How to turn your Wordpress website into an App for free

How to turn your Wordpress website into an App for free

Almost everyone that runs a website will want to turn it into an app at some point if they become successful enough.  The problem with this is that you need a good amount of funding to get a dedicated programmer, one good enough to do the job, to sit down and work on your app for a month.  This can cost you anywhere from $750 to $10,000+ for a single app on a single platform, so double that if you want to target Android as well as IOS!

I little trick people started to work with is using progressive web apps to turn their Wordpress sites into full-fledged apps, well they sort of did lol.  These apps show your responsive design in a way that mimics apps you can download to your phone, but I think they might be even better!

Now then, let's save you some money on an expensive programmer and get your app going for free!


Install the Super Progressive Web Apps plugin
You won't need to search far and wide to get this, and it's also free, so simply go to your Plugins section of Wordpress and click "Add New" then search for "Super Progressive Web App," and you'll find this one...

After you install this, you will now be able to get Android users to download an app specific to your website on their smartphones and access your home screen whenever they want!

Install the Add to home screen WP Plugin
Now that you have SuperPWA installed, you'll probably be thinking, "What about people with iPhones?  Why can't I get them to download my app?" and this little free plugin is what will help you out!

Search for "Add to home screen WP Plugin" and install it.

The snippet looks like this:


The plugin page looks like this:


Configure, Test, and Track Everything
When you're going through each plugin and configuring them, you'll want to make sure you can view them from both an Android-powered device as well as an Apple device.  I tried using a service online that emulated cell phones of every sort but, the plugins didn't show up right on them.  I'm not sure why this was happening, so I used my own phone and a friends, and in the end, it worked out really well and, everything looked amazing

You can configure your "App" to take up the entire screen, most of the screen, or open to look like a website.  I tend to go with the fullscreen or most of the screen so, people know they're on my "App," and when they back out, it will go to their phone and not a browser. 

The feel of being on an app is different from viewing a responsive (mobile friendly) website.  With these two plugins, you can essentially have your own app and, people will gladly keep it on their phones

The benefits of using an "App" this way
One of the main benefits of using these two plugins for your own App is that you save a boatload of money on development that a dedicated programmer would have needed to do for you.  Now you can save that money, invest it back into your business, and generate more sales since you have your own Free app

Another benefit of having your app done like this is that the user isn't downloading some bulky application to their phone and having it take up space.  They're essentially downloading a shortcut that shows your responsive website as an app within their phone.  This means that your App is saving your users a lot of space on their phone no matter how big your website is!  Remember, people who need to delete apps to free up space won't get rid of something that has a spec of consumption compared to the monsters a mobile game is lol   Your App on their phone will be more safe than anything else they download because the files are so small they won't care if you stick around forever

The downside of using an "App" this way
The ONLY downside of setting your app up like this is that you won't show up on any app store where people can download it.  They will only be able to download it from your website, which isn't a big deal, but some people might not trust it as much due to you prompting them to download from your website and not an app store.  I don't see this as a huge problem since people don't usually browse around the app store for any specific reason other than finding something they need to download right now, so I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were you


Final Thoughts,
Setting your app up like this will help you convert your mobile traffic much easier since people will be more inclined to download your app when prompted rather than search for a download page on some app store.  You can set up push notifications to bring people back in, you can save them space on their phone, and you can have a pretty nifty app for everyone to download for free