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Why Personalized Apps Are the Websites of the Future

Nowadays, it’s almost ludicrous to imagine a business without its own website to serve as a source for information. Since the late 1990’s, websites have become the premier real estate for organizations to be discoverable, accessible and to connect with an audience. But that was then, and the tide is shifting—this time bringing personalized apps to center stage. 

We can look at how technology has shaped our behavior in the last 20 years to understand this shift. As mobile devices have become more affordable and sophisticated, adoption has skyrocketed. In fact, according to Pew Research, 81% of Americans own a smartphone, and that’s up from 35% nearly ten years ago. But it’s not just the growing popularity of mobile devices changing the way we interact, but how we use them. Looking at this study further, one in five Americans are “smartphone-only” Internet users—meaning that their smartphone is the only vehicle they use to access information. 

With the advent of apps, we saw the landscape evolve even further. Today, it’s estimated that the average U.S. user spends 3 hours and 43 minutes on their smartphone, 2 hours and 57 minutes of which are on apps. Apps have slowly taken precedence for how people choose to interact with information and each other. In fact, a recent survey by ComScore found that mobile apps ate up 87% of users’ mobile time, with actual web browsing occupying the remaining 13%.

So, why is that? To put it simply, apps created an environment that was more structured, engaging and comprehensive for audiences. Think of it this way—many sites aren’t optimized for mobile viewing, and even when they are, can be clunky at best. They aren’t always easy to navigate, or their features easy to access—be it opening a chat to connect with another user, prompting a request for more information or completing a sale. Apps on the other hand, easily define different actions, while making them intuitive. No surfing, just a few quick taps to action. And with today’s incredible on-demand appetite, speed is everything.

With an app, organizations have a place to host marketing efforts, build a community, share information and more—whether it’s a fitness studio looking to disseminate its latest personal training promotions to members or an enterprise arming its salesforce with the latest product specs so they can better at their jobs. Quite simply, apps cut through the clutter so users can have access to the information and network they need, whenever and wherever they want it. They help organizations build loyalty, stay competitive and optimize their audience in one place. 

Businesses can’t afford not to have an app because, well, they’re leaving efficiency, engagement and even money on the table. But that said, creating personalized apps isn’t always easy, and if building from scratch, can also carry significant costs that price out smaller businesses. Luckily, there’s a cost-effective solution in no-code and low-code apps.

With these apps, organizations can curb the timely and costly development that goes into completely custom apps, reducing that time up to as much as 90%. By having much of the feature set and structure inherently built in, organizations can make quick adjustments to customize the baseline iteration with their branding and upload their content. In the case of low-code apps, they are such an attractive option that the market is poised to be worth $45.5 billion by 2025, up from the $13.2 billion it’s valued at today. 

At CatalystXL, we know how important it is for organizations to give their audience the tools they need to interact effectively with the brand and one another. That’s why we’re democratizing mobile apps with our no-code platform. We can bring client apps to life with no hassle, and in as little as 48 hours, and our easy self-administration panel means they can tweak quickly as needed, anytime.

Apps are a part of our everyday lives, and we think every organization should have the ability to integrate their own custom-branded apps into their environment. Just think of us as the GoDaddy for apps. Interested in a demo