Do you actually need an app, or would a website do?

We have talked more clients out of apps than into them. Not because apps are bad, but because the reason people want one is usually a reason that a good mobile website satisfies more cheaply and with far less ongoing cost.

Here is the test we actually use.

This is the whole question, really. An app has to earn its place on a home screen, and the rent is paid in frequency. Something people use weekly can justify it. Something people use once or twice a year cannot — that is a website, and pretending otherwise means paying to build something that gets deleted during the next storage cleanup.

Be honest about this. Not how often you would like them to use it. How often they actually would.

If one of these is true, an app starts making sense:

• You need to reach people directly and repeatedly without paying per message. Notifications are free; advertising to the same people is not.
• It has to work without a signal. Field work, warehouses, basements, aeroplanes — if the job continues when the connection stops, a website will not do.
• You need something only the phone has. Camera, location, sensors, offline storage of any size. Websites can do a surprising amount of this now, but not all of it, and not reliably on every device.

• A competitor has one. Their app may well be failing quietly — you cannot see their download numbers or how many people still have it installed.
• It would look more professional. To most customers, a slow app is far less professional than a fast website.
• You want to be on the app stores. Nobody browses app stores for businesses like yours. Almost every install comes from people who already know you, which means your existing channels are doing the work, not the store.

The build is the smaller half. Both app stores charge annual developer fees, both release operating system updates that occasionally break things, and both require you to resubmit and wait for review every time you change something.

A website you neglect for a year is a website that looks dated. An app you neglect for a year can stop working entirely. If nobody on your side is going to own it after launch, that is a reason on its own not to build one.

A modern mobile website can be added to a home screen, work offline for many purposes, and send notifications on most devices. It costs a fraction of an app, needs no store approval, and updates the moment you publish.

For a large number of businesses that is the honest answer. It is less exciting than commissioning an app, which is probably why it gets suggested less often than it should.