We build both. Our own products include iPhone apps with lock-screen Live Activities and a live event platform that runs nights in South Carolina bars. So take it seriously when we say: most businesses don't need an app.
A new customer will not download an app to find out if you're open, see a menu or book a first appointment. They'll search, tap a result and decide in seconds. That's a website's job, and a website does it better.
When a website is the right answer
- Customers find you through Google or Maps.
- Most visits are one-off: checking hours, a menu, prices, or booking once.
- You need to be found by people who don't know you yet.
- You want booking, payments or a customer portal. All of those work in a website, on any phone, with nothing to install.
Our live event platform, VYVE, is a good example. Guests join a venue's night from a QR code on the TV, straight in the browser, with no app to download. Asking a crowd in a bar to install an app first would lose most of them.
When an app is worth it
- People use it often. Daily or weekly use is what justifies a spot on someone's home screen.
- It needs the phone itself. Lock-screen updates, the Dynamic Island, reliable push notifications, the camera, Bluetooth or offline use.
- It's the product. If the app is what you sell, or the main way customers work with you, it should be an app.
- Your staff need it on the job. Crews, drivers or techs using it all day often get a better tool as an app.
Cue, the platform we build for wedding DJs, runs the night's timeline on the DJ's lock screen and Apple Watch. That's something only an app can do, so it's an app. Its web dashboard handles everything else.
What an app really costs
- The build. Usually more than a website, because there are often two platforms (iPhone and Android) plus the system behind them.
- Store review. Apple and Google review every release, which adds time to every change.
- Developer accounts with Apple and Google, renewed yearly.
- Upkeep. Every new phone operating system can need updates, whether or not you change anything.
- Getting installs. An app nobody downloads is the most expensive website you'll ever have.
The middle ground
There's a lot of room between a brochure site and an app. A website can hold customer accounts, booking, payments, order tracking and a portal, and a well-built one can be added to a phone's home screen. Many businesses that think they need an app actually need a customer portal or online booking.
If you do need an app later, build the website and its back end properly now. The same system can power both, so you're not starting over.
Written by Nikita Huttenlocher, founder and lead engineer at Huttenlocher Technologies, a web design and software company in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.