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Whenever you devise a plan for establishing the Mobile presence on behalf of your business the one common question that spurts out of every mind is whether to favour for a mobile application, suited for users to download or go for a dynamic website, or else a combination of both. Generally, every mobile website and apps poses to a similar look in their very first appearance thus creating the necessary delusions in the selection process which is based out on a number of factors beginning from targeted audience, intended purpose, allocated budget and built-in features. Most of the mobile app development companies are giving their best to realize about how to effective utilize Responsive Websites and Apps over traditional Websites.

What makes the bigger difference while selecting a Mobile Website over an App?
Before knowing the key differences it should be noted that both apps and mobile websites ought to be made view compatible over a smartphone, tablet and desktop. A mobile website is a responsive web design that works exactly like a HTML website page instantly available across the Internet. The big advantage of responsive websites are that they are built to be freely accessible from different mobile platforms. Nevertheless it can be made scalable from a mobile friendly page to a desktop web page upgradation. Further, responsive websites can also perform functions like websites that includes click-to-call and location-based mapping etc.

Apps are highly intuitive in their basic user interface that is downloadable to your smartphone rather than traditional websites which require install operation to be done within a browser. Now the smartphone user gets the freedom to go to any device specific portal and then download compatible apps that gets approved in the Android, Apple and BlackBerry apps stores. These apps are absolutely free to function without the internet, retrieving contents and data’s exceptionally well.

Which is convenient an App or a Mobile Website?Mostly it all depends on the view-compatibility for selecting from either one of the App and Mobile Website. An App is suited for accomplishing interactive games and its counterpart is generally used for increasing the customer base. In a customary belief, you may think both the responsive website and app are required for improving your business. However the first thing should be to build a mobile presence making use of responsive websites and then progress with apps developments. Once you are finished and done with the web apps then succeed further to developing applications that are normally ineffective to build utilizing a web browser.

Merits of a Mobile Website versus Native Apps
More often mobile websites are built and used for marketing and communication purpose since they can offer a broader accessibility, cost effectiveness and compatibility.

Immediacy of Mobile Websites
The user access provided for responsive websites through a browser is automated within a range of mobile devices and this includes iPhone, Android, Windows, BlackBerry Etc., This naturally eliminates the process of download and install apps resulting which reduces in the time span barrier in user engagement.

View-Compatibility
A unique mobile website is always made view compatible and therefore results in drastically reducing the development cost considerably. In addition, Responsive Websites are designed with high security and integrated into almost all latest mobile technologies such as QR Codes, SMS and NFC Networks.

Upgradability
It is easy and dynamic to upgrade mobile websites that reflects to the complete flexibility in changing contents on every time. A simple one time edit toolbar is more than enough to change the content in your responsive website and to make it globally visible. This isn’t any how a laborious process that is in practise with apps upgrades, where all the users have to be updated prior to the app renewal.

Search-ability
Mobile Websites are designed to be easily searchable with their pages spontaneously refreshed in search results. Moreover, these websites are registered compulsorily amongst the industry specific directories and hence forth enables every customers to know about different kinds of businesses from anywhere. Now you can link your regular website to all the mobile responsive page and then direct your usual customers to a far more attractive and appealing user interfaces. In contrast, you also get the option to raise the privacy flag and then restrict visibility of apps right from the beginning of manufacturing product to app store.

Share-ability
Mobile Websites are short and concise for easily sharing across multiple social media platforms that includes emails, text messages, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook pages. Also, Content Publishers can now swiftly direct their users to a responsive website using blogs, websites and in-prints.

Visibility
With more people switching to smartphones and tablets it is the mobile apps that might have the extended reach for accessibility over the internet. The range of visibility and responsiveness of mobile apps are definitely higher than native apps.

Lifecycle Efficiency
The average lifetime of user experience in apps is short and complex with 30 days restrictions observed in the normal terms. Unless and until your app is built uniquely with intuitive features that may compel the return on investment, only then you can enliven the life cycle for a longer period. These phenomenon are clear and visibly present in every mobile websites attracting to a larger number of audiences.

Transformability
A mobile website can be transformed to an app that resembles a lot like a standard website. It can be powerfully built with the ability to develop a database driven web application that can be worked over a desktop system. Hence responsive websites can be treated as an alternative to a native application development.

Time and Cost
The mobile website development process is generally considered reliable that consumes a lot of time and maintain a low cost in comparison with developing native apps. The basic reason for this preference is the responsive nature of websites that can be access from different platforms. It eliminates the need for developing multiple applications for achieving total mobility presence.

Support and Maintenance
Usually the investment rendered in designing native apps is a onetime process that usually lacks in support and maintenance, further adds up to the cumbersome app approval process from the app market. While in the progress of enhancements mobile websites only requires a single edit procedure to efficiently modify the changes and flexibly view across wireless devices. The cost involved in providing the support and maintenance is a meager quantity when compared to native app maintenance.

Related Article – Effective perspective on Mobile Transformation in 2020

Mobile Website a comparison studyThe numerous application and benefit of responsive website is so much in existence that it is still obscure to find why apps are best recommended whenever integrating specific use case scenarios for achieving optimized results.

Generally you might be needing mobile website for some of the following generic use cases which produces best outcomes.

Interactivity/Gaming
In the earlier past there were highly interactive games like Angry Bird, Poke man etc. built through apps and it is sustainable even now a days. When opting for simple games there has never been a huge difference observed in the user experience that is gained out of accessing browser based version versus native apps.

Personalization
It is easy to target users and then engage them into working with your app in a personalized fashion on a frequent basis than go for designing complex native apps. Moreover, the user analytics are often found to be simple and effective that might be similar in practise with EverNote, Facebook and Online Banking Applications.

Reporting with Visualization
You can achieve a financial or scientific reporting tool using a web app and present complex calculations into charts and reports effortlessly. Comparatively you can now utilize apps to perform data accumulation and then process values for developing visual representations.

Native Functionality
Typically mobile websites are good at accompanying click-to-call, short message service, device libraries and GPS native functions at every occasion or the other. In a few instances where you may have to mandate for a mobile website based apps to integrate camera or processing power in order to succeed in optimise functions.

Push Notifications
Normally responsive websites are powerful enough to receive push notifications across different platforms using mobile technologies thus achieving a greater convenience gained in proximity. Beneficially there are more no of browsers coming up of late with the capability to receive notifications messages therein allowing internet businesses to directly communication with their customers online.

Work Offline
Mobile Website have the innate responses to work without the internet since it is always kept on standby mode readily storing data locally and then uploading it whenever connected to the internet. You can now access to content and get some functions done without really connecting to the network.

Related Article – Top Reasons Why You Need Both a Mobile Website and a Mobile App

Conclusion
It is clear that most of the app features and functions can be altogether built and transformed into a mobile website instead of heavily relying on native apps for business operations. Essentially when you want to have your business that is either marketing driven or accomplishing mobile presence then the primitive choice becomes is the mobile friendly responsive websites. However, making a shrewd selection for responsive website than a native app for your business would definitely not affect mutually exclusive, in terms of integrated functions and features. At last the most astute thing will be is to select the right tool for running the everyday business.

Making the Right Choice
In case you are planning to build the mobile presence for your organization then let us know it at the earliest for making informed decisions that blends fine with your project and matches to all your goals.