There is a blind obsession with getting into the App Store. Many executives see their competitors launch an app, or read somewhere that “mobile is the future,” and automatically assume they need a native app for their business to be taken seriously.
The reality is that in 80% of cases, all you need is a fast, robust website that works perfectly on mobile. And, above all, to save the average €20K it will cost to build and maintain that native app.
Having your own icon in the app stores sounds like big Silicon Valley business. But for the vast majority of SMBs, it is a massive money and technical resource pit.
Native apps have their place. If your product needs to use the bare metal hardware of the phone (heavy Bluetooth, augmented reality, live video processing), don’t even think about it. Go native. But if what you have on your hands is a catalog, a booking system, an e-commerce store, or a job board, a well-built website (a PWA) gets 100% of the job done for a fraction of what a native app would cost.
It is very easy to blow €40,000 building two different apps (iOS and Android) when you could spin up an identical web system for €8,000. And here is the big detail no one warns you about: apps do not exist until someone makes the tremendous effort to search for them, download them, and install them. A website, on the other hand, is found simply by Googling.
The update hostage situation
The initial development bill is just the beginning. Keeping an app alive means paying for two codebases. It means that every October, when Apple and Google roll out their annual updates, your app might crash, and you are stuck paying emergency rates to an agency to get it back online.
And there is something worse. If you detect a critical bug in the checkout process, you cannot fix it in five minutes like you can on a website. You have to submit the patch to the stores, pray, and wait a couple of days for a reviewer to approve it so your customers can actually buy from you again.
I am not anti-app, quite the opposite. If your model relies on sending a hundred push notifications to an addicted user who lives inside your tool, build it.
But if you are looking to validate your product, test the market, or provide a hassle-free service, the smart play is different. Demand that your team or your CTO build you a solid web platform first. If in a year the data shows you need native features, then build the app on a sure footing.
Think of it this way: An app that nobody installs costs you a thousand times more than a website with zero traffic. You can always resuscitate a website by grinding out SEO and content. An app lost in the store, however, is just a receipt for money wasted.