Website or App: Which Does Your Business Actually Need?

An app feels like the bigger, more serious choice, which is why so many businesses want one. But an app is not a fancier website. It is a different thing, with different costs and a much harder job to do, and that job is getting people to install it and keep it. For most businesses, that job is far harder than they expect, and it is the reason so many business apps are built, launched, and then quietly used by almost no one. Before deciding you need an app, it is worth understanding what each option really involves.

A website works in a browser, on any phone or computer, with nothing to install. Someone finds it on Google, taps a link on your Facebook page, or types your address, and they are there in seconds. It can show what you do, take enquiries, sell products, and be found by new customers searching for you. It is cheaper to build than an app, there is only one of it to maintain rather than separate versions for different phones, and every visitor can reach it instantly with no barrier. For the large majority of businesses, a good website that works well on a phone does everything they actually need.

An app is software a customer installs on their phone, and it can do a few things a website cannot do as well. It sits on the home screen as a permanent reminder of your business. It can send notifications directly to the phone. It can work offline, and it can use the phone’s features, such as the camera or location, in deeper ways. For the right kind of business, these matter. But notice what they have in common. They are all most valuable for a business a customer uses often, again and again, because only a loyal, frequent user will install an app and keep it. That is the key to the whole decision.

This is the point most businesses miss. Building the app is not the hard part. Getting people to install it is. A customer has to find your app, decide it is worth space on their phone, download it, and then actually keep using it rather than deleting it, as people delete most apps they try. That is a very high bar. A person will happily tap a link to your website, but asking them to install an app for a business they use occasionally is asking too much. For a shop or a service most customers use now and then, an app is a door most of them will never walk through, while a website is one they walk through without thinking.

An app is the right choice in specific situations, and they are worth knowing.

• Customers use you often, ideally every day or every week, so they have a real reason to keep your app on their phone.
• The app is the product itself, not a shop window for it, such as a tool, a service, or a platform people use directly.
• You genuinely need what only an app provides, such as reliable notifications, offline use, or deep use of the phone’s features, and a website cannot deliver it well enough.
• You have the budget and time to build the app and, just as importantly, to market it hard enough that people install and keep it.

If your business fits these, an app can be worth building, and building it well is its own careful process, which we touch on in our article on scoping and building a product quickly. If your business does not fit these, an app is usually money spent on a door few customers will open.

For most businesses, the honest answer is a website, built to work well on a phone. If your customers are looking for information, contacting you, buying now and then, or finding you for the first time, a website does all of it, reaches everyone instantly, and costs far less to build and maintain. A shop, a service business, a restaurant, a studio, a clinic, almost all of them are better served by a strong website than by an app that customers have to be persuaded to install. Spending on a website that is fast, clear, and easy to use will do more for these businesses than an app they will struggle to get onto anyone’s phone.

There is a useful option between the two that many owners do not know about. A website can be built so that a customer can add it to their phone’s home screen, where it opens like an app and can even send some notifications, without anyone having to visit an app store or install anything in the usual sense. This gives a business some of the benefits people want from an app, a presence on the home screen and a fast, direct experience, while keeping the reach, low cost, and single version of a website. For many businesses that think they want an app, this middle path turns out to be what they actually needed.

• Most businesses want an app because it sounds serious, but an app is a different, harder thing than a website, not a fancier one.
• A website works in any browser with nothing to install, reaches everyone instantly, and costs far less to build and maintain.
• An app can sit on the home screen, send notifications, work offline, and use phone features, but only for customers who install and keep it.
• The hard part of an app is getting people to install it and not delete it, which only frequent, loyal users will do.
• An app is worth it when customers use you very often, the app is the product, you truly need app-only features, and you can market it.
• For most businesses, a fast, clear website that works well on a phone is the right answer.
• A website can be built to behave like an app on the home screen, which is often what businesses wanting an app actually need.