The last couple of years it became evident that a business can’t survive if it is not present online. In fact. It is estimated that by 2040, 95% of all purchases will be made online through eCommerce. This means that the importance of having a website or an app that will help you sell more of your products will not only be a step further in your company growth but also a key necessity to keep your business thriving. However, there is often a doubt what should one develop first – whether the app or the website? Here follow some simple explanations and guidelines to help you take the right direction.
Table of Contents
General Thinking
Naturally, first comes the website and then the web app. Mobile apps are usually created after the website is finished and they complement the functionality of the website. They mirror the features of it and work the same way the website has been set up to work.
However, recently, company owners decided to put the focus on the web app, choosing to go with the app development first, simply because purchases made through mobile devices are with a higher percentage than purchases via computers. In fact, 68.1% of the visits on websites came from mobile devices during 2020, while desktop drove 28.9% of the visits – all summed up to around 63% increase in comparison to 2019.
Now, let’s see what you want to achieve with your online presence of your business.
Reach More Users: Website First
If you want to concentrate on building brand awareness and get to more users in a shorter period of time, go for a website development first. The fact is that a website drives more users in comparison to the mobile app. Also, keep in mind that mobile apps must be made either for Android or iOS and the traffic will be split among their users. If your business operates in the US territory it is wiser to develop the iOS first since it is the most popular operating system there. Also, you will need the right talent and hire iOS developer who will have enough experience to create the app from scratch.
All in all, if you are pretty new to the market it is better to have a website made first so you can reach more potential clients.
Speed: App First
Mobile apps are much faster than website apps. This is because mobile apps store user’s data settings locally on the phone whereas web apps download the data from servers making them slower. So, if you want to impress your potential buyers with the speed of your brand presentation, go for the mobile app first. In that way you can rest assured that the user’s experience will be superior.
Limited Budget (below $10K): Website First
Developing a mobile app is expensive, hands down. So if you don’t have a big budget to spend more than $10.000 per se, then you should better go for a website first. The mobile apps are so expensive because the UI/UX must be builts separately for each platform (both for Android and iOS) and the development costs around $10-100K per operating system. Also, the backend of the mobile app is built with focus on the web app.
If you want to know the average cost of an app, it will be between $38-170K. That would be around 100-150$ per hour for an iOS developer.
Regular Updates: Website First
If you think that updates and upgrades will be necessary to be performed on a regular basis, the app is not your first choice. Without a doubt, the website can be easier to maintain, upgrade and update. Of course, don’t confuse the upgrading process when it comes to hybrid apps like most of the banks, news, and media apps use since they just update website content and the app is also updated.
Moreover, when you choose the website first, you get one platform where different types of users can access – meaning, you don’t need to think about updating Android, iOS and Windows apps separately. Also, there will be no waiting time in the updating process whereas with the apps you need to wait 1-5 days when deploying the app in the app store. Finally, you can get an instant result when you upload the updates on the server with the website.