The internet is already in everyone's hand. With the smartphones and tablets industry growing at a massive pace, having a mobile presence for your business is now a necessity. If you're planning to establish a mobile presence for your business, one of the first considerations that will likely come to mind is whether you want to create a mobile application (app) for users to download, or a mobile website, or probably both.
Mobile websites and mobile apps from a specific company can have similar interface and design. This can make them look very similar at first-glance. Mobile apps and mobile websites also have similar features. But despite their similarities, they are truly different from one another.
When considering for a mobile presence, determining which one to choose depends on which is best suited to your needs. Your choice depends heavily upon a number of factors, including your target audience, budget, intended purpose and required features.
The Differences
Both are similar and both can do the same thing. So what makes them so different then?
Mobile website and mobile app are both accessed on mobile devices. A mobile website is similar to any other website that consists of browser-based HTML pages that are linked together and accessed over the internet using a web browser. The most obvious characteristic that distinguishes a mobile website from a standard old fashioned website is the fact that it is designed for a smaller screen as a priority. Usually for touchscreen devices.
And just like any websites on the web, mobile websites display text, images and videos as their contents. The purpose for a mobile website to exist is to turn the website that you see on desktop browser to a smaller, more compact, easier to use website that is built just for mobile devices.
Apps on the other hand, are applications that are downloaded and installed on your mobile device, rather than being rendered within a browser. Users visit device-specific portals such as Apple’s App Store or Google Play in order to find and download the app for the given mobile operating system. The app that is installed can pull data from the internet in a similar fashion to a mobile website, and do other specific things intended for its purpose.
Which is Better?
When it comes to deciding which is better really depends on your goal. If you want to offer a mobile-friendly content to the widest possible audience with less to no drawbacks and issues, creating a mobile website can be your best option. But if you are developing an interactive application/games that need things that a browser couldn't provide, creating an app is the best way to go.
But in some cases, you may decide that you need both. And it's safe to say that it rarely makes sense for you to build a mobile app without already having a mobile website in the first place. A mobile website should be considered your first step in developing a mobile web presence. And an app is just useful if you are developing an application for a specific purpose with more functionality.
The Advantages of Mobile Websites
Mobile website is better to be the first thing to have before attempting any app creation. This is to highlight you goal if yours is about marketing or public communications. Having a mobile website is the most practical step in mobile strategy because it can reach larger audience than mobile apps.
- Availability. A mobile website is instantly accessible to users via a browser across a range of devices. Apps on the other hand, require the user to first download and install the app from an app marketplace before the content or application can be viewed.
- Compatibility. Mobile websites are compatible across devices. A single mobile website can reach users across many different types of mobile devices, whereas apps require a separate version to be developed for each type of device.
- Upgradability. Mobile websites can be updated instantly and its flexibility is much more dynamic. Any changes in design or content are immediately visible. Updating an app on the other hand, requires the update to be pushed where users need to download in order to get the update.
- Findability. Mobile websites are easier to find because their pages can be displayed in search results. And because mobile websites are indexed by search engines, they can be seen by a much wider range of users. In contrast, the visibility of apps are largely restricted to manufacturer app stores.
- Shareability. Mobile website have URLs so they can be easily shared between users by using a simple link. Publishers can easily direct users to a mobile website from a website/blog, or even in print. An app cannot be shared in this fashion.
- Lifespan. Mobile websites are always available for users. Whenever its online, its working. Mobile apps on the other hand, have a short shelf-life. In average, the age for an app to stay installed in a mobile device is less than 30 days. Users tend to do trials when they download apps from the store and usually popular apps are the ones that stays.
- Practicality. Mobile websites can be developed as database-driven web applications that act very much like a mobile app. This can make it best in both worlds.
- Productivity. Supporting an app (updating, testing, development) is more much more expensive than supporting a website over time. And since apps involve more complex development time, they have more bugs to be found.
- Resources. Mobile websites are less expensive. This has made it a cost-effective way for your online presence, especially when you need to have one on different platforms. Mobile websites also use less hardware and internet resources. Although mobile apps have most of their features preloaded, they usually perform more task than mobile websites. This made them more resource hungry.
The Advantages of Mobile Apps
Despite the many benefits of mobile websites, apps are very popular that in fact, they are getting more usage than mobile websites. There are a number of specific use scenarios where an app will be your best choice.
- Interactivity. When you need more interactions for your application, mobile app is where it excels. Games for example, have better advantages if developed using mobile app.
- Personalization. Mobile apps have better customization because they are installed. They can harvest all the necessary things they need to make it run properly and save any changes made by the user on the device.
- Calculations and reporting. Mobile apps can do complex calculations and create reports much more effectively than mobile websites.
- Functionality and processing. Mobile web browsers are getting increasingly good at accessing certain mobile-specific functions such as click-to-call, SMS and GPS. However, if you need to access a user's camera or processing power, an app still can do that more effectively.
- Connectivity. Mobile apps can be developed to run offline without requiring any connection.
Conclusion
As with any project, you need to ensure that what you are doing have the optimal return on your investment.
"App vs. web" is a question that will remain a real consideration for businesses that seek mobile presence when the mobile industry is still popular. If your mobile goals are primarily marketing-driven, or if your aim is to deliver content and establish a broad mobile presence that can be easily shared between users and found on search engines, then the a mobile website is the logical choice. On the other hand, if your goal is interactive engagement with users, and to provide an application that needs to work more like a computer program, then creating an app for your business is the choice to take.