We are asked to build mobile apps fairly often, and a fair share of the time we suggest not building one. Not because the work is unwelcome, but because a well-built mobile website would do the same job for less money and considerably less ongoing cost.
Here is how we think about it.
The costs an app has that a website does not
A website is built once and it runs. An app has a longer tail:
- **Store review.** Every release is reviewed, which takes time and can be rejected.
- **Two platforms, or a compromise.** Android and iOS, or a cross-platform framework with its own trade-offs.
- **Forced maintenance.** Both stores periodically raise their minimum requirements. An app that is not updated eventually stops being distributed, regardless of whether anything is wrong with it.
- **Developer accounts.** Ongoing fees, in your company's name, that somebody has to keep renewing.
- **Installation friction.** Someone has to decide to install it, find it, and keep it. That is a much higher bar than tapping a link.
None of these is a reason not to build an app. They are reasons the app needs to be worth it.
When an app is genuinely the right answer
In our experience it comes down to four things. If two or more apply, an app is probably justified:
- **It is used repeatedly.** People open it weekly or daily, so the install cost is paid back. A fitness tracker qualifies; an annual insurance renewal does not.
- **It needs the device.** Camera, GPS in the background, Bluetooth, biometrics, reliable push notifications, or hardware a browser cannot reach.
- **It has to work offline.** Genuinely offline — on a shop floor, in a warehouse, in a vehicle — not just "on a slow connection".
- **It is the product.** If customers are paying for the software itself, it should feel like software.
When a mobile website is the better answer
- People visit occasionally, or once. Nobody installs an app to check your opening hours.
- You need to be findable. Websites appear in search results; apps mostly do not.
- The content changes often. Updating a web page takes minutes; shipping an app update takes days.
- The main job is to inform, or to sell a considered purchase.
- You are testing an idea and need to change direction quickly.
For most retail, services and B2B businesses, the honest answer is a fast, well-built mobile website — which is often also the thing the existing budget can actually pay for properly.
The middle option worth knowing about
A progressive web app sits between the two. It is a website, so it is findable and updates instantly, but it can be added to the home screen, work offline, and send push notifications on both major platforms.
It cannot do everything a native app can, and it is not distributed through the app stores. But for a business whose main need is "our customers want something quicker to reach than a bookmark", it is frequently enough — at a fraction of the ongoing cost.
A question that settles it quickly
Ask yourself: **would a customer install this, and would it still be on their phone in three months?**
If you cannot answer yes with some confidence, the app will be built, launched, downloaded a few hundred times, and quietly deleted — and the money would have done more work making the website faster and easier to buy from.
If you can answer yes, build the app properly, and budget for keeping it alive rather than just for building it.
What we would ask you
If you come to us with this question, we will ask how often someone would use it, what it needs from the phone that a browser cannot do, whether it has to work without a signal, and how you expect people to find out it exists.
Those four answers decide it, and they are usually clearer to the business owner than they expect.