How should your organization deal with the ever-increasing number of mobile users? While your initial reaction might be to develop an app, that’s not necessarily the best solution. An app will give you more control over how users interact with your brand, but it’s also more expensive and time-consuming to create and maintain, not to mention that only about half of all smartphone users have apps on their devices. That’s why you should first consider creating a mobile website, which gives you all the benefits of an app without any of the downsides or costs.
Read Detailed Blog: Difference Between A Mobile App and A Web App
Mobile App Vs. Mobile Website
Mobile apps and mobile websites both have their own benefits, but each are better suited to different industries. The choice should be based on the industry and targeted audience. When deciding which type of digital platform to use, first ask yourself if the content needs to be private or available to a wide variety of audiences. If it's private, then an app may be best. If it's public, like with local restaurants that serve all types of cuisine, a website is more likely the right answer.
Native Mobile Apps
A Mobile App creates a larger barrier to entry than a Mobile Website and includes a commitment on the part of the organization, who has to manage both mobile platforms that they support and updates over time. In other words, this decision might not be as simple as it seems. If you plan on launching multiple new features in the next year or so or want your content at the fingertips of users anywhere at any time, you should strongly consider building an app instead.
Impacts On User Experience - Native Apps
Since mobile apps are built specifically for mobile devices, it’s natural that they provide a better user experience because they take advantage of many of the unique properties and features the devices offer. For example, native apps can be created with functionality that mirrors what you would get on a desktop browser (like scrolling), and it makes access to information simpler by allowing users to use their fingers as pointers instead of hunting around with an on-screen cursor.
Responsive Mobile Websites
Responsive design websites are designed to accommodate devices and screen sizes of any device, including smartphones, laptops, and tablets. A responsive website should be easy to navigate on mobile devices with small screens such as those found on smartphones and should not require zooming in or the panning-and-scrolling that we often see when viewing web pages on a mobile phone's smaller screen size.
Impacts On User Experience
When choosing between an app or a mobile website, the first decision that you will need to make is whether you want to invest time and money into creating a native mobile application or if you should go with a mobile website in order to improve user experience. One popular opinion amongst many smartphone users is that apps are easier to use than websites because they are typically more responsive and allow for faster data retrieval due to their minimalist approach.
Which Is The Better Option?
There are many arguments on which is better, a mobile app or a mobile website. There are many differences in using one or the other, and it is difficult to compare them by making a simple comparison list. One needs to take into account each feature, the cost and much more to come up with a conclusion as to which option would work best for the company that plans on using either one or both modes of promotion.
Final Words
I’ve spent a lot of time in this blog discussing what you should do when you have to choose between mobile apps and mobile websites. While there are pros and cons to both, the difference often comes down to what your organization needs most: app downloads or web traffic. I hope that this series has helped you understand the process of choosing between an app or website when starting a new project and gave you some insights on how to make that decision. If you’re looking for a web development agency in the UK, visit our company profile page.