Website or web app? How to know what your business needs

"Website" and "web app" get used interchangeably, but they're different things with very different costs. Choosing the wrong one means either overpaying for machinery you don't need, or hitting a wall the moment you try to grow. Here's how to tell them apart.

A website presents; a web app does

A website's job is to inform and persuade — who you are, what you offer, why to choose you, how to get in touch. Most businesses need exactly this, and a well-built one does an enormous amount of work for them.

A web app's job is to let people do something: log in, manage an account, book and pay, run a dashboard, submit and track requests. It's software with a front door, not a set of pages.

Signs you need a website

• You want to be found, look credible, and generate enquiries or sales.
• Customers mostly need information, then contact you or buy.
• Your "logic" is a shop or an enquiry form, not accounts and workflows.

Signs you need a web app (or platform)

• Customers or staff log in and do ongoing work — accounts, bookings, dashboards.
• You have data, workflows or automation that a set of pages can't handle.
• You're building a product, not just a presence — a portal, a tool, a system.

The middle ground most businesses actually want

In practice, most businesses need an excellent website with one or two app-like features — an online store, a booking flow, a client portal — rather than a full custom platform. The right build starts with the website that wins customers and adds only the machinery you genuinely need. That's why we scope it around your real requirement instead of selling everyone the biggest option.

If you're not sure which you need, that's normal — and it's exactly the conversation to have before anyone starts building.