01 / The test
Three questions. Two noes and you do not need an app.
- Will people use it more than once a week? An icon on a home screen is for things that are part of a routine.
- Does it need something only a phone has? Camera, location in the background, offline use, push notifications, biometrics.
- Is there a login? Apps suit relationships that continue. Anonymous browsing suits the web.
Most businesses asking for an app answer no twice. What they want is for their mobile site to feel as good as an app, which is a smaller and much cheaper project.
02 / What an app really costs
The build is the cheap part
Two platforms, two sets of store rules, two review processes. Then, forever: OS updates every year that can break things, store policy changes, and users on versions from eighteen months ago that you still have to support.
And the hardest part is not technical. It is that you have to persuade someone to install it. A website is one tap from a search result; an app is a decision, a download and a permission prompt. Unless the routine is already there, most people never take the first step.
03 / When a better mobile site wins
Almost every case where discovery matters
If new customers find you by searching, the web wins outright. Nobody installs an app to decide whether to try you. Restaurants, clinics, trades, shops, professional services: the mobile site is the product for everyone who does not know you yet.
A good mobile site can also be installed to a home screen, work offline and send notifications. Not identical to a native app, but far closer than most people realise, and without a store between you and your customer.
04 / When the app is right
Four patterns that genuinely need one
Daily tools. Something used in the flow of work: logging, scanning, dispatch, tracking.
Offline or bad signal. Warehouses, sites, vehicles, rural work.
Notifications that matter. Not marketing, alerts people would be annoyed to miss.
Hardware. Bluetooth, sustained GPS, continuous camera use.
05 / The sequence we recommend
Mobile site first, app when it is earned
Make the mobile site genuinely good. Watch what people do on it. If a group comes back weekly and hits the same three screens, you now know exactly what the app should contain, and you have evidence it will be used.
The alternative is guessing the whole product before anyone has used any of it, which is how most unused apps get made.
06 / Honestly
We have talked people out of apps
More than once, and we would do it again. The site was the bottleneck, the app would not have fixed it, and it would have cost more to maintain than the problem cost to endure.
Tell us what you want the app to do and you will get a straight answer about whether it needs to be one.