Mobile Websites vs. Mobile Apps FAQs: Part 2

Today we're continuing last week's discussion of mobile websites and mobile apps, focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Since we have already established that mobile websites and mobile apps can be designed to behave similarly, why might a person lean one way or the other in terms of deciding which to build? Let's compare...

Mobile App Advantages

• Mobile apps are Native Apps, meaning they are built for your device, installed on your device, and are most likely to work seamlessly with your device.
• Mobile apps can more readily utilize all the "native features" of your device, such as your phone's camera. (Although  support for these types of things in web apps is growing.)
• Mobile apps can be sold or distributed on a devices distribution portal—for example, the Apple iOS App Store. For many, these portals are the preferred means of acquiring apps for their devices.
• Some mobile apps can work without an Internet connection.
• Mobile apps tend to perform slightly faster.

Mobile App Disadvantages

• Mobile apps tend to be costlier to build and can sometimes cost significantly more than a web app.
• Mobile apps are not cross-platform. A mobile app built for an iPhone will not run on an Android or Blackberry. So, if you wish to provide apps to your patrons and customers who have these devices, you will have to build and maintain separate apps, and this will certainly add to costs that already are most likely more significant when compared to a web app.
• While mobile apps offer the benefit of being put in, say, the Apple iOS App Store, there are restrictions and significant quality-demands that can make the approval processes lengthy and involved.
• A version update to a mobile app will require a new update and installation, which the patron must initiate. There's no way to ensure that a customer will be using the most updated version of the app.

Web App Advantages

• Web apps tend to be cheaper to build.
• Web apps are cross-platform. One web app can accommodate all your iPhone, Android, and Blackberry customers, and, in fact, it will work on any smartphone or tablet with a web browser.
• There's no approval process. When you feel you're app is ready, you can start offering it to the public.
• Updates are easy. The app user doesn't need to download anything new, and updates don't need to be approved by a store before being distributed.
• Updates are also done without being initiated by the user; so all your users are always using the same, most recent version of your app.
• Support for new technologies in HTML5, CSS3, and platforms such as JQuery Mobile are continuing to grow, which offers increasing use of a device's native features.

Web App Disadvantages

• Web apps can't be distributed at the iOS App Store, nor at other similar portals.
• Establishing a paid app (as opposed to a free one) may involve a more difficult build process since you'll essentially have to build your own "walls," payment gateways, or subscription services.
• Web apps require an Internet connection (WIFI or phone-based, such as a G3 or G4 connection) to run.
• Although the devices are cross-platform, they may behave slightly different from device-type to device-type depending on unique browser quirks.

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Next week, in Part 3 of this series, we'll sort through what we've learned so far and help you determine whether a mobile app or a web app is the better approach for you or your company.