Responsive Website and Apps are not exclusive to each other, but when you have a limited budget you have to make a choice between these two options.
It should be noted, in fact, that a solid Mobile Marketing strategy provides them both, but in case you need to opt for only one of them, the solution to the problem emerges simply by reflecting on what are the real objectives of the owners of the web page in question.
Both Apps and Responsive Sites, in fact, have pros and cons that must be taken into account to make the choice is absolutely conscious.
Starting from the fact that both are an optimal solution to make content accessible from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, let’s analyse the differences between Responsive Site and App.
Responsive Website
Now that more and more users are looking for information and shopping from their mobile devices, a Responsive Site is an indispensable part of any Web Marketing strategy. The particularity of this site is that it can adapt to any screen, ensuring the best display in any resolution. Choosing the Responsive has the significant advantage of having a single software that can go well for everything, although this happens by sacrificing some aspects (such as image optimisation or load overheading, just to name a few examples).
It’s certainly the solution to aim for if you’re planning to rebuild a site from scratch or make a massive restyling.
With a Responsive Website, in fact, it ensures the user a high quality browsing experience, with important advantages also from the point of view of the bounced rate of the website and the bounce rate, which is significantly lowered. Last but not least, the Responsive Website is faster to update.
Mobile Apps
What makes an App superior to a Responsive Website is undoubtedly the speed of the interface and the fact that, in some cases, the content is available even without the need for an internet connection. The development of an App, however, requires costs and time that expand more than those functional to the creation of a Responsive Website. For this reason, it is always good to ask if it is the case to take this path or not. If you want to create an App that has access to consistent data and is able to interact with the sensors of a smartphone, then it will be good to opt for a native App. If, instead, you want to develop an App that goes to follow the functions of the site, this is not absolutely necessary. It should also be considered that, in case of update, with Apps you have to go through a much longer process.
Conclusions
The choice between App and Responsive Website, therefore, is something that has to be assessed on a case-by-case basis, although we know that the majority of users start purchasing processes through websites.
It can generally be interesting to launch responsive and mobile-first platforms and sites and develop mobile apps only after having carefully studied the behaviour of users from different devices; in this way you will be able to develop apps from the data collected, triggering data driven processes and optimising resources.
