Which is Better: Mobile App or Responsive Web Design?
Defining and comparing a responsive web design to a mobile app

Should you choose a responsive web design or a mobile app? It’s not a simple choice. In this article, we’ll first define and then discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these two developmental approaches – and suggest our opinion regarding which is most suited to your needs.

What is a Responsive Web Design?

Responsive Web Design has a special design using CSS media queries and HTML to resize, shrink, enlarge, or move the content to make it suitable for any screen size.

Responsive web design (RWD) is a term coined by Ethan Marcotte – defined to mean a web design that can automatically adapt, or ‘respond’, to any viewport width. Prior to Ethan Marcotte’s defining term, words such as: flexible, fluid and liquid were used in its place. The words are contextually apt, as the content should flow like water and respond to the shape of any medium.

RWD became popular when businesses realised they were losing potential customers to their competitors due to poor mobile compatibility. It’s true – how often have you left a website that doesn’t render correctly on your phone? We want the smoothest browsing experience possible.

Here is a list of defining RWD characteristics:

⦁ The webpage should fit all screen sizes (mobile device & desktop computer)

⦁ Flexible grid

⦁ A mobile-first approach to design and content creation

⦁ Unobtrusive JavaScript

⦁ Language that is appropriate for touch and non-touch devices

⦁ Use modular design patterns

⦁ Utilising progressive enhancement as opposed to graceful degradation.

⦁ Html and CSS

Responsive Web Design Benefits

Flexible: can be displayed in all browser types and screen sizes

⦁ RWD uses a fluid grid – which means the dimensions are flexible and can flow seamlessly across any device width.

⦁ The result will be a naturally optimized webpage, across a range of both large and small screens.

Doesn’t require download or installation

⦁ Navigating an app store can be difficult or confusing.

⦁ You can forego this requirement and focus on an optimized webpage.

⦁ According to Statista, over half (52.2%) of website traffic was served to mobile phones in 2018.

Easy to maintain, update and fix bugs

⦁ Editing your website once will apply the update across ALL device types.

⦁ This easy procedure will save time, money and labour costs.

Fast and cost-effective development

⦁ Creating one responsive web design takes considerably less time compared to creating a stand-alone website AND mobile app.

⦁ Only one development process is required – saving time AND money.

⦁ This single process will allow your website to be viewed across all browser types and sizes.

The development team won't need to adhere to any OS guidelines

⦁ Your development team will have creative freedom when creating a RWD, as they aren’t publishing through a dedicated app store.

Responsive Web Design Drawbacks

Internet required

⦁ Accessing responsive websites requires a stable Internet connection.

⦁ Although you can save pages for offline reading on iOS and Android – a constant Internet connection is required for everything else on these sites.

Poor performance

⦁ Poor performance on mobile devices as they can only be viewed once the entire web page has been downloaded. This leads to massive data consumption.

⦁ Compatibility issues with mouse vs. touch. Issues may arise such as a lack of natural navigation when designing one without the other in mind.

Lack of push notifications and other functionality

⦁ RWD won’t have access to a phone’s built-in functions like the camera or calendar.

⦁ Push notifications are an important tool, used to attract attention. The absence of this could negatively affect engagement.

What is a Mobile App?

A mobile app is a software product that can be installed directly onto your mobile phone or tablet.

Since exploding onto the scene in 2008, we now have access to hundreds of thousands of apps via your mobile’s dedicated app store (iOS, Windows or Android).

Mobile App Benefits

Offline mode

⦁ A crucial advantage a mobile app has over RWD is its ability to be used offline. The Netflix app is a good example of this. Users can download their favourite TV shows or movies and watch them at a later time when they’re without Internet access.

⦁ Whilst Internet access is still required in many apps for important tasks such as making payments – they still offer basic access and functionality to users in offline mode.

Superior speed and quality

⦁ Apps are designed with speed and efficiency in mind. They are typically 1.5x faster than mobile sites and run functions 5x faster due to their framework – as opposed to JavaScript.

⦁ Apps store data on your device locally. This leads to quick data retrieval as it removes the need to fetch data from a web server.

Unique user experience

⦁ Mobile-oriented gestures such as drag, pinch, hold, tap and double tap.

⦁ Each performs a certain action that increases user-friendliness.

⦁ Complete goals in a few taps or clicks due to the goal-oriented specificity of the design.

Brand recognition

⦁ Your app becomes your brand ambassador. Apps put your brand front and centre of the user’s phone.

⦁ The code used to create the apps can be easily used for your businesses customer related data analytics.

⦁ You can change all aspects of your app with simple version upgrades to match your current brand design.

Mobile App Drawbacks

High development and maintenance costs

⦁ Develop a unique design and codebase for each operating system (android and iOS).

⦁ Requires a specialist design and development team for each version.

⦁ Bug fixing and adding new features makes maintenance cost higher, as they need to be applied individually.

Time-consuming

⦁ Deal with each individual approval process required by each OS – this could take a long time.

⦁ For example, It takes an average time of 24 hours for 50% of apps to 48 hours for over 90% of apps to be reviewed on App Store.

⦁ After your development team prepares an upgraded version of each OS type, it also needs to be approved by the marketplaces.

Requires downloading

⦁ Your target audience should come into consideration when deciding whether to develop a mobile app.

⦁ The less tech-savvy demographic tends to avoid any complicated mobile function. This includes downloading and updating individual apps from their dedicated app store.

In Our Opinion...

Now, It might not be what you want to read – but unfortunately, this isn’t a case of one simply being better than the other. The answer you’re looking for depends on you.

However, for the sake of clarity, it must be said that if you have the necessary capital, then it would be beneficial for your business to invest in both. The combined advantages of both mediums would facilitate much wider accessibility for both on and offline users.