In the process of communication, we often face the classic hesitation: is it better to develop a mobile app or a chatbot? Recent marketing research shows that we spend most of our time in messengers. You must admit that this is a fairly common situation in our convenient smartphones...
Looking at the screenshot, you can see that potential content consumers are concentrated mainly in messengers and social networks. At least we are there all the time. In this case, the chatbot is just a click away in the same messenger as your customer's friends, acquaintances, and family. This allows businesses and brands to get closer to their customers. Therefore, unlike an app program that needs to be specifically found and downloaded to the device, which will require phone memory and a short launch time, as well as (visually) screen space, a chatbot has a lot of advantages.
We understand everything literally, and therefore the above factors do not contribute to the use of the application at all, because there is even a price barrier! After all, developing a mobile application is many times more expensive, if only because you have to develop for two platforms for Android and IOS and additionally hire another specialist (to write the backend).
But in general, you shouldn't get carried away with the contrast between mobile apps and chatbots, as apps and chatbots can perform completely different marketing functions and can complement each other in many ways.
Okay, let's put everything on the shelves
Advantages of chatbots
- Chatbot doesn't need to be installed
- Chatbot does not take up space in the phone's memory
- Simple and clear interaction
But the app needs to be found, downloaded, installed, and launched. You can simply add a chatbot to your messenger and use it right away.
Chatbots do not take up phone memory or desktop space.
Chatbots have a clear interface; if a person has already worked with chatbots, other bots have the same buttons and the same interaction logic, unlike applications, where each has its own visual interface that needs to be adapted.
Advantages of chatbots for business
- A chatbot can be developed faster and cheaper
- A chatbot does not require constant updates, unlike apps
Creating a chatbot for business will be faster and more profitable on average.
For example, the development of a simple telegram bot takes 3 days and costs from $200.
An app takes at least 2 months to develop (usually 4 months)
and costs from $2,000.
In addition, there are services that allow you to create a chatbot from a template on a prepaid basis, meaning you can launch it in a day and pay only the cost of a monthly subscription or a percentage of payments.
In order to keep up with operating system updates, you need to constantly update programs. If you don't, they will eventually stop being supported on devices or run with errors. Chatbots don't need to be updated.
What is the advantage of a mobile app?
When you need a specifically complex interface, it is very difficult to implement it in a chatbot. For example, imagine Uber in a chatbot. It's technically convenient, but impossible to implement via Telegram, as the messenger's general interface imposes its own limitations. At the same time, this simple, secure, and not overloaded interface attracts users from all over the world. Telegram's audience reached 550 million users in 2023 and is still growing rapidly
What should you choose – an app, a chatbot, or a combo?
If you have complex functionality that requires a good visual interface, it's definitely better to develop a mobile app program. However, if you want both, but don't have enough budget, start with a chatbot as an mvp, testing the waters, and then feel free to order an app. Only if you have an unlimited budget, we recommend developing both tools in parallel. However, remember that the time of mobile applications is gradually fading away, while chatbot development is focused on the present and future, where we can be of maximum helpful to your business 😎