Does your business need its own app?

The idea of having your own app often shows up the day a competitor launches one. An icon on the customer’s home screen looks like a direct line to them: open, order, come back. But an app has a cost that goes beyond the development budget. People have to find it in the store, install it and not delete it a week later. So before anyone writes an estimate, it’s worth asking whether your customers will have a reason to open it again.

When an app pays off

The first sign is that people come back regularly. Repeat orders, a monthly appointment, a subscription, loyalty points. Here a push notification does a better job than email. An email is easy to scroll past, while an appointment reminder on the lock screen gets seen.

The second sign is that your own staff work from their phones. A courier, a technician on a call-out or a sales rep doesn’t have a laptop handy. They need to scan a code, take a photo of the finished job and update an order, sometimes with no signal at all. An app handles this better than a website because it can use the camera, location and the phone’s storage.

The third sign is customers calling to ask about their order. If the app shows the stage, the date and who to contact, the calls drop off and customers worry less.

When a website or a mini app is enough

If people buy from you once a year, you almost certainly don’t need an app. They’ll install it for one order and delete it. You’re better off putting the money into a website that works well on a phone.

If your customers already live in Telegram, take a look at a mini app. It opens right inside the messenger, there’s nothing to install and no app store review to get through. Catalogues, bookings, a cart and payments all work much like they would in an app. A mini app starts at $1,600 and a mobile app at $4,500, which is a real difference for a first step.

Sometimes all people need is an account area where they can see documents, download an invoice or check a status. A web service that opens in the phone’s browser covers that.

One app for both platforms, or two

It used to be that iOS and Android each got their own app. These days one app built with React Native or Flutter covers most needs. There’s a single codebase running on both platforms, and it costs less. We build separate native apps when a project needs special device features or very high performance. That does happen, but not often.

Our starting price of $4,500 covers one platform, or one app for both, with up to ten screens.

What an app needs besides screens

Almost every app needs a server. It stores the data and handles sign-in and push notifications. If you already have a website or a CRM, the app connects to them so nothing has to be duplicated.

Then there’s publishing. It’s best to register the App Store and Google Play developer accounts to your company from the start. Store review takes time, so plan for it, and the store page needs a description and screenshots.

And there are updates. Apple and Google release new versions of their systems every year, and apps have to keep up. It’s a small job but a regular one, so put it in the budget early.

Where to start

Ask yourself three questions. How often will a customer open the app? What can they do in it that they can’t do on your website? Who will use it: customers, staff or both?

If the answers don’t add up yet, you can start with a mini app or a web service. We build the server side so an app can be connected to it later, and you won’t have to start over. We’ll work it out together on the first call, and if you don’t need an app yet, we’ll tell you.