Mobile Friendly Website or Mobile App?

Naturally, one of the greatest concerns of any company’s CEO, today, is how to win more audiences and whether to opt for a mobile website or a mobile phone app. There is, however, no single solution to this question as the answer depends on a number of factors that can include your resources, business plans and online properties.

To help you make up your mind here a comparison is made between both the approaches where the pros and cons of the two are compared so that you can pick the best option that will benefit your business the most.

Just take a look.

Mobile Website

When you say a mobile website, it refers to a browser-based method of accessing the web content. Unlike the other kinds of website, this website is meant just for the mobiles and hence it won’t be able to open properly in the desktop.

Apart from that, there is another concept of optimising websites for smaller screens and that happens to be the website with responsive design.

A responsive web design is the one that consists of HTML pages that are interconnected with one another and are viewed in browsers over the internet. Though there is nothing extraordinary in this one there is something that makes it stand out.

This particular website is geared up to display correctly on every screen-size. So, it works perfectly well with not only the versions of desktops and mobile-friendly websites but also scales down for matching with the tablets and smartphones that consist of touchscreen interfaces. Therefore, the websites with responsive designs are great for supporting the PR or marketing campaigns as well as implementing strategies of outreach.

A mobile website is superior to the application as far as ease of access, compatibility and maintenance are concerned. So, you can boost your mobile marketing campaign through it. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of mobile websites that will help you to get a comprehensive idea about the same.

Advantages

• Easy to Setup – All you need are a domain and hosting and you do not need to make any submission to the app store
• Affordable – These are usually included within the cost of designing the website
• Works on All Devices – You won’t require a separate site for Android/iOS

Disadvantages

• Can’t make offline access
• Can’t opt for push notifications
• Problems can arise because of poor features like
• Cluttered design
• Issues of performance and
• Poor usability
• No presence in the App Store

Reasons Why Mobile Website Fails?

There are some mobile websites that are so poorly optimised that you will feel like leaving immediately. They are cluttered with popups, ads and contents that no one needs to see on the mobile.

Mobile websites can also be over-optimised in order to make it feel like a native site and in this case, they may have over-designed layouts and choppy animations. Though a well-designed website can win over these shortcomings there are still many things that a mobile app can do which the mobile website can’t.

Mobile Applications

There are common situations arising from specific business requirements when you need to build an application in the best way possible.

Like if you want to build features based on the functionality of the native device like click-to-call, GPS, scanners or camera then an application will be more suitable. Other than that, an application is also great for the interactive games or if you are building a platform like social network or content marketplace.

Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages associated with mobile applications.

Advantages

• Offline Access – Listen to podcasts, gain offline access or browse through product catalogues while on airplane mode
• Push Notifications – Send text messages to subscribers
• Clutter-free – Apps tend to have less stuff as compared to websites
• Faster – An app that is well-designed is faster than the website
• Visibility on the App Store – It is another way to be noticed by the customers with a button on the home screen

Disadvantages

• Extra Setting Up – You have to set the app up separately and submit it to the app store
• Extra Spending – It is sill an additional cost though some are quite affordable

And the Better Option Is….

It is your business objectives that are going to decide whether you need a mobile website or an app. The experts of web development company suggest that if your aim is to reach and offer mobile-friendly content to a wide range of audience then the mobile website is your right choice. On the other hand, if the communication, engagement and interaction with the consumers are you motive to drive customer loyalty the mobile app is ideal for your business.

In certain cases, you may find that you require both the site as well as app and if done in the correct way both can be a valuable and strategic choice and a two-pronged approach is often said to be the most beneficial one.