Can you turn a website into an app? What Apple and Google will accept

Can you turn a website into an app?

You can, but the stores decide what counts as an app. Apple’s App Review Guidelines say: “Your app should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website. If your app is not particularly useful, unique, or ‘app-like,’ it doesn’t belong on the App Store.” Apple’s review page is blunter: “Websites served in an iOS app, web content that is not formatted for iOS, and limited web interactions do not make a quality app.”

Google Play is more permissive but not open-ended. It does not allow apps whose primary purpose is to “provide a webview of a website without permission from the website owner or administrator”, and it rejects apps that “only have limited functionality and content.”

Do website-to-app converters work?

Most converters produce a web-view wrapper: your site inside an app shell with an icon and a splash screen. That is quick to build and exactly what guideline 4.2 describes. Two more of Apple’s rules matter here:

• 4.2.2: apps shouldn’t primarily be “marketing materials, advertisements, web clippings, content aggregators, or a collection of links.”
• 4.2.6: “Apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected unless they are submitted directly by the provider of the app’s content.” If a service offers to submit the app for you under its own account, that rule applies.

Adding a few native features is not a guaranteed fix either. In a 2018 rejection that a developer posted on Apple’s forums, App Review wrote that push notifications, location and sharing “do not provide a robust enough experience” on their own.

What are the ways to turn a website into an app?

There are four routes that work, plus the wrapper most converters sell. The risk column is our judgement, not an official rating:

Is a progressive web app enough?

Often, yes, if you don’t need a store listing. Since iOS 16.4, web apps added to the Home Screen can send push notifications, and since iOS 26 every website added to the Home Screen opens as a web app by default. In 2024 Apple briefly planned to remove Home Screen web apps in the EU, then reversed the decision.

The limits on iPhone are real, though:

• There is no install prompt: users have to find “Add to Home Screen” themselves.
• Push works only after the app is on the Home Screen.
• Background sync and background fetch aren’t supported in Safari.
• There is no App Store listing, so nobody finds you by searching the store.

How do you get a website onto Google Play?

The cleanest route is a Trusted Web Activity, which Google describes as a way to open your web app, such as a progressive web app, from an Android app. Google’s Bubblewrap tool builds one, and PWABuilder uses Bubblewrap under the hood. A Digital Asset Links file on your site proves the app and the site belong together.

One step surprises most first-time publishers: personal developer accounts created after November 13, 2023 must run a closed test with at least 12 testers, opted in continuously for at least 14 days, before the app can go to production.

What gets an app built from a website through App Store review?

Apple is looking for something a browser can’t do. What usually makes the difference:

• Native navigation, such as a tab bar, rather than a menu inside a web page.
• Push notifications with real content behind them.
• Proper offline screens instead of a browser error page.
• Device features where they genuinely fit: camera, location, the share sheet, Face ID sign-in, widgets.
• Sign-in that persists, and in-app purchase if you sell digital goods.

None of these is a checklist that guarantees approval. The question the reviewer asks is whether the app is useful as an app. Capacitor is the usual way to add these to an existing web app; our guide to taking an AI-built app to production covers the store list too.

Can your app take payments through your website?

It depends on what you sell. Under guideline 3.1.1, unlocking digital features or content inside the app must use Apple’s in-app purchase. Physical goods and services used outside the app must not use in-app purchase (3.1.3(e)), so Stripe and similar are fine there. Since May 2025, apps on the US storefront may include buttons and links to buy on the web, after a US court ruling. That rule is still being litigated, so check the current guidelines before you design payments.

How much does it cost, and how long does it take?

The store fees are small: Apple’s Developer Program is $99 a year, and Google Play charges $25 once. Apple says 90% of submissions are reviewed in under 24 hours. On Google Play, allow the 14-day closed test for a new personal account. The larger cost is the work that gets the app through review.

Our Store-Ready Mobile Sprint does that for a web app you already have, from $2,500: the right route for your app (Capacitor, React Native with Expo, or native), the native features review expects, the store listings, and answering reviewers until it is approved. If you would rather build the mobile app from scratch, see iOS and Android apps built in about a week.