How to Turn a Website into an App in 2024

The best way to launch a mobile app, if you're a web-first business with an optimized mobile website, is to simply convert your website into an app.

Turning your website into an app is a great way to boost revenue by increasing conversions, engagement and retention, while also building a powerful communication channel and brand asset for your business.

We've been in the business of converting websites to apps for more than 10 years, so we know the best and worst ways to make your website into an app. Keep reading for all you need to know, including a step-by-step walkthrough on how to launch your own mobile app.

If you want to skip ahead and discuss the best course of action with one of our app experts now, click here and schedule a free consultation.

Three Ways to Convert a Website into an App

Broadly speaking, there are three methods you can use to turn your website into an app.

1. Hire developers or a development agency to rebuild your website as a native app.
2. Use a DIY app builder or website to app converter that integrates with your website's platform (e.g. Shopify, WordPress) and create the app yourself.
3. Use a managed website to app service, like our own service, MobiLoud.

While there are certainly pros and cons to each method, we feel like the evidence and weight of pros vs cons shows that MobiLoud is the best way to convert your website into mobile apps.

MobiLoud will actually convert your website into Android and iOS apps with little to no rebuilding.

It simply uses your website content to create mobile apps that are a direct reflection of your website, but also have native app features that give your app users a true native mobile experience.

This is the best way to get into the app stores without sacrificing key features from your website or sinking hundreds of thousands of dollars into development.

"We tried a handful of different options in the market in terms of app builders, as well as reaching out to countless freelancers. Nothing out there provided us with the ease and accessibility that MobiLoud did to our team."

-Nick Barbarise, John Varvatos

How to Make a Website an App with MobiLoud

Let's run through how to turn your website into an app in just five or six easy steps.

1. Get a Preview of Your App

Start with a free preview of your mobile app.

With just your website URL, our team will create an interactive prototype for you to get an idea of what your app might look like, and whether your site is ready to be converted into mobile apps.

As long as you have a mobile-friendly, responsive website, converting it to an app with MobiLoud will be easy.

2. Book a Free Consultation

Next, you'll get on a call with a MobiLoud project manager to discuss the process and any special requirements you have for your app.

This call is free, with no obligations involved. It's an opportunity for you to learn more about what the process entails and to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

If you're happy, you can sign up to a plan (no contracts or long-term commitments required) and move forward in the app development process.

3. Hand Off to Our Team

MobiLoud is a full-service website to app converter, which means we do all the technical work for you - all you have to do is sit back and wait.

Our app development team will create native iOS and Android apps using your website's code, making them a direct reflection of your website, with all platforms fully synchronized with each other.

The app development process typically takes less than a month, at which time the first version of your mobile app will be ready for testing.

"At every step of the way, if I was unsure of something there was someone I could speak to or I could email, and the process became easy for me.”

-Jordan Wise, Gaffer

4. Test Your App

Now you can test the app on your mobile device and pass on any feedback to the development team.

We do our own testing and QA, but this is an opportunity for you to play around with the app and see what you like and don't like, and deliver feedback or change requests before making your app public.

5. Wait for the Finishing Touches and Launch

We'll work on an updated version of the app based on your feedback and get it ready for launch.

As part of the process, we submit your app for publishing to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. We handle everything to do with submission, including any tweaks that are necessary to get your apps approved.

The app store publishing process can be complicated, but using our experience of launching over 2,000 mobile apps, we can guarantee your apps will be approved without a hitch.

6. Make Changes to Your App Directly Through Your Website

Your mobile apps are live and ready for users to download now. But over time you'll want to make changes, such as launching new features or making tweaks to the design of your app.

Since your website and app are in complete sync with each other, you'll be able to make these changes easily through your website.

If you want to add new content, change pricing, change the color scheme or design in your app, just do it on your website and they'll reflect automatically in your app.

If you want to have app-specific pages or features, we can set it up so that these are still managed in the backend of your website, but only show up in the mobile apps.

Get started now - book a demo and see what MobiLoud can do for you (we'll show you a free preview of your app!)

Why MobiLoud is the Best Way to Convert Your Site into an App

Converting a website into an app with MobiLoud is straightforward, fast, affordable, and still allows you to build amazing mobile apps that maintain all the features of your website, plus more.

The full service element handles all the tricky parts like customization, submission and publishing on the App Stores, as well as ongoing updates and maintenance.

MobiLoud effectively gives you the kind of result you would expect from custom development, at a price that is comparable to DIY app builders, while handling all the tough bits for you.

There are benefits to custom development and DIY app builders as well, but MobiLoud falls in the sweet spot that suits 90-95% of online businesses.

Unless your needs are extremely simple or extremely complex, MobiLoud is the best website to app converter for you.

Here's a breakdown of the top reasons why you should use MobiLoud to turn your website into an app over other methods:

• Launch high-quality apps in a month or less, for a small investment.
• Keep all the features from your website. Any themes, plugins, custom checkouts, custom code will transfer over to your mobile app.
• No arbitrary limits on integrations with other tools (if they work on your site, they'll work in the app too).
• Works with any platform or tech stack - from WordPress to Shopify to custom-built websites.
• Full-service approach: no technical requirements whatsoever.
• Includes native features like a tab menu, navigation UI and push notifications.
• You fully own your app, your developer accounts, your code and your branding.
• Minimal overhead - you don't need to duplicate effort each time you make a change or add a new feature. Just update your website and your apps update automatically. You only manage one codebase.
• Risk-free - with a low cost, no rebuilding, little to no added work and a money-back guarantee, there's essentially zero risk to trying it out.

“No one really believed that we were going to have an app in like a month with the setup that we had to do initially. But within two weeks, it was done.”

-Ahmed Yousef, Pharmazone

“I wanted native apps that would work with WordPress and the social platform. MobiLoud did that with no effort on our part in terms of building the apps. What we spent years building previously, we replicated with your team in weeks.”

-Michael Pierce, All Sober

Who is MobiLoud Suitable For?

MobiLoud is a great fit to turn any website or web app to mobile apps.

As long as your site is mobile-friendly and responsive, you can make it into an app with ease.

MobiLoud is perfect for:

• eCommerce stores
• Digital publishers
• Online communities
• Courses & learning platforms
• Directories
• Custom web apps

Long story short, if you sell products or services via your website, or your customers interact with you via a website, MobiLoud is a perfect fit to convert your website into iOS apps and Android apps.

Other Ways to Make an App Out of a Website

For perspective, let's take a look at what the process looks like with other website to app methods.

Using native or cross-platform development to convert website to app

If you choose to go down the route of native app development, be prepared for a long, drawn-out process, which will ultimately cost around $100,000 if you're lucky.

Here's a broad look at how to convert your website to an app via custom development:

• You'll need to find and hire developers to work on your app, or hire a development agency to handle the project.
• If you choose to manage it yourself, you'll need to set up a development plan and delegate (or hire) someone to be a full-time project manager (ideally someone who has experience with mobile app development).
• The developers will use either a cross-platform framework like React Native or Flutter to build for both iOS and Android, or you'll have two teams working on your iOS app and Android app separately.
• They'll work to recreate your website as a mobile app, while adding in any native features you require, such as push notifications, native device integrations, etc.
• The development team(s) will likely need to build a custom API to connect your website and app, to ensure that important parts like accounts, logins, products and pricing are synced between website, Android app and iOS app.
• All up, the development process will likely take around six months (or more, for more complex projects with more unique requirements).
• You'll need to test extensively for bugs, usability issues, or inconsistencies between your website and iOS or Android apps.
• Once testing is completed and you're happy with the apps, you'll need to navigate the app stores' requirements and get your apps published (which may require going back to your developers with change requests to make your apps compliant).
• Finally, once your apps are live, you'll either need to keep a team of developers on staff for app updates and maintenance, or hire developers on a short-term basis whenever updates/changes/bug fixes are needed (expect this to cost 15-20% of the initial cost on a recurring yearly basis).

We recommend this option only if you have complex requirements which can only be done via native app development.

In most cases, the time investment, cost, difficulty and added overhead of building a custom app is far more than necessary for turning a website into an app.

“When you develop an app you can't just have one person. When we built our app, the maintenance became very heavy. You also have to maintain a good user experience. To keep a platform like this in-house I feel like you’d probably need around six people.”

-Kenneth Chan, Tobi

Using no-code mobile app builders

A cheaper alternative is to use a DIY no-code app builder to convert your website into an app.

These tools give you pre-built templates and a drag and drop interface to compile your app UI (requiring zero coding knowledge), and integrate with your website via your website platform's API.

Here's what the process looks like:

• First, find an app builder that fits your needs, including your budget, feature requirements, and which integrates with your CMS (e.g. Shopify/WordPress/Squarespace).
• Sign up for the tool and get to work building your app screens, trying to stay consistent with your website's UI.
• Link it with your website, and if necessary, import content and other key information from your website.
• Test the app on your mobile device.
• Submit the app for publishing to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
• After launching, make sure you check your apps for bugs or usability issues, and try to fix these if they arise using the app builder.
• When you add new content, new features or make changes to your website, you may also need to go in to the app builder to re-do the changes to ensure they go live in your apps as well.

App builders can be a simple and affordable way to convert a website into an app, but they require you to make a lot of sacrifices.

The apps you can build generally look generic or "cookie-cutter" due to the limited blocks and templates available.

Also, you may not be able to replicate all the features of your website in the mobile app. You'll likely find that certain plugins, integrations or custom features won't work in the apps, and thus your apps will deliver a lesser experience than the website - which is far from ideal.

Finally, they end up being more work than you expect, especially keeping your apps up to date. Ultimately, it's not worth it to save a few hundred dollars (at the most) by using an app builder that limits your app's long-term potential.

“The hybrid solutions on top of Shopify are just too limited. The Shopify API only enables certain things and all the major providers of hybrid apps for Shopify had limitations that the Shopify API would not let them get around.”

-David Cost, Rainbow Shops

Benefits of Converting Your Site to Mobile Apps

Once you turn your website into an app, you'll unlock a number of amazing benefits for your business, such as:

• Easier access for your users, who can interact with your content or start shopping with just one tap of the app icon on their home screen.
• A more user-friendly way for mobile users to interact with you, translating to more time on site (or in-app), higher engagement and higher revenue.
• Increased retention, by having a direct line to your customers and an easier path for people to return and make subsequent purchases or to consume more content.
• A powerful communication channel in push notifications. Push notifications are cheaper and more effective than email and SMS, and are a great engagement tool for businesses in any industry, from publishing to eCommerce to eLearning platforms and communities.
• Access to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store as user acquisition channels.
• Benefits to your brand image from having your own mobile apps, as well as listings in the app stores alongside some of the world's largest brands.

The number of global smartphone users almost doubled over the latter half of the 2010s, shooting from 3.67 billion in 2016 to 6.26 billion in 2021.

The growth hasn’t petered out yet – with global smartphone users set to hit 7.5 billion in 2026.

There are more and more people using mobile devices, and a large percentage of these people prefer to use apps.

Apps have higher conversion rates, more engagement and generate more revenue than mobile websites.

“We're seeing that the customers who do use the app are more engaged, they're spending more time on site, they're spending more per transaction, they're spending more overall. The app is paying for itself.”

-Damien Smith, BoozeBud

You don't have to choose between an app or a website, but for modern businesses, it makes sense to cover all your bases and have both.

And with MobiLoud, you can afford to.

“In our experience, users break into two camps. There are users who prefer to buy on the app and users who prefer using the browser. You can’t convince one to go the other way, you need to meet them where they are.”

-David Cost, Rainbow Shops

How to Start

Start now, and you can convert your responsive website into a mobile app in as little as a month.

With MobiLoud, you can develop your website and mobile app at the same time, without having to invest in mobile app developers or duplicate effort.

It doesn't matter what CMS, tech stack or integrations you use - whether you're on Shopify, Squarespace, WordPress, or you have a custom-built website - MobiLoud can convert what you already have into beautiful iOS and Android apps.

Over 10 years and more than 2,000 apps created, we've perfected our process of turning websites into mobile apps, and give you the easiest, most affordable way to convert your website to an app, without sacrificing the features that make your website great.

Get a preview of your app now to learn more about what we can do for you.