App, PWA or Mobile Website?

The short answer

When an app is the right answer, our cross-platform MVP app service builds one codebase for iOS and Android; this guide is about deciding whether you are there.

How often will users return?

An app has to be installed, and installation is a commitment people make for things they use often. A gym member checks the schedule several times a week; a person booking a plumber does so twice a year. The first will install an app, the second will not, however good it is, and will resent being told to. Estimate honestly how many times a month your typical customer interacts with you. Below a few times a month, the web wins because it needs no install and is found by search. Above weekly, an icon on the home screen changes behaviour, and an app or a PWA starts to pay.

Device features: camera, push, offline

The browser has caught up on most features people assume need an app. A mobile website can use the camera for photos and QR scanning, read location while open, store data for offline reading, and, as a PWA, send push notifications on Android and on iPhone once the user has added it to the home screen. What still needs a real app: reliable background work such as continuous location tracking for drivers, push notifications with full control and rich actions on iPhone, hardware integrations like Bluetooth and NFC, and smooth switching to and from the BankID app during login, which works in a browser but is noticeably better natively.

• Need photos, QR codes or basic location: web is enough.
• Need push notifications as the core of the product: PWA is acceptable on Android, an app is safer on iPhone.
• Need background location, Bluetooth, NFC or heavy offline sync: app.
• Need BankID login: all three work; an app gives the smoothest hand-off.

Store presence and discovery

Being in the App Store and Google Play is a distribution channel and a trust signal, and for some businesses it matters: a consumer product people search for by name, a membership app the front desk tells people to download, or a customer who expects the app icon as part of the service. For most small companies it does not: nobody searches an app store for a local accountant. Store presence also carries costs, which we cover in our guide to getting through app store review: developer accounts, review delays, annual updates when the operating systems change, and a public rating you have to look after.

Cost to build and maintain

Build cost differences are smaller than they used to be, because a cross-platform app shares most code between iOS and Android and a PWA is largely the website with extra work. The real difference is maintenance. A website changes when you change it. An app also changes when Apple and Google change: a new operating system each autumn, new store rules, new device sizes, expiring certificates. An app that nobody updates stops working within a year or two, while an unattended website merely gets old.

We publish fixed prices for app prototypes, builds and maintenance on the pricing page rather than quoting here, because the right number depends on which of the three you actually need.

Starting web and adding an app

The order that avoids regret: build a fast mobile website first, because you need it anyway. Measure how many users return and how often. Turn it into a PWA if weekly use appears and an icon would help. Build an app only when the measurements show daily use, a feature the browser cannot deliver, or customers asking for it in the store. Design the website's backend as an API from the start so that an app later reuses it rather than duplicating it.

When you should not buy an app from us: if your customers interact with you a few times a year, if the app would only wrap your website, or if nobody in your company will own store updates, a good mobile website is the better purchase and we will say so. If your use case is genuinely daily, book a call and describe who would use it and how often; that conversation settles the question faster than a proposal.

Frequently asked questions