Before you hire a development agency to build your web app, you should have a plan. Without a plan or mockups or ideas, you’re going to burn both money and time while the agency tries to help you figure out what you want.
Selling Goods or Services — An Interactive Catalog of Your Products
Mobile apps are just specialized versions of your online store. Both desktop and mobile visitors can use your online store, but the mobile experience might not be ideal for small screens. That’s where custom mobile app development can help.
Not all types of businesses need a mobile web app. Use mobile web apps when you have lots of products like clothing or household goods that people need frequently.
The more visitors you have, the more insight you gain from their activities on your site. You can use this data to adjust your web app and increase conversions or improve the customer experience.
Visitors that have a good experience on your site tend to purchase more items per visit and shop more often than others.
B2B Sales and Effective Organization of Work
Mobile apps help sales managers, dealers, or distributors communicate with each other.
Mobile apps make controlling warehouse processes easier while you’re walking around.
Enterprise web app development offers you tools to organize logistics and transportation. You can redirect calls from customers to the appropriate department or review complaints and feature requests. Big enterprises will definitely benefit from an app that optimizes their work.
How Often Will Your App Be Used?
Mobile web apps are not cheap. Before you dive in, check to see if you have significant mobile traffic already coming to your current website. Or, if you need an internal app, gather data on the number of employees that could benefit from having access to your system right in their hands as they go about their workday.
If you’re a small company selling seldom-needed services to a modest group of people or if you’re selling products that are only required once or twice in a lifetime, then you do not need a mobile web app for your business.
Even large restaurants without home delivery should save their money and use it for other projects.
How Much Money Are You Ready To Spend Before Launch?
Planning, creating, distributing, bug fixes, and updates require a significant long-term investment. This isn’t a “build it once and then never touch it again” type of project.
Before starting web application development, calculate how much you will spend with the help of your development company. With Agile programming methodologies, you can get your core features pushed out fast while you and the dev team work out the finer details and subtleties.
Where Do I Start?
Like most projects, you need either time or money. Time to do it yourself or money to pay someone else.
The most common ways to build a web app are to hire an in-house developer or outsource to an IT company.
You could hire a specialist responsible for the coding, design, bug fixes, security patches, and general maintenance. They will gradually improve the project over time.
But, hiring a full-time developer comes with overhead like Human Resources, 1099s or W2s, bonuses, 401(k), quarterly goals, and performance reviews. If your project doesn’t have enough to keep your developer busy, they may not want to stay.
In contrast, outsourcing your development work to an external IT company means you can let them go once the project is complete. Or, you can hire them to do the maintenance and other changes required to keep the app up-to-date.
Leave This Task to Professionals
If you decide to work with an agency (recommended), they will handle everything for you. Tell the professionals your goals, and they will work with you to achieve them.
Don’t forget to write up a maintenance contract or agreement with your agency to handle all updates, patches, and bugs while still working toward implementing new features and expanding your mobile web application.
Which Is Better — iOS or Android?
Each of these platforms targets a particular audience. Delve into the specifics of these platforms to study statistics and details.
Android is on top in the CIS countries — more than 80% of residents use this particular system. CIS stands for the Commonwealth of Independent States and includes Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine.
iOS is in demand in more wealthy countries like the United States.
If you sell your products and services worldwide, then the best option is to build your mobile web app for Android devices. Android is widely used around the world and will get the most value for your money.
However, there are disadvantages to this method.
Android devices may not be robust enough to handle your app. Poorer countries will still be using older, unsupported devices. Work with your web development company to decide which platform is best for your goals, but remember that no developer can guarantee 100% performance and compatibility with every available device.
Can I Change the Platforms Later?
Yes and no. The two platforms use entirely different programming languages and styles, so you would have to build two separate apps.
Android is built with Java, and iOS is coded using Swift or Objective C. These two platforms are not compatible and do not convert easily.
If you build your app in Android and want to port it to iOS, you will have to create two different apps with two teams or development companies.
Do You Need to Make Two Different Apps?
As mentioned above, Android and iOS are not compatible, so if you need both, you will have to hire two different teams or companies.
Companies with millions of active users will have no problem hiring two development teams to keep both apps nearly identical on either platform.
If you don’t have a large budget or millions of users, you can ask your dev teams to use particular frameworks to make both apps appear as similar as possible. However, many experts advise against using frameworks for various technical reasons.
Which One Is Cheaper to Run?
Most programmers get paid for the hours spent on the project, and the difference in earnings for an Android and iOS specialist is minimal.
The best option would be to contact a professional company. They will conduct research, find specialists, prepare an application, and place it on GooglePlay or the Apple App Store.
