Web app or mobile app: which does your business need?

A web app runs in the browser. People open an address, sign in and start working, on a laptop or a phone, with nothing to install. Customer portals, booking systems and internal case-handling tools are typical web apps.

A mobile app is downloaded from the App Store or Google Play and lives on the phone. It can use more of the device, such as the camera, notifications and widgets on the home and lock screen, and it can work offline.

The question "website or app" is often really about a website that explains what the company does. The choice between a web app and a native app comes up once customers or staff have to sign in and get something done.

An app earns its keep when people use it several times a week, often in short bursts away from a desk. The icon on the home screen and the notifications bring them back without anyone typing a URL.

QuitNic, our app for quitting smoking, vaping and snus, is built around this. It has a home and lock screen widget written in Swift, plus a breathing exercise and a small game meant to be one tap away when a craving hits. Neither would work as well behind a web address.

The stores are a channel of their own: people search them for solutions, and an app can be found by users who would never have seen your website. Read more about how we build apps for iOS and Android.

Tools that people use at a desk belong in the browser. Tables, filters and long forms are easier on a large screen, and staff install nothing.

A web app can be shared with a link. A customer who gets an email about their order taps it and is in. With an app they first download it, sign in and find the order again, and people drop off at each step.

Changes are faster on the web. We can ship a fix to a web app the same day a bug is reported, and every user gets it at once. An app update has to pass review first. Apple says it typically reviews at least half of submissions in under 24 hours and 90% in under 48 hours (Apple App Review), and after that users still have to update.

Apple also turns down apps that are a website in a wrapper. Guideline 4.2 asks for features, content and UI that lift an app beyond a repackaged website. If the app would only show what the website already shows, a well-made web app gives you more for the money.

A progressive web app, or PWA, is a web app that can be added to the home screen and opens in its own window without the browser's address bar. It can store data so parts of it work offline, and it can send notifications.

Since iOS 16.4, web apps added to the home screen can receive push notifications, as long as they ask for permission in response to something the user taps (WebKit). From iOS 26, every website added to the home screen from Safari opens as a web app by default (WebKit).

The catch on iPhone is that users have to add the web app to their home screen themselves, through the Share menu, before notifications work. The site can't show its own install button the way Chrome on Android allows (MDN). Widgets, App Clips and a listing in the App Store still need a native app. A PWA suits internal tools best, where you can show staff how to install it.

With us, the first version of a web app or a mobile app starts at NOK 150,000 excl. VAT and usually lands between NOK 150,000 and 500,000. The price is the same for both, since most of the work is deciding what the product should do, designing the screens and building the database.

The difference shows up after launch. An app lives in two stores with their own rules. Apple's developer programme costs USD 99 a year (Apple) and Google charges a one-off USD 25 (Google). Every update needs approval, and each year's iOS and Android releases can mean changes to the app. If the app sells subscriptions or digital content, Apple and Google take a share of each purchase. The rates depend on the market and programme, and Google changed its rates for the EEA, the UK and the US in June 2026 (Google Play). A web app has one version to maintain and can take card payments through Stripe.

Operations and further development start at NOK 5,000 a month for either, covering hosting, monitoring, updates and small fixes. For an app, more of that time goes on the stores and new OS releases. See our pricing page for the full breakdown.

The decision ties you down less than it used to. We build apps in React Native with Expo, so iOS and Android share most of the code, and web apps in Next.js. Both use React and TypeScript, so sign-in, the database and much of the logic can be shared. Expo can also build for the browser from the same code (Expo).

Expo also lets us ship fixes to the JavaScript code, text and images without another round of store review. Changes to native code still need a new release (Expo).

That is why it can pay to start with one of the two. If you're unsure how often people will use the product, a web app can find out for less money, and the app can follow once you know what it should do. If the phone is the whole point, we start with the app. We explain why we use React Native, and when Flutter is a good fit, in React Native or Flutter.

Unveil is a shared disposable camera for weddings and parties. Guests take photos through the evening, and few of them want to download an app for one party. They scan a QR code and open an App Clip, a small part of the app that runs without being installed. We wrote it in Swift to keep it under Apple's 15 MB limit. The film effect is applied on the phone, and uploads carry on in the background when the connection is poor.

Hosts use it differently. They create and pay for the event on the website with Stripe, and the photos appear on a big screen as they develop. We started Unveil in July 2026, and by September it had paying customers in 12 countries. Read the Unveil case study.