Mobile apps or responsive websites: Which one do you need?

In today’s world, thanks to the many advances in technology, companies and brands who are looking to expand their online presence and reach a much wider public can choose between different software solutions that can help them do just that.

Amongst the two most popular software solutions for companies are mobile apps or mobile applications and websites. But how do you know which one is the best option for you? How do you know which solution is the one you need.

Although it might seem tempting to try each possible software solution out there, chances are you won’t be able to. One, because software development is really expensive, and two, because you might not need all of those platforms to succeed online. Let’s take a deeper look at this, shall we?

Websites vs responsive websites

Before we talk about mobile apps or responsive websites and which one is the best option for you, we need to tackle down the matter of websites vs responsive websites and the difference between these two options.

Usually, having a website is the very first step into creating a solid online presence, and the most common software solution made for small, medium and big companies starting off in this world.

Websites can be custom-made to cater for each client’s own necessities and can be adaptes through a great CMS depending on what they need, how they want their website to look like, etc.

These types of regular websites usually only display properly on a computer screen (it doesn’t really matter the platform) but they aren’t able to translate well to other mobile devices.

That’s when a responsive website comes in. Basically, they are the same, however, responsive websites are created to be able to transform and adapt their layout and content to any mobile platform (meaning cellphones and tablets, not only computers).

Both websites and responsive websites use HTML pages that can successfully be translated to any browser, however, the responsive website does allow you access your content from a mobile device.

It is important to mention that, even when these two options seem pretty similar, there’s a lot more work from software developers implied on responsive websites than on regular ones.

Mobile applications or responsive websites: We tell you which one is the best one for you

When you look at the statistics, and realize just during 2017 over 178,1 billion mobile apps were downloaded, and that the global revenue from mobile apps are around 189 US billion, it’s pretty normal to want to be part of those numbers.

However, going for a mobile app solution might not be for everyone. As fun and tempting as might be to get your own mobile app that can be downloaded from Android and iOS users, the truth is you might not even need one at all.

Yes, it is true that mobile applications are the future of software development (We have have a full on report on that matter you can check out here) but if you are a small or medium company, then a responsive website might be your very best option for now.

Why choosing responsive websites instead of mobile apps

Like we previously mentioned, mobile apps take more time, thought and money to develop than responsive websites, and usually serve a very specific purpose for the company/brand or enterprise that needed said software solution.

If you are a small or medium company that is only just starting on the online world, then jumping straight into having your own mobile app when your company doesn’t necessarily offers an specific service or product that needs this kind of platform, might not be the best idea ever.

We recommend going for a responsive website software solution for three main reasons:

1: It is easy to use

When you’re creating your online presence, you must always have your customer and client in mind. If you’re just starting, you want to create an online platform that is easy to access from any device and easy to use and navitage.

With a responsive website, your customers can access your website by simply clicking on it, meanwhile, with a mobile app, they would have to go through the trouble of finding the app and downloading it, something that doesn’t take much time, but most people aren’t willing to do.

2: It is easier to update and maintain

The thing with mobile applications is that they constantly required bug fixings, updates and several improvements to keep up with the current technologies and your user’s own requirements.

Meanwhile, implementing a responsive website solution saves you all this trouble since it is extremely easy to update support and fix any bugs or problems your website might have along the way.

What is even better is that your users don’t get to see all of the fuzz behind maintaining a website. Meanwhile with a mobile app, they’ll have to keep on downloading any update that might be available in order to keep the application working.

3: It is considerably cheaper

We have mentioned before that software solutions aren’t necessarily cheap, but rather accessible, and that applies in this case. Mobile app development can be quite expensive, while going for a responsive website is undoubtedly more accessible for many small and medium companies.

Not only that, but the maintenance cost themselves are very low as well, meaning going for a responsive website solutions is actually a profitable solutions your company can benefit from. So, which one should you pick?

As a software development company ourselves, we truly recommend small and medium companies to go for a responsive website solution rather than a mobile application.

Of course, this will directly depend on your time of company and what projects you are thinking to develop (since it might be the case you do actually need a mobile application)

But for those seeking to simply create an online presence and slowly starting to build their own website, a responsive website is, without a doubt, the best option they have.

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