What is the main appeal of online wallets and why do people use them?

[Celsiuss]

For me it is mainly because I can access my wallet on any device I'd like to. I use three different computers and I like being able to check it on the fly on my phone too. It is also easier to use, but also it lacks some advanced tools, but I can easily live without them.

[isen]

To me, it seems like offline wallets are way more secure.

There is no doubt that offline wallets are more secure, but many newbies are not aware of it and don't realize the importance of holding your private keys.
As for more experienced users who trust their Bitcoins on online wallets, I guess that the main reason is the ease of use they provide and the low fees(Coinbase charged zeros fees until recently for example).

[Cart]

Why do Wallets sometimes have seeds and sometime wallet.dat files. For example PIVX has a file you have to store but other only have a seed?

[Clement Kaliyar]

Why do Wallets sometimes have seeds and sometime wallet.dat files. For example PIVX has a file you have to store but other only have a seed?

You need to back up the wallet.dat file and always make sure that you have the private keys to your wallet. You must really note down the seed and the password and if you loose them you will end up loosing everything.With online wallet you only need to remember the password and the pin when it comes to xapo and the ease of sending and receiving the coins is the greatest appeal of online wallets.

[AK47-]

To me, it seems like offline wallets are way more secure.

There is no doubt that offline wallets are more secure, but many newbies are not aware of it and don't realize the importance of holding your private keys.
As for more experienced users who trust their Bitcoins on online wallets, I guess that the main reason is the ease of use they provide and the low fees(Coinbase charged zeros fees until recently for example).

I agree to this. People use online wallet for ease of use. Some people are in habit of trading and gambling using bitcoin. In such cases online wallets are better.

[Juggy777]

To me, it seems like offline wallets are way more secure.

Honestly I use online wallets cause I find it easier to use and accessible anytime anywhere. Then you don't even need to manage it, all is managed by wallet owners. Secondly it's embarrassing but I have no clue how to use a hardware wallet. Even despite spending so much time on Bitcoins, I yet need to know a lot about it. But I would be interested to know is using online wallets really risky or its ok to use them? Any one who has personal experience of using both may guide me, like what problems they faced or why one should not use online wallets?

[LTU_btc]

As others already said, online wallets is easier to use, people don't need to download anything. It's more usual, because it's very similar to services like PayPal or bank account. Also, online wallets have more features like exchange, block explorers and so on. Finally, earlier there was only Bitcoin Core wallet which requires lot of space and resources and people wanted for more user-friendly wallets. Some have stereotype that is complicated to use desktop wallets.

[Silberman]

To me, it seems like offline wallets are way more secure.

Every wallet has pros and cons, a wallet in cold storage is very safe but many don’t have that many coins to need such storage on the first place, so they prefer to use web wallets, because they can access their funds anywhere and also because some of this services pay the miners fees.

[sportis]

People they afraid and they often have the misconception that someone else, here the owners of the online wallets, are more appropriate than them to keep their money safe. Fortunately if someone reads about wallets and ask others like here he can easily go to another solution.