The better option for your business – a mobile app or a mobile responsive website

Planning to establish an online presence in the market? One of the first options that come in mind is a mobile responsive website but on the hand, a mobile app can also serve the same purpose if utilized the best way possible. According to the best mobile app development company in Kolkata, whether you want to create a mobile application for your customer base to be downloaded on their devices or a mobile website, or both you need to consider some factors. The factors include the number of target audiences, your estimated budget, intended purpose, and the different features on the offer.

The basic difference between a mobile app and a mobile responsive website –

Before discussing the benefits of both methods of establishing your business in the market it is important that you understand the key differences between a mobile app and a mobile responsive website. A mobile app developed by the best app developers in Kolkata is the actual application that can be downloaded and installed on your mobile devices rather than being rendered within a browser. It is evident that the users like to visit device-specific websites like the App Store and the Play Stores in order to download mobile apps for a specific operating system.

Mobile responsive websites are quite similar to the normal browser-based HTML where the pages are linked together in order to be accessed smoothly over the net. However, the difference between a mobile responsive website and a standard website is like, the mobile responsive websites are only designed for mobile devices with small screen displays. A responsive website is a new standard for different websites be it mobile-friendly or desktop-friendly. Same as traditional websites, mobile responsive websites are capable of displaying text content, data, images, and videos.

The native mobile apps built by the best app developers in Kolkata for specific platforms such as iOS and Android can impact the user experience by –

• Providing interactive ways to increase user engagement

The interesting fact about mobile applications is that it offers your current customer/users base value through a new channel for engagement. The apps can be successfully integrated with features allowing users to interact with the app’s specific components. Say, for example, all the Instagram users are now able to view images on the website, but can’t upload them without using the mobile app.

• Offering customization services

The mobile apps allow users to set up their own preferences accordingly soon after downloading and installing them on the devices, thus suiting their needs. The apps can successfully track every user engagement, and use it for custom recommendations and updates which make the app more beneficial for the user. Moreover, it also allows the businesses to send communication messages to their user bases according to their interests, location, usage, and, behaviour.

• Providing ways to work offline

There are certain mobile apps that can run without an internet connection, but many of them do require internet connectivity for performing all the tasks. However, the apps used on offline mode can still offer content and all the functionalities made for the users anytime and anywhere.

The mobile responsive websites built by the website developers can also impact the user experience in different ways like –

• All-time availability for the users

When compared to the mobile apps functioning on specific platforms (iOS or Android), a mobile responsive website can be easily accessed from any mobile device regardless of the operating system, as long as there is strong internet connectivity. But some factors such as network access, quality, and speed should also be considered which may impact the overall mobile web experience.

• No updates required

As required for mobile apps, regular updates are mandatory for accessing the latest features. But the websites do not require new versions and updates of your product to experience improvements. Moreover, the websites are easy to update and fix bugs provide an enhanced user experience.

• Highly cost-effective

It is true to the fact that mobile apps are quite costly to build and design from scratch. While on the other building a mobile responsive the website can be cost-effective for your business in terms of complexities associated with your requirements.

Summarising the above, when it comes to deciding whether to design a mobile app or mobile responsive website the decision can be quite tough and you have to select the right choice depending on your business objectives. If you have an objective to offer mobile-friendly content to your target audience, then a mobile responsive website can be best, or else you can `go for the mobile app.