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This is basically the "are mobile apps Fastlane?" question. Let's say there were several popular websites that exclusively used animated GIFs to sell (used) stuff, like a cross between Craigslist and GIFy.com. These sites created a need for a tool that easily let people create animated GIFs from their own photos. Would it be better if this tool was a web-app, or a mobile-app?
A mobile-app would be much easier for the user, they could take photos with their mobile phone, launch the app, generate the animated GIF, and have the app upload the GIF to the websites. This app might be free for people making 2-3 GIFs a day, and 99 cents for unlimited GIF creation. It would be super easy for the user, and a pain to develop it. However, apps are currently much easier to monetize, since the payment system is built in (phone bill).
A website would be a pain for the user. They would have to upload their photos to the webapp's site, generate and accept the GIF, have some kind of system for the user to pay for resource usage (CPU, bandwidth, storage). They might also have to download the GIF from me, and upload it to the selling-stuff website. While it would be a pain for the user, and harder to get an IAP on the web, the development of the (Python/Django) webapp would be easier than developing it for mobile (Swift or Kotlin).
IMHO, the mobile app is a natural fit, and the web-app is painful to use. The ONE thing that is blocking me mentally, is that mobile apps give up control to Apple or Google. Maybe I've read too may horror stories about app developers being at the whim of Apple/Google, but I have this nagging voice saying, "Yeah, go ahead and build a castle on someone else's land, see how that works out!"
So to recap, Mobile app is easy for the user, easy to monetize, a pain to program, and gives up Control. A Web app is hard for the user, hard to monetize, easy to program, and you keep 100% of control. Other people here have probably had the same question at some point, so I thought I would ask.
A mobile-app would be much easier for the user, they could take photos with their mobile phone, launch the app, generate the animated GIF, and have the app upload the GIF to the websites. This app might be free for people making 2-3 GIFs a day, and 99 cents for unlimited GIF creation. It would be super easy for the user, and a pain to develop it. However, apps are currently much easier to monetize, since the payment system is built in (phone bill).
A website would be a pain for the user. They would have to upload their photos to the webapp's site, generate and accept the GIF, have some kind of system for the user to pay for resource usage (CPU, bandwidth, storage). They might also have to download the GIF from me, and upload it to the selling-stuff website. While it would be a pain for the user, and harder to get an IAP on the web, the development of the (Python/Django) webapp would be easier than developing it for mobile (Swift or Kotlin).
IMHO, the mobile app is a natural fit, and the web-app is painful to use. The ONE thing that is blocking me mentally, is that mobile apps give up control to Apple or Google. Maybe I've read too may horror stories about app developers being at the whim of Apple/Google, but I have this nagging voice saying, "Yeah, go ahead and build a castle on someone else's land, see how that works out!"
So to recap, Mobile app is easy for the user, easy to monetize, a pain to program, and gives up Control. A Web app is hard for the user, hard to monetize, easy to program, and you keep 100% of control. Other people here have probably had the same question at some point, so I thought I would ask.
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