Do you need a mobile app, or is a good website enough

"We need an app" is one of the most common sentences at a first meeting. Sometimes it is true. More often it turns out that users need something that works well on a phone, which is not the same thing.

What the web can do today

A modern website adapts to the screen, can be added to the phone's home screen, send notifications and, to a degree, work offline. It opens through a link, without a download from a store, and one version works on all devices.

When the web is enough

• Users come occasionally: to look at the offer, book, send an inquiry.
• Content changes often and needs to be visible in search engines.
• You want people to reach you immediately, with one click.
• The budget does not allow development and maintenance for several platforms.

When an app makes sense

• Users open it daily or several times a day.
• It must work reliably without an internet connection.
• It needs the camera, location, sensors or Bluetooth in ways the web does not support well.
• Notifications are a key part of the service.
• Speed and smoothness directly affect whether people will use it.

The hidden costs of an app

• Release and every update go through store review, which takes time and sometimes ends in rejection.
• Operating systems change every year and the app has to be adapted.
• Users have to be persuaded to download it, and then to keep it.
• An app almost always needs a website alongside it, so you maintain both.

A sensible order

For most projects the safest route is to start with a good website that works on mobile, measure how people actually use it, and only then decide whether an app is needed. That way the decision rests on data, not on impression.

More on how we approach decisions like this on the Mobile Development page.