Web App and Mobile App: The Difference
There is a general misconception that native mobile apps and websites are the same. However, this is far from the truth. It is important not to get both of them confused as they are developed and deployed in a different way for the user. A web app is a website that is designed when responding to and could be viewed on a smartphone. You could find different types of websites where some are static and are rarely updated while some are responsive and have a lot of activity going on. Web apps function like download apps and all of it happens from the comfort of your mobile phone’s browser.
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Difference Between Mobile Apps and Web Apps
Mobile apps are built for a specific platform like iOS for Apple devices or Android for devices from other brands. They are usually downloaded and installed by accessing the app available on the app store and can gain access to various system resources such as location and camera function. At the same time, mobile apps run and live on the device. A good example of some mobile apps for Instagram, Facebook messenger, Snapchat and so on.
Web apps can be accessed with the help of internet browsers and can adapt to any device you view them on. They are not native to a particular system and need not be downloaded or installed. As they are responsive, they might look and function a lot like how mobile apps function and this might confuse many people.
Some brands have both native apps and web apps. If you install the mobile app of a brand on your device and access the web app of the brand with the help of a browser on your phone, you would find out that the web app has been designed to look and feel just like the native mobile app. The design is similar and they follow the same colour and font scheme. However, they are two different products.
It would require an active internet connection to run where our mobile apps might work offline. Mobile apps are faster and more efficient but would require the user to download updates frequently. Web apps update by themselves.
Down the lane, the difference between a web and mobile app is that they are built and designed differently.
How Mobile Apps are Built?
Mobile apps can be expensive to develop when compared to web bags as they are platform-specific. Launching an app across various platforms would mean starting from scratch when it comes to development and design. However, they could be much faster and more advanced when it comes to functionality and features.
Mobile apps are built with the help of specific languages and integrated development environments (IDE) based on the intended platform. Apple devices run with the help of the iOS operating system while native apps for Android are programmed with the help of Java. However, they have their development tools software development kits (SDK) and interface elements that the developers can make use of to build native mobile apps.
How Web Apps are Built?
They tend to use JavaScript, CSS, HTML and Python. There is no specific software development kit that would help in building web apps. However, developers have access to various templates. When compared to mobile apps, web apps are easier to create and are much simpler when you have a glance at their features.
Progressive Web Apps
As web development has been changing, you should also know about progressive web apps. Standard web apps lack certain functionality that mobile apps could offer. However, progressive web apps fall somewhere in between this. Opposite to the standard web apps, progressive web apps can work offline and lower very quickly. This is mainly due to advancements in the sophistication of modern browsers. Application cache feature allows websites to store a large volume of data offline. Progressive web apps could be used without an Internet connection which would provide them with some typical native mobile app functionalities like push notifications, native audio and video capture and native video playback.
Like standard web apps, progressive web apps do not require an installation or a download. They seem to offer the best of both in many ways. Progressive web apps are app-like, safe, fresh, discoverable and linkable web experiences.
Mobile App & Web App: Pros and Cons
As we all know that there are fundamental differences between web and mobile apps, take a look at some of the pros and cons of both mobile app and web apps.
Native Mobile Apps – Pros
- Offer great functionality as they could access system resources
- Quicker than web apps
- Safe and secure as it is app Store approved
- Has the ability to work offline
- Easier to build there are SDKs, interface elements and easy availability of developer tools
Native Mobile Apps – Cons
- Is compatible only with different platforms (iOS and Android) so that it should be built and designed from scratch
- Expensive to build when compared to web apps
- Expensive to update and maintain
- A native app is difficult to get approved by the app store
Web Apps – Pros
- Easier to maintain as there is a common code base regardless of mobile platform
- Installation of downloads is not required as they function within the browser
- Updates by themselves
- Easier and faster to build when compared to mobile apps
- App Store approval is not required and could be launched easy
Web Apps – Cons
- Slower and less advanced than mobile apps when it comes to features
- They do not work offline
- They might not be discoverable mobile apps they are not listed in a particular database like the app store
- Security and quality is not always guaranteed as web apps need not be approved by the app store
