As a result, companies have realized the need to acquire customers through the effective use of cellular channels. But that's not enough. They also need to optimize their mobile apps and websites to improve user experience and exceed conversion rates to get the most out of these channels.
Are you having trouble deciding between a mobile app or a mobile app for your software project? In this article, we will introduce the advantages and disadvantages of each solution.
Mobile application
These are apps that were installed on your phone from the Apple Store, Google Play, Windows Apps, or that were pre-installed on the mobile device at the time of purchase. Some examples are SMS, Maps, Email, Phone, and Calculator. You use it all day long.
You can access the mobile app by tapping its icon on your phone.
There are three types of mobile apps:
- Progressive Web Application (PWA) - installed from a website.
- Native mobile app - installed from App Store
- Mobile apps for multiple platforms - installed from the app store
Everything feels the same to users, except for progressive web apps (PWAs), which shouldn't be confused with mobile web apps. PWAs are HTML and JavaScript applications presented by websites that work on mobile phones and are designed to look and feel like mobile applications.
What web apps for mobile devices are suitable?
Simply put, these are websites that you can access with your mobile phone and whose content is adapted to the width of your device: small portrait screen, horizontal screen, tablet or laptop screen. The ability of a website to adapt its content to the screen displaying it is known as "mobile responsive". Most websites today are mobile responsive.
You access web apps by browsing websites directly or sometimes by tapping shortcuts on the home screen. They usually require you to be connected to the internet unless they are specifically designed to work offline, such as in progressive web applications.
Which is pricy?
Unfortunately, there is no one-stop answer - it depends.
In general, mobile app development is more expensive than web app development to provide similar functionality because you have to build it twice, usually on Android and iOS, and you have to build a small web app to access APIs to break, for anything related to cloud connectivity, or use a platform-specific cloud API.
You can keep duplicate development platforms by using the multiplatform technologies that have become very popular in recent times, particularly Xamarin, NativeScript, and ReactNative. Multi-platform solutions allow you to evolve once, make small natural adjustments to a specific platform, and target all platforms. offers significant savings.
On the other hand, once you need to expand beyond just using your phone, web applications can become more expensive because handling server-side loads require more infrastructure.
Difference between the mobile applications and web application
The mobile application, which is compatible with the mobile device, is accessed and used through a web browser and the latest version of the application is provided each time the website is accessed. There is nothing to download or install. It has JavaScript, HTML, media (videos, images, fonts) and other classic web technologies. There is only one version of the website available at a time. Most of the processing done by a web application is done on a remote web server.
The mobile app is installed on your phone and requires manual updating. It must be custom made for your phone's operating system, e.g. B. iOS, Android or Windows Phone. Because users update their mobile apps at different times and because users have different versions of the same phone, multiple versions of the app are always deployed at the same time. Most of the savings are done in the cloud storage through a remote web server and most processes are done on mobile phones by mobile applications.
Take a look at the basic difference between web and mobile applications:
- The application, as well as a mobile application, requires frontend programming.
- The web application requires backend programming but in the case of mobile applications, it depends.
- The mobile application requires a different language for different phones but the web application doesn't require it.
- The web application requires a database but in the case of mobile applications, it depends.
- The web application requires a web server or API but in the case of mobile applications, it depends.
- The web application requires the internet but in mobile applications, it depends on the application.
- The web application does not require a versioning strategy mobile application requires a versioning strategy.
- The mobile application offers a personalized user experience and in the case of a web application, it offers a limited personalized user experience.
- Both web applications, as well as mobile applications, can have access to GPS.
- In the case of web and mobile applications, both can have access to the camera.
- The web application does not work offline but the mobile application can work in offline mode.
- Making calls from web applications is limited but in the case of mobile applications, it is not.
- The web application does not allow access to phone files but the mobile application allows access to phone files.
- The mobile application has the option of sending texts but in web applications it is limited.
- It is not possible in web applications to send screen notifications but in mobile applications it is possible.
Which one is better to use?
It depends again. You may have limited options based on the table above and the features you need. You may need a mobile app. In this case, choose as many solutions as possible for different platforms. While the functionality for mobile devices on the go is convenient, it's not always necessary, so you should opt for a responsive web app.
You might need both
Typically, users expect to get business from their mobile apps on websites because some complex activities may require a much larger screen or mouse to work with. For example, while anyone can read a PowerPoint presentation on the phone, creating a presentation directly on the phone is impractical and users prefer to do it on the desktop.
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