App or website first? Which should a new business build?

Build the website first, almost always. Build the app first only when the app is the product, meaning the thing people pay for can't work without a phone in their hand. For everything else, a website gets you customers sooner and for less.

Why does the website usually come first?

Because nobody downloads an app from a company they've never heard of.

A website can be found on Google, opened from a link, and read in ten seconds with nothing to install. It's where a stranger decides whether you're worth their time. An app is for people who have already decided.

A website also costs less, launches faster, and can be changed in an afternoon without asking Apple.

When does the app come first?

When there is no product without it.

• It needs live location, like a ride or a delivery.
• It needs the camera or the microphone all the time.
• It has to work with no signal.
• It depends on notifications arriving at the right moment.
• People will use it most days.

A ride-hailing service is an app-first business. So is a tool people use on a building site. You still need a website, but it's a shop window for the app.

What is the middle option?

A web app. It's a website that behaves like an app: you log in, you do things, it works well on a phone, and you can put its icon on your home screen.

No store review, no download, one version for every device. For booking systems, portals, dashboards and most tools used by staff, it's the right first build.

We did it this way ourselves. Plan@Job went live on the web first, and it runs in the browser on any phone.

What do you lose by skipping the store?

Three things. Being found by people searching the App Store. The full set of phone features. And, for some customers, the feeling that a real app means a real company.

That last one counts in some markets and with some investors. If it matters for you, it's a reason to build the app. Just be honest that it's a marketing reason.

Can you do both at once?

You can, and it's usually where budgets go to die.

Two products means two builds, two sets of bugs and two things to update every time you change your mind. And at the start you will change your mind a lot.

Launch one. Learn what people do with it. Then build the second knowing what it's for.

How do you decide?

1. 01Can someone get the full value in a browser? If yes, website or web app first.
2. 02Does it need location, camera, offline or daily notifications? If yes, app first.
3. 03Are your customers strangers who have to find you? Website first, whatever else you build.
4. 04Will they use it weekly or more? If not, it shouldn't be an app at all.

What would I do?

If you're selling a service: a fast website that gets enquiries. Nothing else until that works.

If you're building a tool for businesses: a web app. Add the phone app when customers ask for it.

If you're building something that lives on the street, like transport or delivery: the app, with a one-page site to explain it.

We build all three, and I'd rather tell you to build less. Tell me what it has to do and I'll say which one I'd start with. Timings are in how long it takes to build an app, and the apps we've built are here.