Should you build an app or a website first?

I've built both kinds of things at Cyber Goose: web apps that open from a link, like Group Sing Along, and iPhone apps on the App Store, like Gin Score Tracker, Hearts Score Tracker and Desk Yoga. So this is how I'd make the call for a small business, and what each choice adds to your to-do list once you've made it.

Think of it like a shop window and a loyalty card

A website is a shop window on a busy street. Anyone walking past can look in, and nobody has to decide anything first. An app is more like a loyalty card: it's really useful once it's in someone's wallet, and it gets you a spot on their home screen, but they have to want it enough to go and get it. Most small businesses need people looking in the window before anyone will ask for the card.

When the website should come first

• New customers find you through search. A website can rank in Google for the questions your customers type, with a page for each one. An app gets one listing in the App Store.
• The people using it are guests. Group Sing Along works this way: the host creates a session and shares a code, and everyone else joins from their own phone with no sign-up. Asking a room full of guests to download an app before the first song would stop the night before it starts.
• You're going to change it a lot. A website changes the moment you publish. Every app update goes back through Apple's review first. Apple reviews all apps and app updates, and says it typically gets through at least half of submissions in under 24 hours and 90% in under 48.
• You're still testing the idea. On a website you can change the offer, the wording or the price this afternoon and see what happens, which is the easiest way to learn what people really want before you build more.

When the app should come first

• One person will open it over and over. Gin Score Tracker logs scores round by round with running totals, so you open it after every single hand. Something you reach for that many times in one evening belongs on the home screen.
• It has to work with no signal. Both score trackers work entirely offline, and their project pages say it plainly: "No signal? No problem." A card game shouldn't stop when the Wi-Fi does, and that's much easier to promise in a native app.
• It depends on the phone itself. If the product needs the camera, motion sensors or notifications to do its job, that's a strong reason to go native from the start.

What an App Store app adds to your to-do list

Going native comes with a few things a website never asks for:

That fourth row matters more than it looks. Even an app-first business needs a website, because App Store Connect requires a support URL that leads to real contact information, and Apple's guidelines say every app must link to its privacy policy in its App Store Connect metadata and inside the app.

Do you need both from day one?

Usually not. Carpoolio, a carpool planner for groups of people who already know each other, had a web app and a mobile app, built with React on the web and React Native on mobile. That's two front ends to design, test and keep in step every time something changes, and one of the lessons I wrote up afterwards was how much testing across different browsers, and later devices, it really takes. It's worth it once people rely on the product, and a lot of extra work before they do.

There's also a middle option. A web app that's built for phones gets a lot of products most of the way there, and some can be saved to the home screen like an app. Group Sing Along runs in the browser and has a short guide to adding it to your home screen.

A quick way to decide

1. How will new customers find you? If the answer is Google, start with the website.
2. How often will one person use it? A few times a year is a website. Several times a week starts to earn a spot on the home screen.
3. Does it have to work with no signal? If yes, plan on an app.
4. Does it need the camera, sensors or notifications? If yes, plan on an app.
5. Are you still testing the idea? Start on the web, where changes go live right away, and build the app once people are asking for it.

If most of your answers pointed at the website, the app can wait until your customers ask for it.

What about cost?

I'm leaving price ranges out on purpose. The ranges I found in the top results for this question are the agencies' own estimates, and the real number depends on what the thing has to do. What I'd ask any studio for (us included) is a written scope before they quote. That's how every Cyber Goose project starts: a scoped brief before a single line of code is written, and a plan you approve before we build anything.

Questions people ask

Can a website work like an app?

A web app can. It runs in the browser, people join with a link or a code, and a well-built one feels at home on a phone. Group Sing Along is one: a host starts a session, shares the code, and everyone's phone follows the song the host picks.

How long does Apple take to review an app?

Apple says App Review typically handles at least 50% of submissions in under 24 hours and 90% in under 48 hours, and that an incomplete submission can take longer or fail. That applies to every update too, not just the first launch.

Is it a mistake to start with a website if I know I'll want an app later?

No. Your App Store listing will need a support page and a privacy policy anyway, and everything the website teaches you (what people ask for, what they ignore) goes straight into the app when you build it.

If you're trying to work out which one your business needs, send a note to hello@cybergoose.org with what it has to do and who it's for, and we'll start with that scoped brief. You can see more of what we've built on the Cyber Goose homepage.