Web or mobile application: what to choose?

Web or mobile application: what to choose?

Mobile or web application: what's the difference?

Let's see what a web application is and how it differs from a mobile one. We won’t go into Wikipedia, we’ll try to explain in our own words.

First, let's clear up the confusion between a website and a web application. Although there are two terms, they mean the same thing: a program that runs in a browser. You can divide them like this: the website is informational in nature, and the application is an interactive product. That is, a landing page, where there is most often one clickable button "buy" or "subscribe", is still a website, and any marketplace is an application.

In this article, we say "web application" is any program that the user opens in a browser and uses only online. To operate the web application, you do not need to download and install additional software.

You can create a web application in a web application development company : be it social networks or a ticket booking system. And it happens that a web application complements a mobile one and vice versa.

Mobile applications are programs that the user downloads to his smartphone. They can work offline and online, but the main difference from web applications is that mobile ones must be installed on the phone, and not just open the browser.

We left the most interesting for last: PWA (Progressive Web App). This is a web application that the user downloads to a smartphone, but it works through a browser. PWA differs from a regular mobile application in that it cannot be downloaded from the Appstore and Play market and in that the functionality of PWA is limited. Such applications cannot yet interact normally with smartphone hardware: camera, Bluetooth. There are also security issues, such as Touch ID. Although PWA looks like a mobile application, it is more often classified as a web application in web app development company. so in this article we will also classify it as a web application - but with an asterisk.

Now that we have understood the concepts, let's move on to the factors that you need to consider when choosing between web and mobile development.

What do you need: web or mobile application?

There are several factors that will help you decide which application to invest in.

Whether it’s a web or mobile app, you’ll have to deal with SEO in any case. Despite the fact that optimization of both is tied to the selection and use of keywords, it is believed that smartphone applications are a little more difficult to promote.

With a web application, you can attract a wider audience because the content of their pages is indexed by search engines and offered to users in response to queries. Of course, thanks to the Firebase App Indexing tool, a mobile app can also become 'searchable' - although this will require a website to be associated with it.

If you want to get a larger audience reach without large investments, choose a web application.

Use cases

Find out on the shore:

• How often will the user access your product?

• Where and when might it be needed?

Frequency of use - what does it mean? Choosing between a web and mobile application using Microsoft To Do as an example.

Microsoft To Do allows the user to create tasks and synchronize them between their devices. Don’t want to leave Pyaterochka without a carton of milk or are you afraid to continue feeding the cat? The mobile application is always at hand, which means you can set a reminder from anywhere: from home, a shopping center or from work.

Catch another example: a calorie tracker. Let’s be realistic, it’s hard to imagine that someone would write down all their breakfasts, lunches and snacks in a notepad, and then enter all this writing into a web application at home.

Why does the application need to be offline? Let's analyze it using the example of Google Maps.

Imagine that you are in New York. The city is huge, it’s easy to get lost - offline maps will help you stay on track. If there is no Internet, you will not receive local transport schedules, but you will still have access to the navigation function. With a web application development company, everything works a little differently: no Internet - no maps.

At Sparkout tech, we help web app development, mobile app development, enterprise software solutions, cloud-based systems, AI development and generative AI development, we have the expertise to handle diverse projects across various industries.