With the onset of digital era, it has become crucial for every business to be present online. Not only is the need for web presence important, but one should be available to the customers with just one click. Web giants such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, Zomato etc. have seen the benefits that a responsive website and a mobile app can yield.

A responsive website is one which has a mobile friendly version in addition to desktop version. An app is an application that need to be downloaded on your mobile phone and do not need a browser to operate. While choosing which of the two is better, it is important to identify your end goal. If you are a gaming company, an app makes more sense. If you are into e-commerce, both the app and a responsive website make more sense.

There are many reasons why mobile websites would be preferred over an app. First, it is easily accessible, unlike the app that needs to be downloaded first. The website updates automatically as soon as you open it on your browser and it is easy to search on the web. It is quite easy to share the websites among users because you only need the URL for the purpose. Since the mobile website is easily accessible, it has a broader reach among end users and they can’t be removed or deleted from the phone. Most importantly, a mobile website is cheaper than an app and the long term costs of maintenance and upgrades are way cheaper than an app.

This may seem good enough reasons for you to opt for a responsive website over an app, but don’t be quite sure yet. Apps have their own benefits that are endless. With a thorough market research, it was seen that both businesses and customers prefer an app over a responsive website.

Although one has to go through the hassle of downloading an app first, but once the app has been installed on the phone, it is easily accessible to the end users. Not always do people remember the name of the company or the website URL to hit the right mark. And sometimes, it can be more of a hassle to go to the browser, first search for the business and then open the website. In such cases, an app comes in handy because it is always present on your phone. It has the customers coming back again and again. If you give offline access on your app, you will have some really happy customers that they do not need to have to access of internet every time they want to use the app, which is impossible in a responsive website. It gives the users the ease of regular usage and that too at lightning speed. Apps also work as advertisements so they automatically reduce costs related to major marketing activities. It keeps your customers always engaged and to a certain extent eliminates the chance of the customers switching to some other business because of Google search rankings, like in websites.

So get started with laying out a basic plan and an end term goal about your business. Can you business sustain without an app? Or do the benefits of having an app far outweigh the option of just having a responsive website? Based on your findings, you can decide which is better for your business, in the long run, as well as the short.

Vinay Deshmukh

04 Jan 2017