When a business owner tells me “we need an app,” they almost always mean one of two very different things, and the difference is worth thousands of euro. So before you spend anything, here’s the plain-English version.
What do people actually mean when they say “an app”?
A phone app (the kind you download)
This is what most people picture: you go to the App Store or Google Play, download it, and it lives on your phone as an icon. It can do powerful things, work offline, send push notifications, use the camera and GPS, sit on the home screen.
The trade-offs: it costs more to build, it has to be approved by Apple and Google (which takes time and ongoing fees), and customers have to be bothered to download it in the first place.
A web app (the kind you just open)
A web app does a lot of the same job, but it runs from a web link instead of being downloaded. You tap a link or a button and it opens, working like an app, straight in the browser.
No download. No app store approval. No two separate versions for iPhone and Android. And it updates instantly for everyone, there’s no “please update your app” nonsense. For a lot of businesses, this is the bit nobody told them existed.
How do you tell which one you need?
Ask yourself a few honest questions.
How often will people use it? Daily or weekly → a downloaded app might earn its home-screen spot. Occasionally → a web app is almost certainly the right call. Nobody downloads an app they’ll use twice a year.
Do you need phone-only features? Push notifications, offline use, deep camera or GPS work → that points toward a phone app. If you just need people to book, order, or see information → a web app does that comfortably.
Is it for customers or staff? A field team using a tool all day every day often benefits from a proper app. Customers who interact now and then are better served by a web app they don’t have to install.
What’s the budget? A web app gets you working and in people’s hands for far less. You can always build a full app later once it’s proven.
The pattern I recommend most
Start with a web app. It’s cheaper, faster to build, and reaches everyone immediately, no download barrier. See how people actually use it. If it takes off and you genuinely need the home-screen presence or phone-only features, then invest in the full app, with real usage data behind the decision instead of a guess.
This works for almost every kind of Irish business, a Dublin café testing online ordering, a Galway tour operator taking bookings, a Cork trades firm trialling a job-logging tool for the crew.
Either way, build it once
If you do go native, you shouldn’t pay for two apps. I build so a single app runs on both iPhone and Android, and web apps work on any phone with a browser. You’re never funding the same thing twice.
Getting started
Not sure which side of the line you’re on? That’s the most useful conversation to have before spending anything. Tell me your idea and I’ll give you a straight answer, app, web app, or just a better website, and roughly what each would cost. The bigger picture is in the app development guide.
Want a straight answer about your own app?
Get a straight answer
