Do I need an App or a Mobile Website? What’s the difference?

To those of us who use terms like mobile website and app on a daily basis, the difference is clear, but to many it’s not. Knowing the difference and determining what is better for you can save you thousands of dollars.

One of the main and most noticeable differences is that an App requires being in an app store, making it only available after purchasing and downloading it. This means that in order to get or find this app, you must go to the App Store and search for it. For many, this is not going to be suitable for their customers.

For example – if you own a pizzeria, nobody is going to go to iTunes to search for a local pizza shop app. Instead, those visitors are going to go to Google, typing in a search term such as Rochester ny pizza shop.

What is now going to come up, are the same results as if they were searching on a desktop, and the website they are going to pull up (from their smartphone, keep in mind) is your website that is made to be seen on a desktop computer. This user trying to view your desktop/regular website on a small 3 inch screen is probably going to get frustrated and click the “back button”. Not to mention if your website has flash, hard to read PDF’s, or other “slow-downs”, you probably just lost that potential customer.

The above instance is going to be the case for many local businesses.

The workaround is a simple – get a mobile website. Mobile websites are a streamlined version of your website that is made specifically for smartphones and is less heavy on visuals and effects, focusing primarily on the content.

A mobile website is often referred to as a web-based app, due to its strikingly similar presence when being looked at. If you showed someone a mobile website and didn’t show them how you got there, many would not know if it was an app or a mobile website. You can even save a mobile website to your home screen with its own icon just like your favorite apps.

Companies such as eMobileMenus.com, offer mobile websites for only $25/month with no setup fees or commitments. If you retain 1 or 2 potential customers because of the ease of use of a mobile website, it clearly pays for itself, and then some – over and over.

A few more differences and advantages of mobile websites are as follows:

  • Mobile websites are able to be viewed on almost all smartphones, where an app would have to be create for each device – iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc.
  • Mobile websites are available the second a visitor wants to access it, where as an app has to be downloaded and installed onto the device prior to use.
  • If you update your mobile website, visitors will see the updated version on their next visit, where as an app would have to be re-downloaded and re-installed
  • Due to having backlinks and being in search engines, a mobile website is going to be much easier to stumble upon. Remember, people don’t have to search for a mobile website. Anytime somebody accesses your website via your regular domain from a handheld device, a smart redirection code will redirect the visitor automatically and instant to your mobile version!

An app is not a bad thing. Just because I’m talking about the benefits of apps, don’t think that we don’t like them or like to build them. An app just isn’t practical for many business owners.

An app is going to be more suitable for those companies/brands that want to offer interactivity/gaming features, daily usage of a service, reporting/complex data aggregation, use of the smartphones’ cameras, etc.

Due to the excessive amounts of programming that go into an app, an app is going to cost a lot more money than a mobile website would. An app would also be more suitable in a situation where you want to offer your visitors content when they are offline or have no internet access – such as the state an iPod would be in most of the time.

Basch Solutions, LLC is a Rochester NY web development company that designs and builds websites for companies of all shapes and sizes. If you still have more questions on whether or not a mobile website or app is right for you, or if you would just like more information, remember a consultation is always free, and we’d be happy to guide you in the right direction!

Archives

How can we help you?

We'd love to see if we'd be a good fit to help you.
Let's get the discussion started today!

request a quote

OR Call : 1.800.516.2074