Mobile App: Only If You Need One
Do your customers open it weekly, or twice a year? An app is two stores, two review processes, and a user who has to be persuaded to install it. Sometimes it is clearly right. Often a fast mobile site is better, and we will say so.
Build the app
Customers use it repeatedly — weekly or more, not once a year.
You need the camera, GPS, offline access or push notifications.
The app itself is the product, not a shopfront for it.
Your competitors’ apps are how customers already expect to transact.
Build a mobile site instead
The main job is browsing and buying — a fast mobile site does that better.
Usage would be occasional. Nobody keeps an app they open twice a year.
You have no budget line for ongoing maintenance. An unmaintained app breaks with every OS release.
You want it because a competitor has one. That is not a reason.
What a build includes
iOS and Android
One codebase where that serves you, native where performance genuinely demands it.
Store submission
We handle the listing, review process and the rejections that come with it.
Backend and API
The server side the app talks to, built to be shared with your website rather than duplicated.
Update path
A maintenance plan, because an app is a commitment rather than a delivery.
Beyond the App
This works harder alongside
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