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Mobile App Vs Mobile Website: Which one is better?

Author: Rahul Mathur
by Rahul Mathur
Posted: Dec 07, 2020

Introduction

As now everything is available online, the digital market is growing rapidly. Smartphones are handy devices that an individual can carry anywhere, anytime conveniently. An application is easily approachable from smartphone devices, whereas the other way is to open a browser and then access the mobile website.

As the number of smartphone users is increasing, many applications are being launched daily. Users are now smart and they like to access information through applications as they are easy and convenient to use. Be it used to buy products online, booking a movie ticket, or an appointment with a doctor, salon, or any other service, these mobile applications are beneficial in most ways.

The number of mobile phone users has crossed the desktop users. Most companies are opting for a mobile application or a mobile website. According to the current digital market trends, companies are more likely focused on building a mobile app for their product or service. Moreover, there are some large-scale companies as they have time and money to invest in both mobile websites and mobile applications simultaneously.

Another thing is both fulfill the same requirement of the users, but there is a difference between the two. Let us talk about some features that highlight the difference between a mobile website and mobile apps.

1- Customization:

Mobile applications can optimize their content, theme, location according to the user’s information. For suppose, you are at a new place so mobile applications will notify you about the nearby places that you might want to be interested in. The mobile apps fetch your likes and dislikes and then work accordingly. The mobile apps display recommendations according to your previous watch list that will build your interest.

Though the mobile website doesn’t fetch the user’s information, users can’t set the preference. It doesn’t change the content according to the location, and it won’t change your feed according to the previous recommendation.

2- Mobile devices can be used:

It is easy to connect mobile apps with features like camera, contact list, call log, GPS, compass and GPS, and more. Using mobile applications is more innovative and amazing if the users get to access all features and functions at a one-stop solution. You have the option of a camera where you can directly click a photo and upload it to the application. Whereas on the other hand, the mobile website is a bit tradition in this case.

First, you need to save the image in your gallery, then you need to export the image to the website you are using. Though the process is slow and monotonous.

3- Notification:

The mobile application asks the users for permission before sending push notifications on their smartphones. With the emergence of digitalization, companies are doing everything to stay ahead of their competition, and they are coming up with new strategies and let the users know about them. That’s when the push notification helps companies in their call to action step and prompt the users as regards the recent additions.

There are two types of notifications:

  • Push notification and
  • In-app notifications.

Companies use both types of notifications as mediums to inform or contact their end-users. Push notifications are those that highlight at your phone’s screen, even when you are not using the application. Push notifications are directly sent by the company. The in-app notifications can only be visible after the user opens the application. They appear in the application's corner. Most application comes with a symbol of bell icon which is used for in-app notification.

Mobile websites can’t send notifications to users. Though some software and tools help a mobile website to send push notifications.

4- Offline mode:

Most of the mobile applications come with features and functions that also work in offline mode without internet connections. Some applications don’t need the internet to work. This is one of the major differences between the mobile website and mobile applications. Well, both require mobile internet to access most of the features, but applications enable features that users can access in offline mode.

5- Designing:

The mobile applications are developed according to the theme of the company, services that the company offers, the logo of the company. The app is designed while keeping these features in the mind. Well, designers should be aware while designing that the app is designed for which operating systems: an android, or iOS. Both the operating platforms are different and the app is built for each of them according to the programming language that is required.

However, in the case of a mobile website, the designers need to be aware of the searching browsers. Nowadays there are so many browsers, so it is tough for developers to deal with them and build a website that can work with all of them. This is major drawbacks as most browsers might not support a website.

6- Time spent:

According to a lot of researches, people spent a lot of time on an app than on a website. Well, 86% of the time users spend time on the app, while only 14% of the time is spent on the website. With the increment in-app usage, most companies have started looking for people who can develop, design mobile applications. People who can manage the app content and technical issues.

Most of the social media users said goodbye to the social media websites, as they need to submit their credentials on the website while on the apps all they need to tap on the app icon to log in to their phone. Notifications and messages showcases on the phone screen and notify their users, this isn’t possible on mobile websites.

7- Immediacy:

Well, this is one of the points where the mobile website is more beneficial. In the case of immediacy, mobile websites can be read anytime, anywhere without downloading anything. Though, when it comes to the apps, users need to download an application from App Store and Play Store, and then users need to fill in their details to get access to the applications. This whole is a slow and tiresome process and this is the reason why some users like to opt for websites over applications.

8- Upgrading:

Developers can develop the website from the backend and the consumers get to know about the updates as soon as they open the website. However, in the case of mobile apps, users need to visit the app store or play store to update the applications. This is considered a longer process compared to a mobile website where users don’t need to do anything.

9- Shelf life:

The robustness of websites can’t be questioned as users can’t delete from their devices while users can uninstall the applications when they are not interested. Users keep visiting websites through the browsers, while applications can uninstall, which in future never interest the users.

10- Cost:

Mobile websites are inexpensive compared to mobile applications, as mobile applications require maintenance which needs manpower who can deal with technical aspects of the applications?

With digitalization happening at a rapid pace, people are more likely to opt for mobile apps. But both mobile apps and website have their advantages and disadvantages. Mobile websites are any other websites which you access through your laptop or desktop compromising HTML and another browser programming language, while a mobile application is specially designed for android or iOS.

Well, it depends on the users what he has to use as an application or the website.

Author Bio

Satyam Chaturvedi is a Digital Marketing Strategist at Arka Softwares, a ewallet app development company. I'm a tech savvy who loves to explore and implement the power of business applications and software. Being a tech addict, I love to spend time in studying the market trends and helping startups and enterprises in achieving their business goals.

About the Author

Rahul Mathur is the founder and managing director of the ARKA Softwares, a company renowned for its outstanding Mobile App and Web Development Solutions. He has been in the IT industry for more than 8 years with a specialization in.Net, PHP, ROR etc

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Author: Rahul Mathur

Rahul Mathur

Member since: Sep 07, 2017
Published articles: 9

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