How to Turn a Website into an App in 2025

Why should you turn your website into an app?

A number of reasons – a smoother user experience, direct access to your most valuable users, native push notifications, and naturally higher retention, to name a few.

But a better question is how to turn your website into an app.

That’s what we’ll answer in this article.

There are a number of ways to make an app for your website, varying in difficulty, cost, and benefit.

We’ll help you choose the best option for your business, and walk you through, step by step, how to convert your website into your very own mobile apps.

If you want to skip ahead and discuss the best way to turn your website into an app with one of our experts, click here and schedule a free consultation.

Three Ways to Convert a Website into an App

If you have a website, and want to turn that website into a mobile app, there are three (and a half) ways to do it.

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 build a mobile app with no-code tools.
3. Use a managed website to app service, like our own service, MobiLoud.

A fourth option is to turn your website into a Progressive Web App (PWA). Though realistically this is just a half-method, because you’re not building a real mobile app.

(if you want to read more about how to create a PWA, check out this article)

There are advantages and disadvantages to each method.

Building a native app

Rebuilding your site as a native app offers the most power and flexibility, but comes at the highest cost.

It typically costs $100k+ to build a native app (assuming you want to launch on iPhone and Android).

Combine this with six months or more for development, and once you launch, a lot of overhead to keep your apps up to date – as Kenneth Chan of Tobi found out.

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

You’ll need to build native apps for iOS and Android, from the ground up, rewriting your web code in a new language, along with new native elements.

If you want to share data between your website and mobile app (for businesses like eCommerce stores, this is essential), you’ll also need to build a special API for your website.

Simply put, it’s a lot of work – and you’ll need a lot of new revenue from your mobile app to pay it back.

DIY app builders

No-code mobile app builders are a much simpler option than converting your site into fully native apps.

These tools let you create an app for yourself, without hiring developers or writing code.

You can, potentially, launch an app in a matter of hours (though if you want a halfway decent result, you’ll need to spend more time on it).

DIY app builders may be an attractive option compared to native development, but the end result is often underwhelming.

The pre-defined blocks, templates and integrations with DIY app builders limits what you’re able to do.

You’ll find it’s difficult to fully recreate your website as an app – even with a lot of rebuilding and tinkering.

You may be able to build a companion to your website, but you won’t be able to truly convert your website into an app.

Serious web-based businesses will need more than what a no-code app builder can provide.

Managed website to app service

For most businesses, MobiLoud is the best way to convert your website into mobile apps.

MobiLoud will actually convert your website into Android and iOS apps, with no rebuilding, in under a month.

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

MobiLoud is a managed service – so you don’t need to do any work, unlike DIY app builders, which are sneakily a lot of effort to use.

The MobiLoud team builds a native framework for your iOS and Android apps, then integrates your web content within the app, to create native mobile apps with your web content.

All this for only slightly more than a typical no-code app builder – and about 2% of the native app development.

This is the best way to get into the app stores while keeping all the best parts of your website, avoiding unnecessary costs, and getting to see the end result in a reasonable timeframe.

"MobiLoud lets us avoid the limitations of app builders and costs of custom development while still offering a great mobile app experience to our best customers."

-Nick Barbarise, John Varvatos

How to Turn Your Website into an App with MobiLoud

MobiLoud is the only way to really convert your website into an app.

You’ll get apps that fully reflect your website. It’s a better result, for less effort than other options.

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

1. Book a Free Consultation

Start by booking 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.

We’ll also show you a free preview of your website as an app, so you get an idea of what the end product will be.

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.

2. 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.

As long as your website is responsive and mobile-friendly, converting it to an app with MobiLoud is easy.

Our app development team will create native iOS and Android apps using your website's code.

The apps will feel like custom, million-dollar apps to your users, while reusing everything you’ve built for the web.

They’ll also be fully synchronized with your website, so there’s only one platform for you to manage.

In around two weeks, a first version of your 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

3. Test Your App

Now you can test the app on your mobile device and deliver 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 share any change requests for us to take on board with the final version of your app.

4. 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 needed to get your apps approved.

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

In less than a month from the first call, your website will be a real, live mobile app, ready for your users to download.

5. Make Changes to Your App Directly Through Your Website

Over time, you'll want to make changes to your apps – like 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. It’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 even show you a free preview of your app!)

Why MobiLoud is the Best Way to Convert a Website Into an App

Is MobiLoud really the best way to turn a website into an app?

Yes – for a number of reasons.

It’s straightforward, fast, and affordable. But it still lets you create amazing mobile apps, which carry over all of the features from your website, along with native features like mobile UI and push notifications.

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

MobiLoud 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 hard work 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.

"Our website is already well-optimized so using MobiLoud to transform our site into an app was a no-brainer. No crazy costs, no integration headaches, and we were launched in a month."

- Ahmed Yousef, Pharmazone

Who is MobiLoud For?

MobiLoud is a great way to turn any website or web app into a mobile app.

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

It’s ideal for online stores, web apps, online marketplaces, directories, online communities, digital publishers, learning platforms, and any other web-first business who would benefit from turning their web experience into a mobile app.

One of the best use cases is for eCommerce stores. 

Online brands don’t need anything new when they create a mobile app. They just need to convert their website into an app, which will increase retention and loyalty automatically, by making it easier for their best customers to come back and shop again.

Your app could potentially generate tens, or hundreds of thousands in new sales per month, with essentially no changes to the core content and design.

“MobiLoud allows us to provide all the features of our website at an affordable cost. The setup was easy, requiring only some minor tweaks to go live. We can see that our app users shop more often and spend more and the push notifications give us the ability to offer promotions only to our app users.”

- Damien Smith, BoozeBud

When to Build Natively?

There are some situations where you would want to build natively.

Typically, you should build natively if you need a fully native experience – for example, if very small improvements in performance will make a big difference, or if you need to tap into native device features.

Also, it goes without saying, you need the budget and capability to create a native app, and be willing to wait for it.

Native is usually best for app-first business (think Tinder, Pokemon Go, or ridesharing apps, where people are unlikely to access it via the web).

If you’re looking to turn a website into a mobile app, there are much less cases where native makes sense – that’s not to say it’s never worthwhile, but much rarer you’ll get a better ROI this way.

When to Use an App Builder?

No-code app builders are a convenient way to build simple mobile apps, MVPs, and trial your app idea before making a big investment.

For converting a website into an app, app builders are usually better ROI than building natively.

It depends on what you’re trying to build, and the tools on hand to do it.

There’s a decent market for eCommerce app builders, which allow online stores to build mobile apps quickly, easily, and with little expense.

Though these tools are often too limited for the needs of high-revenue brands.

“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

For other business cases, if your needs are very simple, and you have a low budget, there’s nothing wrong with a no-code tool.

But long-term, the benefits of a web to app conversion service like MobiLoud will stand out.

Benefits of Making a Website into an App

There are many great reasons to turn a website into an app.

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

Apps crucially give you access to push notifications, which are a cheap, direct, super-effective communication channel for online brands.

With email’s reach dwindling, acquisition costs rising, and SMS expensive to scale, mobile push notifications can be a game changer for your business.

“The power of push notifications is so strong. In a world where people open email less and less each day, everyone is jumping into SMS which is crazy expensive, and people are starting to tune these out too, being able to do push notifications is the reason you do an app.”

- David Cost, Rainbow Shops

Apps just make it easier for your customers to come back and spend money in your business.

They can open the app with one tap from their home screen (or a push notification), and browse or consume content with fewer distractions.

You’ll see higher retention, higher purchase rates from your app users, and you’ll get a direct line to your best customers.

Today, with volatility in acquisition channels like Google, organic search reach down, and platform risk everywhere, it’s never been more important to build owned channels like mobile apps.

Turn Your Website into a Mobile App Now

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 double the effort for your existing team.

It doesn't matter what CMS, tech stack or integrations you use for your website.

If you're on Shopify, Squarespace, WordPress, or you have a custom-built website, MobiLoud will turn what you already have into beautiful iOS and Android apps.

We can turn any website into mobile apps – no restrictions, no limitations.

Over 10 years and more than 2,000 apps, 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.

Book a free demo now to learn more about how MobiLoud can help you make your website into a fast, user-friendly, native mobile app.