Responsive Design vs. Adaptive Design: What’s the Best Choice for Designers? Since the development of mobile, one of the most heated discussions has been whether to construct a responsive, adaptive web design (AWD) or a standalone mobile site. We'll leave standalone mobile sites out of this subject because they appear to be the least popular alternative among designers and businesses because they must be constructed separately.
Why Use Adaptive Design? Adaptive can be used to update an existing site to make it more mobile-friendly. This gives you complete control over the design and allows you to develop for numerous viewports. It is entirely up to you, your organisation, and your overall budget to decide how many viewports to design for. It does, however, give you some flexibility over your website that you won't get with responsive design. In general, you should start with a low-resolution viewport and work your way up to verify that the design isn't hampered by the content.