The short answer
Most businesses need a fast, well-built mobile website first. An app makes sense when customers come back to you often, or when you need something only an installed app can do well.
The two are not competitors. An app almost never replaces a website: people still find you on Google, and Google ranks websites, not apps. The real question is whether an app is worth adding on top.
What a mobile website is good at
A website works the moment someone taps a search result. Nothing to install, no account to create, no store in between. That makes it the right tool for anything a customer does once or occasionally:
- Finding you, comparing you, and deciding to call
- Reading about a service, prices, or opening hours
- Booking an appointment or filling in an inquiry form
- Paying an invoice or placing an occasional order
It is also one thing to maintain. When you change a price or a service, you change it in one place and everyone sees it immediately.
What an app adds
An installed app earns its place when it does something a website can’t do as well, or when being on the customer’s home screen changes how often they use you. The usual reasons:
- People use it often. A gym’s class schedule, a loyalty card, a repeat ordering tool. If a customer opens it weekly, an icon on their phone is worth having.
- Notifications are central. “Your order is ready”, “your appointment is tomorrow”, “your technician is on the way”.
- It needs the phone’s hardware. The camera for scanning or uploading photos, location for tracking, offline use in places with poor signal.
- It is the product. For a software business, the app is often what the customer is paying for.
If none of those apply, an app is usually a cost without a matching benefit.
The middle ground: a web app
A website can behave a lot like an app. It can be added to the home screen, work partly offline, and, on current iPhones, send push notifications once the user has added it to their home screen (WebKit’s announcement of web push on iOS).
For many businesses this covers most of what they wanted from an app, without app stores or a second codebase. Its limits show up when you need deeper access to the phone, a presence in the App Store, or the polish of a native interface.
What changes when you add an app
An app is a second product to run, not a one-off build.
The stores have rules and a review. Apple reviews every app and every update before it goes live. Its guidelines say an app should offer more than a repackaged website; one that is just a website in a wrapper is likely to be rejected (Apple’s App Review Guidelines).
There are developer accounts. Apple’s Developer Program carries an annual fee (Apple’s enrollment page), and Google Play charges a one-time registration fee (Google Play’s account setup). The accounts should be in your business’s name, not your developer’s.
Phones change every year. New operating system versions, new screen sizes, and new store requirements mean an app needs updates even when your business hasn’t changed. An app nobody maintains eventually stops working.
Customers still need the website. The app adds a channel; it doesn’t remove one.
How to decide
Ask three questions:
- How often will a customer use it? Once or occasionally points to a website. Weekly or daily points to an app.
- Does it need the phone itself? Notifications at the heart of the service, the camera, location, or offline use point to an app.
- Who will run it after launch? If nobody owns updates and store requirements, start with the website.
If the answers are “rarely”, “no”, and “not sure”, invest in the website. If they are “often”, “yes”, and “we have a plan”, an app is worth scoping.
Building both from one codebase
When an app does make sense, it doesn’t have to mean two separate builds. We build apps with Expo and React Native, which produce an iPhone app and an Android app from one codebase, and can share a backend with your website.
Our mobile app development page covers how that work is scoped. If the honest answer is that a better website would serve you more, we’ll say so before proposing an app.