A Comprehensive Guide to Transform Your Web App into a Mobile App

Introduction

Mobile app development will not take away focus or interest from your current website or make it outdated. Instead, it offers you a new world of opportunities, including new channels for communication. Mobile apps can be invaluable in accurately gauging what your customers require.

It reduces the loading time, gives good value to the customers, and extends the retention rate of customers. In addition to that, it also offers more opportunities to engage users better and maximizes brand visibility.

Airbnb, established in 2008 with a website, is one of the most notable names in the market. But in July 2013, Airbnb let its hosts create listings and upload the images through a mobile application. Consequently, over half of its hosts started operating the mobile platforms by Oct 2013.

It helped hosts to resolve the customer queries quickly. Now with the Airbnb App, making bookings is much easier for customers, which made the app one of the best names in the lodging world, with more than a thousand guest rooms listed all across the globe.

Why Do You Need a Mobile App?

Mobile apps are beneficial to both companies as well as customers. That is the reason every one of the three small businesses owns one.

Here are a few statistics:

• As per research by Statista, the revenue generated by businesses using mobile apps is expected to reach 935 billion dollars.
• According to research by Global NewsWire, the global mobile apps market is expected to make a rise of $653.91 billion by 2021-2015.
• According to another report by Data Report, more than 2/3rd of the world population owns a mobile phone. In mobile using the application, 4 people out of 5 have a smartphone.

Benefits of Having a Mobile App

A mobile app offers several benefits to the business. Below are the benefits that will allow you to own a mobile app by converting your website:

Ease of Access

Installing and operating the mobile app is much easier than accessing this on a separate web browser. Sometimes, it is better to barricade between the customers and the content. As per a survey conducted, more than 80% of mobile users spend their time with installed applications, and the rest use web browsers. The app’s icons are available on the home screen on mobiles, allowing users to operate them more conveniently. However, the users have to make an effort to download the app on their mobile.

Key Source of Revenue

Converting a website to a mobile application is more valuable to generate more revenue for the product or brand. One can easily monetize the mobile app using eCommerce sales, in-app advertising, in-app purchases, and subscriptions.

According to a report, Simple Flying made a commendable income using in-app advertising through their MobiLoad apps. Also, it has been noticed that the amount of revenue generated through the eCommerce app has seen a gigantic spike. About 79% of the users like to access the store using the mobile app rather than through the website.

Fulfill User Expectations

In the past few years, smartphones have taken over all across the globe. According to Statista, The users using smartphones globally have reached from 1.86 Billion to 3.6 Billion in the last few years. And it is estimated to reach 4.3 Billion by 2023. Consequently, it has increased the use of mobile internet and reduced the usage of laptops and desktops. It has been seen that 87% of mobile users spend their time exploring the apps. Repeat usage is the main key factor that works here for businesses. Businesses obviously want their users to come back and visit their website to access available information. Transforming a website into a mobile app can make that happen and build a lasting connection with users.

Push Notifications

Another key advantage of having a mobile app is its capability to send push notifications to its users. Using these notifications, companies can notify their users about new offers, sales, the latest posts, and much more without users even opening the app. If users enable the push notifications on their mobile, they receive the alerts on their home or lock screen as soon as they access their phone.

How to Convert Your Web App into a Mobile App?

There are many possible ways to convert a web app into a mobile app. Whether you are a developer or not, you can easily get this done using the following methods. Explore the below ways, and see which one suits you for converting the web app to a mobile app:

Code it Yourself

If you are a technical person or know how to develop a mobile app, you can easily convert your website into a mobile app. However, it depends on the development skills and the development skills you need. If it matches, you can do so by yourself, without any need to rely upon others. It has many advantages and a few disadvantages too, as discussed below:

Pros:

• It is an economical solution.
• It allows you to link your mobile app with your website directly.
• It makes the app maintenance task easy for you or will enable you to introduce new changes with time.

Cons:

• It gets problematic for the developer to focus on individual projects.
• Coders having lesser framework or feature tracking knowledge may face some issues.

Hire a Freelancer

Hiring a Freelancer is a good option if you have budget constraints or need to develop a small app. This is because a big or complex app needs a big team to develop it, which freelancers cannot accomplish. Freelancing offers an inexpensive alternative as you can hire developers as per your payment rate. However, it has an issue that you would not be able to supervise the development process wholly. You have to hire certified freelancers whom you can believe will do their work right.

Pros:

• It is an affordable way of getting your website converted into a mobile app.
• You have several options to hire Freelancers, such as Freelancers, Upwork, etc.

Cons:

• You need to perform a detailed verification while hiring.
• Businesses need to be in regular touch with them as there is no guarantee of quality.

Hire a Mobile App Development Company

If you want to convert a feature-rich website into a mobile app, you can outsource app development to a website development company and get your job done. It is a secure and reliable way of converting your website into a mobile app. These two variants, named freelancing and mobile app development companies, have many ups and downs. For example, the in-house group will be more expensive in general. You only need to pay for things, such as software, equipment, taxes, lease, and much more. However, you can add the customizations by supervising and staying in touch with the development team.

Pros:

• It gives proper control of the project.
• You will get professional experts with perfection in the skills, tools, and technologies you need.
• You can discuss the new features or customizations to add.

Cons:

• This method of mobile app development is expensive.

Use a DIY App Builder

This method is for those with no coding background who want to turn their website app into a mobile app at a low cost. Many platforms, such as GoodBarber, or tools, such as AppPresser, work on converting websites into mobile apps. These tools limit you to using inbuilt templates and themes and allow you to create basic apps with no advanced features. They work by building a drag-drop app and then pulling the content from the website using API or RSS. It is mainly preferred by small businesses.

Pros:

• It is a pocket-friendly method for mobile app development.
• It allows the app to build and launch quickly.
• App development skills are not required.
• It provides the in-built architecture.

Cons:

• The mobile app developed has scalable issues and has limited features.
• App stores usually do not accept the apps built using app builders due to security issues.

Transform your Website into a Mobile App with RV Technologies

RV Technologies is a mobile and website development company that can help you convert your website into a mobile app. They are an award-winning mobile app development company involved in mobile development, web app development, and game development. They have a team of developers with expertise in the latest industry skills, such as Python, Drupal, Angular, React, Android, iOS, Swift, Unity 3D, HTML5, etc. It is an option that gets you the kind of app you will get by hiring an app development company at the price of DIY app builders. RV Technologies can be your ideal solution to solve all the possible issues you might have related to website conversion to the mobile app.

Pros:

• They have worked for startups, Enterprises, and SMEs.
• They have dedicated customer support.
• They have a team of professionals having expertise in the latest technologies and tools.
• They have handled several website and mobile app development projects.

Cons:

• You may have to wait for your project to get done due to other ongoing projects.

Things to Consider When Turning your Web App into a Mobile App

Once you have selected the method to convert the website app into a mobile app, it is time to check a few more points. These are some crucial points that should be kept in mind before you go for this web to app conversion:

Decide whether you need a mobile app

If you are reading this article, you have likely already decided on app development. Even so, we will suggest you consider if you really need a mobile app. This is because not every website needs a mobile app. If your website is already mobile-friendly, there is no need to further work on improving the customer experience, and mobile app development will be like extra work.

Features you need

You should consider and list features that you want in your mobile app. It will let you know what you need to build and get an estimate of the budget. Always keep your target audience in mind before deciding on the final list of features. With the features in mind, you can get a vision of what your app will perform.

Development cost

It is necessary to consider the mobile app development cost that you may have to incur. It depends upon the type of app. For example, it is less for hybrid apps and higher for native ones. It is necessary to get an idea of the total cost of app development.

Screen size

The user interface design of the mobile apps imported from the website should complement the target screen. Also, make sure that the buttons, images, and charts look engaging on any mobile device.

Search presence

You should make the presence of your mobile app and let your customers know about it. For this, you can add this to your website or get the advantages of the app pack of Google.

Target audience

Mobile app development is for the end-users. Hence, you should research your target audience before planning mobile app development.

Conclusion

The demand for mobile apps has increased, owing to the excessive use of smartphones and mobile internet. It offers a solution and more comfort to the users and more revenue to the businesses than websites. That is why mobile apps are more in demand, and businesses are focusing on converting their websites into mobile apps. Moreover, you can consolidate several features and guarantee the productivity of your app.

This article has discussed various benefits that you can gain from a mobile app and different ways to convert your website into a mobile app. You can do it yourself if you know how to code and have time. Otherwise, you can outsource your work. There are many companies involved in mobile app development, and RV Technologies is one such company you can consider.