Ask HN: Website vs. mobile app for conference goers

2 points·galazzah··3 comments

I'm part of an organization that is planning to host a conference in a couple of months. We want to use either a website or mobile app to show schedules, lecture locations, etc. What are some reasons to take one over the other?

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Definitely do a website first. If you want to promote your conference, it will be easier for people to share a link to your website, rather than to your mobile app. Also, everyone who can run a mobile app can visit your website, but not everyone who can visit your site (eg desktop users) can run your app.

A mobile app is a great idea, but it should be a bonus feature for attendees, after you've got the website fixed.

[Side note: I run a tiny website promoting a certain niche of conferences - I'm less likely to promote a mobile app in my email newsletter, because I'd feel an obligation to test your app first before linking to it & recommending it. A website is easy for me to check & verify & monitor for updates.]

Mobile app pros and opportunities:

- Integration into phone calendar, contacts, etc.

- Integration into share/intent features offered by platform

- Offline capability

- Homescreen presence

Website pros and opportunities:

- Public linkability, shareability of events, schedules, homepage (... in all likelihood you have a conference website anyway)

- No need to develop for different platforms

- No need for user to download an app

The drawbacks are implies by contrasting with the other.

with HTML5 you can make a very nice mobile site.

I think the biggest pro to a website is that people do not have to install an app to use it.

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