Mobile App vs Mobile Web

You know that generating traffic while expanding the audience reach is essential for your business. Companies from all the industries started understanding more and more that in order to succeed, they have to build a website or create an app that enlarges their perspective of reaching more people. Most of the potential customers spend a lot of time on their smartphones and many of them spend their money purchasing goods & services through mobile apps specially designed and developed to offer a personalized user experience that makes every individual feel connected with the brand. It’s true that there are businesses who can not switch their activity to using an app because of the lack of comfort felt in sharing personal info or downloading an app on their smartphones to achieve what they want. So some of them will go to the web as the more classical people will opt for classical purchases via websites. 

When you take a look, a mobile app and mobile website might seem almost the same thing, just used on different devices that are convenient for certain people, but it’s your responsibility to find out which one suits your company’s needs better, depending on the budget willing to invest, on the audience targeted, on the purpose of each digital product, vital features and the ones nice to have. We will help you understand the differences between a mobile application and a mobile website to enlighten the choice of the best solution for you.

Differences between mobile apps and mobile web

We guarantee that knowing the differences between these two is important when choosing the best for your company’s benefits, even though you might already be aware that both can be used on mobile. What you still don’t know is the different purposes served by each one of them. 

Mobile app – The mobile apps have special platform specifications for iOS & Android and in order to be accessed, the user must download the app on his phone and enter some required info. Mobile apps offer a higher responsiveness and more practical solutions, faster than the websites. Some of the mobile apps are designed to be used without the internet, while a website can not be accessed or used without it. As some companies prefer to have default apps installed on the devices, it becomes helpful when users need to download services offered over a determined period of time. 

Mobile web – Built with HTML and adapted for web browsers, the mobile website can be accessed only through a 3G, 4G or 5G mobile data connection or through a WI-FI network. It is designed to fit all types and sizes of mobile screens and desktop screens as well. Mobile websites contain image, video, text and more, while being designed to be highly responsive. Some other available features that can be applied are live chat response, click to call or location based mapping. 

Features of mobile app vs. mobile web

The world today spins around apps and websites. Almost anything you need to know or you need to do can be accessed and done from any corner of the Earth by using them. After reading the differences between the features of mobile apps vs mobile web, you will be able to determine the ones that meet your business needs more accurately: 

Accessibility

Websites are easy to access on any device by having a WI-FI network or a mobile internet plan and entering the URL on the device browser, while mobile apps need to be downloaded and installed on devices that may lack storage memory. Also some of the apps may only be built for iOS or only for Android, so this might be a limitation at some point. 

Compatibility

Mobile apps can be compatible on certain operating systems or certain devices, designed exclusively for one or for all of them, while mobile websites have the ability of reaching a large audience just by accessing the URL (that offers integrations like QR code, SMS and more. The QR code scanning can also be integrated in mobile apps, the code gets scanned and the app is found in Google Play or App Store, ready to be downloaded.

Upgrade

Mobile apps need to be updated more often to offer better user experience, new services or products, while mobile websites can be updated more easily over time. The advantage of updating a website is that the changes can be seen immediately while accessing the same link, while updating a mobile app requires sending notifications to the users with the need to download the latest version of the app in order to enjoy the improvements and the newest features. While most of the users love the idea of upgrading their mobile devices as well as the operating systems and the apps used, some of them still might find this part annoying.

Findability

It mainly depends on the targeted user’s preference & opinion about how easy it is to find something by accessing a link after writing it in the browser (most of the mobile app users were annoyed by this and switched to using a dedicated app for anything they needed). As some application stores might restrict certain mobile apps to be downloaded by users of a region, websites are created to be accessed by anyone, from anywhere and on any device as the browser offers the history bar and the pages accessed are visible in the search. 

When to use an app?

Mobile apps determine the trends right now and get popular fast if they are great. When you want to make the best decision for your business, make sure you compare all the advantages and disadvantages of each one of them, while having your audience’s behavior & interests very well defined. The factors which make a mobile app the best choice for your business are: 

You launch a gaming/painting or a similar service

A mobile app choice is wiser if you are planning to launch a game of any type, or a centralized service for multiple locations where the user can book services like coloring & hairstyling. The smoother user experience will win over the already old school website.

The user’s activity requires time

On social media platforms, recent studies have shown that the average user spends more than one or two hours using these mobile applications, so if your business idea is similar and tends to make the user spend more time on what you are offering, then the mobile app will be the most suitable option.

Your business doesn’t need internet connection to work

You might offer services that can perform without being connected to the internet, so a mobile app will be the right choice as the data can be stored locally and collected after the user connects to the internet. 

The perfect choice?

That would be having both, reaching out to your potential customers in all the possible ways, by developing a mobile app and a website. But if your main purpose is to be found easily, delivering content and establishing an online presence, then a website will satisfy your company’s needs. If you want to be different and offer to your customers a fantastic user interface together with a customized experience, with the aid of the user’s location, contacts, storage data, then the mobile app is what you should opt for. 

Having the freedom to choose whether to use an app, or to access a website is the ultimate feature for a satisfied user & a potential customer. If your business can offer both, your business goal can be reached much faster as you will be able to measure the traffic coming from each one of them while having the perfect tools to do so and tailor the experience, the services and the products further on the behaviors, needs and wants of your audience. 

HyperSense Software can professionally guide & advise to make the best decision, and of course, we can create from scratch the mobile app or the website you always dreamed of having, fully customized and ready to thrive locally or worldwide.

Contact us to find out more about what we do and how we can help you!