Mobile App, Mobile Site or Both?

Mobile site or mobile app? That’s the real question. Do you need one or the other, or both? Knowing your businesses’ needs goes a long way toward helping you decide whether or not to spend the time and money necessary to develop and put into play a mobile app for your small business…

Does a mobile app make sense for your company? What are the costs, both in developing one and in maintaining one? Do you have anyone capable of updating it? You will need the answers to these and several other questions in order to really come up with a smart decision. Let’s have a look at a few of the pros and cons.

The Pros and Cons of creating a mobile app for your business

Pros:

• Over 50 percent of adult Americans are employing smartphones for both consumer and business purposes
• Enables you to brand your products and services easier
• A great tool to increase customer loyalty and retention
• App users typically spend much more time on apps than on mobile sites
• Usually load faster than mobile sites
• Mobile apps are available offline, though users will need to login to perform any actions, such as purchases

Cons:

• A mobile app has to be made for each platform, iPhone, Android, Windows, or any other platform
• Mobile apps require perpetual care, both as regard fresh content as well as technology updates
• Not as easy to optimize as a mobile website
• Mobile ads may very well serve the same purpose
• Apps can be very expensive! If you go the Do It Yourself route, be prepared for a lot of headaches, as they constantly break, and need to be updated.

There are more apps than you could ever imagine, but some are more useful than others. Here is an example of how apps were developed in the health care market. Count the expense of making your app versus the usefulness and appeal. While we are convinced that you definitely need a mobile version of your website, the question of whether or not you need a mobile app is one you need to carefully consider.