There are 3 popular ways to go mobile for your website. If you don’t know about them yet, you can read here. Last week, I already compared mobile app and resonsive desgin. Today I will make a comparison between mobile app and mobile website. I that you can hope that you can find it easier to pick the suitable one for you.
What is a mobile website?
A mobile website is a website designed specifically for the mobile devices. It can be accessed via any mobile browsers, such as Safari on iOS, Chrome or Opera on Android. To access, mobile users need to type the URL of the mobile website to browsers. Another way is to click on the link to website, and the website will automatically detect the mobile device and redirect the users to the mobile website.
What is a mobile app?
A mobile app is an application for smartphone or tablet. To be accessed, a mobile app must be downloaded from an app marketplace and then installed on the mobile devices. App can only run on the mobile devices that have the same operating system (OS) with it. Hence, mobile app can run directly on mobile devices, not via any browsers.
Benefits of a mobile website
The biggest benefit of a mobile website is that it makes regular websites more accessible via mobile devices. It has all elements of the website, namely look and feel, images, pages and other content but presents them in a mobile-friendly layout, which supports readability and functionality when viewed on a mobile device.
Second, a mobile website allows customers to access your website anytime, anywhere using any device, without concerning download or devices’ OS.
Benefits of a mobile app
The first benefit of mobile app is similar to that of mobile website. It helps to present the website in mobile-friendly layout.
But the biggest advantage of having a mobile app for business is that that can engage closely with customers right on their mobiles. Because users download and install the app to the mobiles, your businesses presents right on their mobiles. Better still, mobile app may be closed or inactive, but still works in the background to send geo-targeted push notifications or gather data about customer’s behaviors and preferences.
Most importantly, mobile app makes it easy to do loyalty programs and apply mobile payments using a single platform, which makes purchase process faster.
Also, it’s also much easier to access a mobile app than a mobile website. All users have to do is one tap, not having to open mobile browsers then type URL (which is often forgot by customers)
Features of a mobile website and mobile app
They generally offer the same features that can help grow your business by making it easier for customers to find and reach you. These features include the following:
- One-click calling: Users call your business simply by tapping on the phone number from your website or app.
- Click-to-map: Users can use mobile devices’ GPS to locate your business and get directions, without having to manually input your address.
- Social sharing: your business gets integrated with social media apps/websites to enable users to share content on social.
- Mobile commerce: you can develop e-commerce-capable mobile websites and apps by adding Buy Now buttons and shopping carts.
- Mobile marketing: only mobile app can send location-based push notification direct to customers’ mobiles or carry out loyalty program (reward points)
How to build a mobile website
To build a mobile website, you may hire a mobile developer to build one from scratch or convert an existing website. Another way is to build one with a DIY mobile website builder. It uses a drag-and-drop platform and requires no programming skills so you can do it yourself.
How to build a mobile app
Like options for mobile website, you can either hire a mobile developer or take an automatic app builder platform. The former is much more expensive than the later.
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