What 'turning a website into an app' actually means
An app runs your website with native mobile capabilities, push notifications, offline states, and a presence on someone's home screen. The native shell gives it a permanent place on their device; push brings them back; offline states keep it usable when connectivity drops.
The honest version: the shell is the part that is automatable, and the parts around it, the store accounts, the icons, the signing keys, the review, are not. Anyone selling you 'we do everything' is leaving something out. Most of this guide is about the parts that stay on you.
What you actually receive
A real build produces two files. For Android, an .aab (Android App Bundle), the format Google Play requires for all new apps since August 2021. For iOS, an .ipa, the archive you upload to App Store Connect. Both are signed binaries; neither is a mock-up or a web link.
You install and distribute those files yourself. That is a feature, not a limitation: your app publishes under your own developer accounts, your own listings, your own control. No middleman owns your app's identity.
What still requires you (be honest about this)
A Google Play developer account costs a one-time $25. An Apple Developer membership costs $99 per year. Those are store requirements, not tool requirements, and no tool can remove them.
For an ipa you also need valid Apple signing credentials: a distribution certificate and a provisioning profile from your Apple Developer account. Tools that claim to sign iOS apps for you are, at best, using your credentials on your behalf; at worst, something you should not trust with your identity.
How Tapbound handles it
Tapbound builds the shell from your live website: it stamps your app's identity, signs Android with an upload key, and produces the aab and ipa you download from your dashboard. Push notifications, ads, and analytics are add-ons you configure with your own accounts (Firebase, OneSignal, AdMob, and so on). Your credentials, your data, managed on your end.
The store side stays yours: you create the Play Console and App Store Connect records, upload the files, and click submit. We give you a step-by-step publishing guide, but the account, the fee, and the review decision are yours. That is the model that keeps your app genuinely yours.