Most business apps do not need the app stores. An installable web app works on iPhone, Android and desktop from a single build, sits on the home screen with its own icon, and can be updated instantly. A native app, built separately for Apple and Android and published in their stores, is only needed for a few things, such as tracking location in the background or being discovered in the app stores.
| Installable web app | Native app | |
|---|---|---|
| Works on | iPhone, Android and desktop from one build | Built separately for each platform |
| How people get it | A link, then "add to home screen" | Download from the App Store or Google Play |
| Updates | Instant, for everyone | Each update is submitted for store review |
| Cost to build | Lower: one build | Higher: two builds, plus store accounts |
| Background location | Not reliably | Yes |
| Found in app stores | No | Yes |
| Best for | Staff tools, client portals, booking and internal systems | Consumer apps and anything needing deep phone features |
It is a web application that behaves like an app. People open a link, add it to their home screen, and from then on it opens full screen with its own icon. It can send notifications, use the camera and work with a weak signal. The technical name is a progressive web app, or PWA.
For almost anything used by your own staff or customers: job sheets, checks and inspections, rotas, client portals, booking and ordering. These are tools people are told about, so they do not need to be found in a store, and one build keeps the cost down.
It is how we built DrillPro, which took a drilling company's logs and daily checks fully paperless on phones and tablets on site.
Yes. A common route is to launch as a web app, prove it works, and add native apps later if one of those needs appears. Most of the system behind it, the data and the logic, carries straight over.
Yes. They can be added to the home screen on iPhone and Android and open like any other app.
Yes, once it has been added to the home screen and the user has allowed them.
It can be built to keep working with a weak or no signal and to send its data when the connection returns.
Usually, because it is one build and not two, with no store accounts or review process.
We build installable web apps. They are quoted after a free scoping call, with a fixed price in writing.
Tell us what you need and we will tell you honestly what it would take and what it would cost. Free, with no obligation.