Suitability of Mobile App vs Mobile Website

Today the majority of the world’s population uses mobile as the primary communication device. Hence it becomes imperative for any business/organization to have a mobile presence. Mobile presence can be achieved by having a mobile website or a mobile app or both. Here
we will discuss which of these three options is best suited for the organization.

There is no one answer which fits all. Based on the type of organization and the type of communication it wants to achieve can it decide the appropriate option. Before that, let us sees what are the advantages of mobile website and mobile apps respectively.

Advantages of mobile websites are:

Advantages of mobile apps are:

Now that we know the advantages of a mobile website and mobile app, let us discuss when and where we will find it more useful for our business.

Mobile websites can be considered as a must for all business. This is because it provides first access via web browser and search engines and can also serve as a platform to promote and link to our mobile app.

If the business requires a lot of online user engagement then having a mobile app is advantageous. Let us take an example — say Ola. This app is useful to get cab service. So it is used frequently by users and from different locations, hence mobile app is more suitable for these kinds of services or products. Here the app takes advantage of geolocation functionality of mobile and can identify user location even when the user is at an unfamiliar place. Besides this app can find the nearest available driver and book the cab and track route to a destination. For such complex use-cases, a mobile app is more suitable. For example Swiggy (food delivery app), BookMyShow (book movie tickets), Amazon (online shopping), Angry Bird(gaming app), etc.

If the business only requires an online presence with less repetitive user engagement then an only website will suffice. For example, say, manufacturers of furniture or electronics like TV/fridge/washing machine, etc, they need a website presence to promote their products but a mobile app is unnecessary, as there will not be frequent or repeated purchases by same users. Also, there is no use-case here for more user engagement, so creating a website is needed and mobile app is not required.

For a quick recap of the above, we can see the table below:

Related posts:

Photography and neuroscience. To quote the Sound of Music: “These are a few of my favorite things” It seems pretty crazy, but the science is out there: Your phone is ruining your memory… but don’t…

I know every relationship and situation is different. I know different things work for different people. I know both sides of a relationship are not perfect. But I also know how big of a difference…

It seems that a lot of people on this platform are writing to make money. A lot of us are writing on this platform for the experience and feedback. At the end of the day I think everyone is writing…