Will Apple accept an app that only wraps our website?

Sometimes, and the deciding factor is whether the app adds something a browser cannot do. Apple's review rules reject apps that are just a repackaged website, so we add push notifications, deep links, offline handling, or a native screen or two before submitting. We plan for a rejection cycle and fix whatever the reviewer names.

How much of our existing web application can we reuse?

The backend almost always, because the API and database stay where they are. On the client side it depends on the route: a wrapper reuses everything, a hybrid build reuses the web screens for the sections that change often, and a rebuild reuses none of the markup but all of the business rules behind the API.

Do we need our own Apple and Google developer accounts?

Yes, and they should be registered in your company's name so the listings belong to you. We prepare the metadata, screenshots, privacy disclosures, and data safety forms, and we handle the correspondence with the review teams. You keep the credentials and the accounts after launch.

How long does a conversion take?

A WebView shell with push and deep links is usually a few weeks of work. A hybrid build with native screens takes longer, and a full rebuild runs closer to a standard app project spread over several weeks in phases. The audit gives you a fixed scope before the build starts.

What happens to our website once there is an app?

It keeps running and stays the home of your business logic, which is why we route both clients through one API. Links that should open in the app go there through universal links and App Links, and everything else lands on the website. Many clients ship web changes first and let the app follow.

Web to Mobile App Conversion

We convert existing websites and web apps into iOS and Android apps: WebView shells, hybrid builds, or full native rebuilds with push and deep links.

See our work:

SPIN DEALS APP→StyleTribute Seller→Walking Cure→

Your product already works in a browser, and customers keep asking why there is no app. A browser tab cannot tap someone on the shoulder, the store search results your competitors occupy are closed to you, and the visitor who opens your site on a train with one bar of signal gets a spinner. Conversion work usually starts at that point.

The job can be a two week wrapper or a full rebuild, and the choice depends on what your web product actually does on a phone. We also say plainly when the answer is to stay on the web and let users install it to the home screen.

What web to app conversion means

Conversion gives the web product you already run a presence on iOS and Android. Three routes lead there, with different amounts of code carried over.

A WebView or wrapper shell

One project loads your live site inside a native container and ships it to both stores: a branded browser window with a few platform hooks around it.

You gain speed: a store listing within weeks, one codebase, and updates that reach users the moment you deploy, because the screens are whatever your web application serves now. You pay in feel, since a desktop layout shows its seams on a phone. Push notifications and deep links each need separate work, and Apple's review rules reject apps that look like a repackaged website with no mobile-specific value.

A hybrid app with native shells

You keep the web application for the screens that change often and write native code for anything that needs the device: camera, secure storage, biometric login, background work. Each platform keeps a real shell, written in Swift and Kotlin or shared across one Flutter or React Native project, with a bridge into the web content.

This route fits most established web applications. Your business rules stay in code already tested in production, and the device-facing parts get the platform behaviour users expect.

A native or cross-platform rebuild

The mobile app becomes its own product. Screens are written for touch and for the way each platform expects lists and navigation to behave, with data from your API instead of a rendered page.

Rebuilding costs the most and leaves more code to maintain, or one Flutter or React Native codebase for both platforms. It buys performance, dependable offline behaviour, and platform surfaces a WebView cannot reach, such as widgets, watch extensions, and scheduled background tasks.

Where the project starts

A plain idea means there is nothing to convert yet. We scope the product, build the API, and pick the platform target before client code exists, which usually means the mobile MVP route.

An existing conventional codebase, whether a server-rendered PHP application, WordPress, Django, or a Next.js app, is the common case for this service. We audit the routes and data flows, pick one of the three routes above, and keep the backend already in production.

An AI-coded prototype changes the plan again. When a prototype was built quickly with an AI coding tool, the demo usually works and the foundations do not: no clear API boundary, loose authentication, and state held where a mobile client cannot reach it. We keep the interface work that still fits, repair the data layer, and convert from a base that can survive users.

When a wrapper is the right call, and when it is not

A wrapper suits a content-heavy site or an internal tool that mainly publishes and collects information. It suits a business testing whether a store listing brings demand before committing to a rebuild, and a web application that is already mobile first and mainly needs push notifications and a home screen icon.

It is the wrong investment when the product depends on cameras, sensors, fine-grained location, offline queues, or frame-by-frame drawing, because users compare it against native apps and leave. It is also wrong when the store listing is the growth strategy, because a shell that opens slowly into a zoomed-out layout damages the first impression that listing paid for. The honest answer there is a rebuild, or a progressive web app if home screen installation covers what your users need.

What we deliver

Push notifications

Push needs server credentials, a device registry, and a reason to ask. We set up the Apple Push Notification service key and a Firebase Cloud Messaging project, store device tokens against your user records, and ask for permission after an action that explains the benefit. Users who decline still get email notices from the same backend.

Store accounts and review

The Apple Developer Program membership and the Google Play developer account belong to you, registered under your company details, with the bundle identifier and package name under your control. We prepare listing metadata, screenshots from real devices, privacy disclosures, and data safety forms, and handle the review correspondence. Outcomes depend on policy compliance, so we plan for a rejection cycle.

Deep links back to the web

Universal links on iOS and App Links on Android open the app when it is installed and fall back to the browser when it is not. We publish the domain association files on your server, define which URLs open which screen, and send the rest to the browser.

One codebase for shared logic

The API is the boundary. Web, mobile, and any admin console call the same endpoints, and the rules around pricing, permissions, and validation live in one place. A wrapper or hybrid app keeps your web front end as the display layer, and a rebuild writes new screens against the same API, so a server-side change reaches both clients once.

How the engagement runs

The first week covers the audit and the route decision: the current architecture, which screens matter on a phone, and what the device has to provide. You receive a written plan with phases and a fixed price before the build starts.

The build covers the shell or the new client, the API work, push, and deep links. Store submission follows, with internal builds on TestFlight and a closed Play track first. We stay after launch for the first review cycle and the crash reports a real user base produces.

What it costs

Work runs at our flat rate of $39 per hour, or as a fixed price once the audit has set a real scope. The weeks depend on how much of the product has to exist twice, whether the API needs reshaping, and whether offline behaviour is in scope. A WebView shell with push and deep links is a short phase. A hybrid build sits in the middle, and a rebuild is a full app project, where the mobile MVP typical order of $4,800 to $8,500 across four to six weeks is the closest published comparison.

Our pricing page sets out hourly billing, fixed-price projects, and monthly capacity plans from $2,699.

Proof

SpinDeals is a native iOS and Android app for location-based deals in Cyprus and later Athens, with a spin-to-win coupon mechanic and a merchant backend. It shows the store submission and native build work a conversion ends with.

StyleTribute Seller is a Node.js and Express seller intake application for a luxury resale marketplace, where photo uploads and item details feed a human review process in Singapore. It shows how we work inside an existing web application's own logic.

Walking Cure is a WordPress site for a California clinic, with content sections explaining a walking-based health method, a blog, and an enquiry form. Content structures like this are the usual wrapper candidate.

Related services

Mobile apps development for the native and Flutter practice behind it
Cross-platform mobile app build when one codebase should serve both stores
Progressive web app development when home screen installation is enough
Web development for the front end and back end being converted
API development and integration for the shared API behind both clients

Next step

Send the URL of your web application and a sentence about what your users keep asking for. We will tell you which of the three routes fits, what it would take, and where we would push back.

Contact us to start that conversation, or run your requirements through the Vasilkoff.info estimator for a first scope and cost range.