Today, with Google's Mobilegeddon SEO algorithm, the responsive site has become a must for your SEO. In addition, with 8.9 million unique visitors per month in 2015, American mobile web traffic is almost three times greater than mobile application traffic (3.3 million). Other statistics suggest that you can't do without a mobile application. For example, an American mobile user spends more than 200 minutes per month on applications, or 87% of the time spent on mobile. The responsive site and the mobile application each have their advantages and disadvantages, but above all, they do not address the same need. So do you really need a mobile app?

Does the user often use my product on their phone?

If the answer is yes, then we certainly need to think more deeply about the development of a mobile application. A responsive site requires an internet connection, which means that it will not be available anywhere and at any time. If your service meets a specific need and is destined to evolve over time, but you want to offer an optimized experience on mobile, then a responsive site is the preferred solution.

Do I have a brand awareness goal?

A responsive site asks the user to ask your brand to find you: they must think about your brand, open their browser, type your URL or even search for you on Google. Also, this has to be repeated every time he thinks of you. With a mobile application, the user only needs to search for you once. You can also send them push notifications to build their loyalty or even monetize the application with many more options than a responsive site.

Is interactivity at the heart of my product?

If interactivity is at the center of your mobile product, then a mobile application seems more suitable. Since the application is installed on the user's smartphone, the application can create real interactions with the user. For example, with the accelerometer, applications can analyze sleep movements to determine the most appropriate time to wake up. Games, applications including augmented reality or geolocation involve interactive communication between the mobile user and the service, whose performance is much better for a mobile application than a website. If your site presents information or a service in the same way on all media that does not involve a lot of interactions between the user and the application, it will be more interesting to opt for a responsive site.

Does my service need to use native smartphone functions?

If the mobile application has many advantages in terms of interactivity with the user and the personalization of the relationship, it is because it can use native functions. It can in fact benefit from functionalities such as GPS, address book, camera or accelerometer. For example, it is much easier and more useful for a user to know the weather by geolocating themselves from their smartphone than to do the procedure on a browser. This is why applications that use native smartphone features are significantly more engaging on mobile, in terms of time spent, than others.

Share of time spent on mobile applications compared to time spent on all types of digital media by content category

Source: Comscore

What resources do I have?

The question of cost is certainly crucial in deciding. If you answered no to the previous questions, then the responsive site is certainly the best solution and especially the most economical. Its development and maintenance costs are very inexpensive because the responsive site shares the same code base as your website. Plus, there's only unique content that needs to be updated. The development of an application implies integrating a unique and mobile user experience, with different content and personalized services.

The responsive site and the mobile application therefore do not address the same needs. You must keep in mind your business objective, the target population and the action desired by your department in order to be able to decide which investment is the best.

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