Do you want to promote your project but do not know how to do it? Have you a choice between the creation
of your mobile website or the development of your mobile app but do not know what is better? Our article will help you make a decision.
Primarily, every person who wants to develop their business does it for reaping the benefit. Each process implies some expenses. As a consequence, the cost to make a mobile app for my website or an interactive website has to be compared to the income a client wants to get. In order to help you make the best decision, we will tell you about mobile applications and websites and show you benefits of their development.
What is the difference between a mobile website and a mobile application?
All the mobile projects can be divided into two categories: mobile applications and mobile websites. A mobile website is considered to be a special website adapted for page view and functioning on the mobile device. And a mobile application, in turn, is a specially developed application for a certain mobile platform (iOS, Android, Windows Phone). The development of mobile applications is an additional method for client acquisition. It requires putting your back into it and investment of your own money but the profit outweighs.
A mobile website is an Internet resource adapted for mobile devices and that means you can surf the Internet using this device. It is developed with the help of such technologies as HTML5, API, and JavaScript. Applications developed with the help of these programs are called web-applications but we are not going to confuse you with such difficult programming terms, as we just want to get the idea what is better in an app vs mobile site collision. For you to understand this information better we will just call all the types of mobile applications ‘a website’.
The mobile application is a specially developed program for a certain mobile platform (Android, iOS or Windows Phone). During the app development, programmers use a difficult software language compiled into the native code of the OS. This code significantly increases the productivity of mobile applications.
Also, the third variant exists. That is a mobile application that includes the browser component. In this case, a part of the mobile application is often used for navigation and integration with the OS. Users usually cannot differentiate this variant from the native mobile application.
Mobile website vs. mobile app: what to choose?
Interface
It is one of the first advantages of the applications. The interface is close to this of the OS and more familiar to the users. In point of fact, a mobile application is closely integrated with a platform and gives an opportunity to realize a common interface. On the other hand, a website with the help of good formatting and the use of JavaScript can give you a quite clear method of cooperation. Nowadays applications’ reviews are significantly better than websites’ reviews but the capacity of mobile devices keeps growing and browsers essentially change themselves for the better.
Functionality
Adapting a website for a mobile device, you narrow down the functionality of a website. You have less space for public information. In some cases, you can duplicate a site but it can have a bad influence on the website’s usability. You can display only the most important information that can be useful to your audience. A mobile application is a separate instrument that extends user’s abilities, offers them some individual bonuses and recommendations, and cooperates with a client on a much closer level. There is the main difference between mobile sites and mobile apps: the user makes a step forward your business, downloads your application and connects their smartphones to your push-notifications.
Speedwork
If we talk about the work speed, an interactive website works slower than computer versions, and that should be considering in a mobile app vs mobile website battle. A browser of a mobile device cannot be expeditious in spite of all the efforts of the developers. The case is that programmers have not learned yet to effectively optimize the runtime libraries and their documents that influence the speedwork of mobile applications and do not influence the speedwork of computer browsers. The more animations and difficult interface a website has, the lower the productivity of the mobile device is.
Integration with a platform
A website opens with the help of a browser, that is why it requires a constant connection to the Internet. It does not matter if it is an online project. But even in that case, according to the special aspects of mobile access, the Internet navigation is connected with unpleasant delays. Probably, the use of API for local data storage will solve this problem but such sample applications have not been found yet.
Fragmentation
Each project that works on the certain platforms requires the development of the applications for each platform separately. It needs to have its own programming language and interface standards. In the case of a mobile website, one version has to cover the needs of all the platforms. It is so just in theory but in practice browsers function differently on several platforms.
Resources
It is considered that it is very difficult to find a specialist for a development of mobile applications. Each platform requires a different specialist. At the same time, there are lots of web developers and their services’ cost is comparatively low. Everything depends on a certain place and a certain situation. If you have a web developer, it will be more profitable to develop a website, if you have mobile developers, the development of a mobile application can be not very expensive. But again, what to choose in a mobile website vs app dichotomy also depends on a project: if it requires a server-side work, you will need a web developer even if their labor intensity is going to be lower.
Publication
Applications for several platforms are connected with a certain store (App Store, Windows Store). Even if there is no such connection, users got used to finding application in the stores (Google Play). Such stores place restrictions on applications’ functions (on the services on a fee-paying basis, in particular), besides it takes time to approve each new version of the application. On the other hand, a website is always available, you just need to open a browser and type an address. The new version of a website is available right away at the moment of the publication. Providing of charged services is not restricted. On the one hand, there are restrictions and slow publication in the store but on the other hand, the store already has a big number of users and prepared systems for charging services. Initially, you need to attract users to a website and make a payment, though it can be a time-consuming task.
Conclusion: the best choice for business
Mobile app or website creation: what to choose? Bear in mind that they both have their own advantages and shortcomings. If you need a minimum functionality or you want to find a temporary solution, it is better to create a mobile website. It will be cheaper and it will give you understanding about actions and preferences of users.
If you need to create long, high-quality and productive relationships with a client if impression and level of comfort that you give your clients are important to you, a mobile application is the best choice.