How to Turn Your Website into an App (Android & iOS)

You already have a website that works. The question is how to get it onto people's home screens as a real app, in the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, without starting from scratch. There are three realistic routes, and the right one depends on what your site does.

The three ways to turn a website into an app

1. Rewrite it natively: rebuild every screen in Swift, Kotlin, React Native or Flutter. You get full control over performance and device features, and you pay for it in time and budget. It is the right call for games, offline-first products and apps built around the camera or sensors.

2. Wrap it in a WebView shell: a native app container loads your live website. You keep one codebase, content updates appear immediately, and you can still add native features such as push notifications. This is the fastest route for content sites, shops, communities and web apps that already work well on mobile.

3. Ship a progressive web app: add a manifest and service worker so users can install your site from the browser. It costs little, but it does not give you a store listing on iOS and has fewer native capabilities.

Is a wrapped website enough?

For many products, yes. If your site is responsive, loads quickly and already does the job on a phone, a wrapper gives users an icon, a splash screen, full-screen navigation and notifications. Where it falls short is when the experience depends on heavy native hardware access or needs to work fully offline.

One caveat worth knowing before you start: Apple expects an app to offer more than a plain website in a frame. Adding push notifications, a proper icon and splash screen, and sensible permissions helps. Approval is always Apple's decision, so plan for a review cycle.

WebsiteTo.app is built for that wrapper path: paste your HTTPS URL, get free Android and iOS demo builds, then ship production AAB and IPA files under your own store accounts. You can create apps from the dashboard, from an MCP server for AI agents (so Claude or Cursor can scaffold the app while you keep editing in Lovable or Bolt), or manage several client apps from one account. Push notifications and AdMob are included in the subscription, and you can use our default Android keystore or upload your own signing keys. See pricing for per-app plans and the 15-day trial.

Step by step: from URL to store-ready build

1. Make sure your site is live on HTTPS. The app loads your public URL, so use a stable production domain rather than a temporary preview link.

2. Check it on a phone. Open it on a real device. Fix tiny tap targets, sticky elements hidden by system bars, and anything that only works with a mouse.

3. Create the app in WebsiteTo.app by pasting your URL. Free Android and iOS demo builds start automatically, with no card required.

4. Test the demos: log in, submit forms, run through checkout if you sell something, and follow external links.

5. Brand it: set the icon, splash screen and colours in the app editor, and configure push notifications if you want them.

6. Set up your developer accounts: a Google Play developer account and an Apple Developer account are needed to publish under your own name.

7. Build and submit: generate the production files (AAB for Google Play, IPA for the App Store) and upload them through each store's console.

What it costs

There are three kinds of cost: the stores, the tooling and your time. Google charges a one-time registration fee for a Play developer account, and Apple charges an annual fee for the Apple Developer Program. On the tooling side, WebsiteTo.app (see our pricing page) starts at €4.90 per month for Android, €7.90 for iOS or €9.90 for both, and the demo builds are free so you can validate the result before paying. A native rewrite is a different order of magnitude, because it is paid in developer weeks.

Tips before you submit

• Keep one stable domain. Changing it later means shipping a new build.

• Test login, payments and file uploads inside the app, not just in the browser.

• Write a real store description and use real screenshots from the demo builds.

• Add push notifications so the app gives users a reason to come back.

Ready to see your own site as an app? Build a free demo and test it on your phone today.