It has been noted that 24% of people who surf the Internet use WordPress and most of them want a mobile app for each of the WordPress site that they use. Mobile apps, are, in fact rather convenient for the users and give them more of choice as to how they want to interact with your site. Also, with the stiff market competition where everyone is trying to grow, the cost of building an app has gone down.
It is always convenient to use the content from WordPress in the app so that when the website gets updated, the app gets updated too. For instance, consider that you are an online monthly magazine and you want any of the new stories or articles that you publish to be made available instantly in the app. If you create any changes while setting up your WordPress website, you would want those changes to get applied in the app too, without any extra effort. With the technological updates, there are several options available these days that enable us to get WordPress into an app for the mobile users.
Things to Consider When Building a Site
Over the years, several free options have emerged to help you make an app for the respective website. To create a mobile application, you must own an existing website which has been optimized for viewing on the mobile. If your WordPress website isn’t optimized, there would be actually no point in doing all this. So, that is the first thing that you need to ensure. In fact, there are several plugins available that can help you to do that quite quickly.
Plugins to Help You Convert Your WordPress Site to An App
In today’s times, there are several plugins available that help you turn your WordPress site into a mobile app for the Android and the iOS platforms.
1. AppPresser
The very first plugin is basically a development framework for Android and iOS both. It is a Freemium plugin; meaning that you can use the basic features for free but would have to pay an amount for using the advanced features. AppPresser is based on PhoneGap which is by Adobe and provides a full WordPress integration.
This signifies that several familiar features of WordPress can be used for the end product. This includes photo upload, access to the backend, BuddyPress integration and much more. However, this plugin isn’t aimed at the everyday users of WordPress but the developers.
2. Reactor
The reactor is another plugin that has been made available by AppPresser. The only difference being that this one is for the non-coders. However, it is a paid plug-in. It has the capability to turn your WordPress website into an amazing and readily usable mobile app. The greatest advantage that you get with this plugin is that you can get a free trial. But, then if you wish to modify your mobile app, use other features of Reactor or send any push notifications, you would have to sign up for a monthly subscription plan. It is a great plugin and provides an easy and a quick way to create a mobile app.
3. Worona
The plugin named Worona helps in converting a WordPress website content into a native iOS and Android mobile app. The app builder has been made in a rather modern way and also allows a user to add premium extensions for even more features like the push notifications, rating and reviews section etc. the team of Worona is working to now offer chic themes as well as styles to customize your mobile app and to support pages and custom content in the app itself.
4. MobiLoud
The great thing about this plugin is the fact that it allows one to build native iOS and Android mobile applications. This means that your apps can find the way into the Apple and Google play stores easily. The top features of this plug-in include enabling push notifications, the ability to include ads for the purpose of monetization and also include access to offline content. The plugin can also deal with various features of WordPress like custom post types, user accounts, and even comment.
It is a premium plugin which has monthly plans. However, before handing over the money, you can pre-build the app and also preview it. Lifetime licenses are available for those who are interested in making a long-term investment.
5. IdeaPress
IdeaPress is a reasonable plugin available for a rather affordable price. This has a very simple and ‘easy to follow’ process of building that operates solely on the website of IdeaPress. However, you are still going to need to install a plugin which offers a JSON API that can be used to access content both for the app and the whole process of the building. The customization option available helps in the initial selection of the colors, deciding what pages and categories that can be included and selected for the home page’s format. This plugin is straightforward to use and in fact, takes approximately about five to seven minutes to get the app up and running.
6. Wiziapp
This plugin is a competitive product and offers an advantage of a decent HTML5 web application. As soon as you install the plugin on your WordPress website, it immediately starts to create the app. The time that it takes would be dependent upon the size of your site. You can check the progress bar to keep an eye on the process. This process of generation creates an HTML5 app that can be activated immediately. Also, there is an instant preview and real preview option. This plugin works really well and is actually a premium plugin.
Wrapping up:
Mobile traffic is increasing at a rapid rate. Having a mobile app along with a responsive website is one way to move forward into the ever-growing market which promises sales, traffic and leads. Building an app might seem like an intimidating task at first but it has been made very simple these days. Plugins like the ones mentioned above make the job of creating mobile apps much easier as well as affordable. And as it is, this trend is likely to stay here for a long time.
About the author: Catherrine Garcia is a passionate blogger and a freelance Web Developer. She along with her group of freelance developers, are experts of creating Websites on CMS.
