When a business starts thinking about reaching customers on their phones, the first idea is often an app. What most businesses actually need is simpler: customers should see the business properly on their phone and do what they came for quickly, whether that is reading the menu, booking a room or sending an order. A good website does that. There are cases, though, where an app is the right choice. Below I explain the difference, what each one costs beyond the build, and how to decide.
Three options, not two
- Website. Opens in any browser, on a phone or a computer, with nothing to install. People find it on Google and share it with a link.
- Web app. Also a website, but one that does work rather than only presenting: bookings, customer accounts, order lists, tools for your staff. One form of it, the PWA (Progressive Web App), can be added to the phone's home screen and opens like an app.
- Mobile app. Downloaded from the App Store or Google Play, installed on the phone, with the most direct access to what the device can do.
So the question is not only "website or app". The right answer is often in between.
People have to download an app first
This is the most important point and the one most often forgotten. Anyone who taps a link can see a website. An app has to be searched for, downloaded, given space on the phone, and remembered next time.
A visitor looking for somewhere to eat tonight in Agios Nikolaos will not download an app for one dinner. They will open the map, tap your name and read the menu on your website. The same goes for someone who books a room once a year.
Apple also does not accept apps that are just a website in different packaging. Its review guidelines (section 4.2) ask that an app offer more than a "repackaged website" and not be mainly marketing material or a collection of links. An app that only shows photos, opening hours and a phone number risks rejection.
What an app costs beyond the build
Two platforms. In Greece in September 2026, about 72% of phones ran Android and 28% were iPhones (StatCounter); the split differs by country, but both sides are always large. An app for only one of them leaves out a large share of your customers, so in practice it is built for both. That means more work and more testing than a website that runs on every device.
Store accounts. Apple charges 99 US dollars a year for a developer account and Google charges 25 dollars once. The amounts are small, but the Apple account renews every year: if it lapses, the app is no longer available for new downloads.
Commission. On digital goods sold inside the app, such as subscriptions, Apple takes 15% from small developers earning up to 1 million dollars a year, and Google has a similar rate. For physical goods and services used outside the app, such as a room booking or a food order, Apple's guidelines (section 3.1.3(e)) require payment by card or Apple Pay, without that commission. For most local businesses, then, the commission is not the problem. Maintenance is.
Yearly updates. Apple and Google raise their requirements every year. Since 28 April 2026, every new version of an iPhone app must be built with the iOS 26 tools. On Google Play, from 31 August 2026 new apps and updates must target Android 16. An app nobody updates does not stop working overnight, but the first time you need a change, even a new contact number, it has to be brought up to the new requirements first. Every change also goes through store review before it reaches customers, while a change to a website is live at once.
So budget for maintenance every year, not only for the first build.
When an app is really worth it
An app makes sense when the same person uses it often, every week or every day, and when it needs something a website does poorly. Some examples:
- A gym or a dance school where members book a place in class every week.
- A café chain with a loyalty scheme customers use daily.
- Field teams, such as technicians, who need the day's job list without signal, photos from the site and the customer's signature.
- A product that lives on the phone: it connects to devices over Bluetooth, uses location in the background, or is itself the service you sell.
If the answer to "how often will the same customer open it?" is "once or twice a year", a website is almost always enough.
The middle option: a web app
Much of what businesses want from an app can be done with a web app: customer accounts, booking history, forms, staff tools, even notifications. Since iOS 16.4, a web app added to an iPhone's home screen can send notifications like any other app; on Android this has worked for years. In the European Union, Apple announced in 2024 that it would remove home screen web apps, then kept them after the backlash.
The advantages are practical: one code base for every device, no waiting for approval, changes that are live at once, and the same address people find on Google. There are two limits: it does not appear in the app stores, and for some device features, such as Bluetooth or background tasks, a native app is still more reliable.
For many businesses a sensible path is to start with a web app and build a store app later, if customers turn out to use it enough. If the system is designed well, most of the work (the data, the rules, the management side) stays the same.
Five questions before you decide
- How often will the same person use it?
- What exactly will it do that your website cannot?
- How will customers find out it exists, and why would they download it?
- Who will update it every year, and at what cost?
- Is it for your customers or your staff? An internal tool for your team is often more useful than a public app.
The takeaway
For most local businesses, the first thing to get right is a fast website that works well on a phone. An app is worth it when customers come back often and there is something specific only an app does well. In between, a web app covers many needs at a lower cost and with less upkeep.
I build websites, web apps and mobile apps. If you are not sure which one fits your business, write to me with what you want your customers to be able to do, and I will tell you which option you need.