You are building a product. Should you rollout the web or an app for your product? This is a never ending dilemma and the answer is not same for all
We work with entrepreneurs to build their products on the cloud, apps, and the web. The most common first decision point is whether it should be an App or a website.
In almost all cases, the ideal route is to do both. This calls for more budget and time-to-market challenges. So it comes to what do we do first?
The answer depends on some of these factors:
- How often do you expect the users to interact with your product? If it is daily, then tilt towards an app. App is with users all the time.
- Can the product do well on small screens of Phones? If no, then you have to always go with web, that too, a web optimised for desktop.
- Is SEO (Search Optimisation) and content share-ability an important part? If yes, then web is needed. There are ways to expose app content, but it is an afterthought in most apps.
Now, can a mobile-optimized web, do what an app can? You might have already heard about Progressive Web App (PWA) as well. Our answer is "not yet". It could one day (possibly), but it's not yet there. The user experience of an app (and hence the user engagement) is still way ahead.