablet?
A kiosk app alone only covers the screen it draws and can often be escaped or uninstalled. An MDM such as Skie locks at device-owner level, so Android blocks resets, safe mode, installs and uninstalls too, and you can manage many devices from a dashboard. Use a kiosk app alone only for a single hobby device.
Kiosk apps are cheap and quick. You install one, choose an app, and the tablet shows only that app. For a demo at a trade stand, that may be enough. For a tablet that stays in the open for months, it usually is not.
The weakness of an app-only approach is everything around the app. Can someone reach Settings? Boot into safe mode? Install a second launcher? Clear the kiosk app's data, or force stop it? Factory reset the device? An MDM that runs as the device owner can close these doors at system level. Skie blocks factory reset from Settings, safe mode, developer options, adb, adding users, uninstalling Skie, force stop and clearing data, and unknown sources.
The second difference is scale. Ten kiosk tablets set up by hand will drift. With MDM you put them in a group, attach one policy and one app list, and see which are online, compliant and on the latest policy. If one is stolen, lost mode locks it and tracks it.
Skie also includes full-screen kiosk mode, and a one-app allow list locks a device to one app. So you get the kiosk behaviour and the management in one product, without installing a separate launcher.
Where a kiosk app can be better: if you need special hardware features, such as a printer integration or a rugged scanner, with a vendor's own app. Check that your app runs under Skie first, in a pilot.