The question is answered per user profile, not for the whole system. An app makes sense for people who work away from a desk and need what only an app does well: keep working with no signal, talk to a device over Bluetooth, use location with the screen off. Whoever manages the system, uses it now and then or arrives through a link stays on the web. In our projects that have an app, the web system keeps doing everything and the app handles only the field work: at Beckers, the technician fills in the report in an Android app and the office reads everything in the web system.
How to decide whether the system needs an app#
The decision is made per user profile, not for the whole system. A profile needs an app when it uses the system away from a desk, many times a day, and depends on something only an app does well, such as working with no signal or talking to a device over Bluetooth. The other profiles stay on the web.
Almost every system has more than one type of user. There is whoever manages it, whoever operates it day to day and, often, the end customer. When we design a custom system, the question "does it need an app?" is asked for each of them, and it splits into three: where the person is when using the system, how often they use it and what they need from the device at that moment.
In our projects that have an app, usually only one profile goes to the app: the people who work on the road, at the workbench or in the field. Everyone else stays on the web system.
| Profile | Where they are when using it | Frequency | What they need from the device | Where it lives | Project |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Service technician | at the workbench, with the equipment open | several times a day | camera and a guided form | app | Beckers |
| Field sales rep | at the customer's door, often with no signal | all day | working with no signal, location and voice | app | Reticar |
| Machine operator | at crushing and concrete plants, with unstable signal | every shift | working with no signal, QR reading and Bluetooth | app | GT |
| Patient | at home, in daily life | one short entry a day | a reminder at the right time | app | Casa Follow Up |
| Sales consultant | at the front desk, between customers | several times a day | reading a single number | web system on the phone | Fitness Academia |
| Professional, manager and administrator | at a desk, on a computer | every day | large screen, reports and settings | web system | Casa Follow Up and Beckers |
| Someone answering a survey | arrives through a link | once | nothing | web system, no login | Sistema Cuidar |
Frequency alone does not decide. The sales consultant at Fitness Academia opens the system several times a day and still uses the web, because all she needs in that minute is to see how much her gym has sold and how much is left to hit the target.
What only an app does well#
An app does four things the web does poorly or not at all: work for days with no signal, talk to a device over Bluetooth, use location with the screen off, and send notifications on the iPhone without the user having saved the site to the home screen. Camera and location with the page open, the web also does.
Working with no signal. The Reticar sales rep checks in at the customer's door, and that is exactly where the signal tends to drop. In the app, the check-in records the location, becomes a work order and goes up to the server when the connection comes back. Doing this properly changes the database and the server, not just the screen, as we show in what changes in a system when the app has to work with no signal.
Talking to a device. At GT, a device installed on each machine measures operating hours and delivers that number over Bluetooth. The operator app reads the hour meter when the operator is next to the machine, even with no signal, and records where the phone was at the time of the reading. On the iPhone, this is only possible with an app: according to the MDN compatibility table, Safari does not offer Bluetooth to web pages, and WebKit, Safari's engine, opposes the Web Bluetooth proposal.
Location and alerts off screen. The W3C geolocation specification only delivers the position to a page that is visible. And on the iPhone, notifications from a web system have only existed since iOS 16.4, and only when the user adds the site to the home screen, as WebKit itself announced in February 2023. Which alert goes by push and which goes by email to people who did not allow notifications is decided in the notification map, before the code.
| Capability | Web system on Android | Web system on iPhone | App |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camera and photos | yes | yes | yes |
| Location with the page open | yes | yes | yes |
| Location with the screen off or in another app | no | no | yes, with permission |
| Working for days with no signal and sending later | with limits | with limits: no background sending, and Safari may delete the data of a site that goes unused | yes |
| Notifications | yes | only with the site saved to the home screen | yes |
| Bluetooth and NFC with equipment | yes, in Chrome | no | yes |
If no profile in the system needs the last four rows, the app delivers nothing that a good web system does not.
When a web system is enough, even with everyone on their phones#
A web system is enough when people use the phone to look something up, fill in a form or reply once. According to TIC Domicílios 2025, a Brazilian household survey, 65% of Brazilians online use only their phone. The web system must work on a small screen, and an app is needed only when the web cannot meet a need.
Fitness Academia is a chain of five gyms, and the sales consultant at each location uses the system almost only on her personal phone, at the front desk, between one customer and the next. The decision was a web system designed for the phone first and tested before anything else on an iPhone SE screen. She logs in, sees how much her location has done this month and how much is left to hit the target, and goes back to her customers. Nothing in that task calls for an app.
At Helpe, the audience runs its life from the phone and often does not even use email. The answer was to treat the phone number as identity, with SMS login, inside a web system. At Sistema Cuidar, whoever answers the survey arrives through a link, answers without logging in and leaves. Nobody downloads an app to answer a questionnaire once.
That is why, in our project scopes, a native app usually appears on the list of what stays out of the project, and it only leaves that list when a user profile asks for it.
Why the web keeps doing everything when the app comes in#
The web keeps doing everything because the app exists for a field task, and business rules need to live in one place. In our projects with an app, the web has every function and the app has the field ones. Whatever deletes, imports or decides stays on the web, with a large screen and someone accountable for the data.
At Beckers, the technician fills in the report on the phone, with the fan open in front of him, in an Android app. The office reads the service activity in the web system. At DNA Genética, the technician collects animal data on the farm, with no signal. Importing the genotype, registering a bull and deleting a farm, herd or cow can only be done on the web, and the scope gives the reason: guaranteeing the integrity of the data.
In a commercial platform for agribusiness that we are building, the decision came the other way around. The scope said, in writing, that there would be no app: the field screen would be the web system opened in the phone's browser. In the first round of feedback, the client put as item number one that having an app was essential. Before estimating, we asked three questions.
- Native app, or a web system installable on the home screen?
- No signal only for looking things up, or also for recording?
- Is the app only for the field sales rep, or does the whole dashboard go to the phone?
The answer was a native app only for the rep who visits rural properties, with a territory map, visit records, document photos and audio recording with no signal. Administration, listings and analysis stayed on the web. And the web no longer needed to work on the phone: with the field in the app, the dashboards became desk tools, and the small-screen layouts left the scope. The app also became the last stage of the schedule, built on rules the web had already validated.
What an app adds beyond the code#
An app adds a second codebase, an account in each store and a review for every version. Apple charges $99 a year and reviews, on average, 90% of submissions in less than 24 hours. Google charges a one-time $25. And while one version is under review, the next one waits in line.
The part that most surprises people who have never published an app is the review queue. At GT, no update goes out while the submitted version has not been approved, so an urgent fix depends on how the review is going. For an app that only opens with a login, Apple asks for a demo account with the server running (guideline 2.1). On Google Play, a personal account created after November 2023 needs a closed test with at least 12 testers for 14 days before publishing.
Payment also moves. To unlock digital content or features inside the app, Apple requires the purchase to go through the store (guideline 3.1.1), with exceptions such as physical services and a free app that accompanies a paid web tool. In Casa Follow Up, the one who pays is the health professional, on the web, and the patient app stays out of any payment flow. What pays the store a commission and what does not is covered in when your app pays a commission to Apple and Google.
The account the app is published under defines who owns the product, and the path is in whose App Store account it should be.
Does a PWA solve it?#
A PWA (progressive web app) is a web system that installs on the home screen and gets an icon. We use that shortcut in web systems opened often on phones, because the setup is simple. As a replacement for an app, we do not recommend it: on the iPhone it hits the web's limits and stays outside the store.
On the iPhone, notifications from a PWA only work after the user adds the site to the home screen, a manual step many people do not know how to take. Since iOS 26, any site added to the home screen opens as a web app, which improves the shortcut, but it brings no Bluetooth, no NFC and no background sending. And Apple itself, in 2024, when it announced it would remove these web apps from the iPhone in the European Union, cited their very low adoption among the reasons. It reversed course weeks later.
Whenever a PWA came up as an alternative in our projects, including when the client asked for it, the final decision was a responsive web system or a native app. A PWA tries to occupy both places and, on the iPhone, ends up with the limits of the web and without the trust of being in the store.
When an app is not worth it#
An app is not worth it when it would be the same website inside a frame, when users come in only now and then, when the reason is that a competitor has one, or when the idea is a separate app for each client. In those four cases the store and maintenance cost arrives without a gain for the user.
The website inside a frame. App Store guideline 4.2 asks that an app go beyond a repackaged website, and Google Play also rejects apps without the basic usefulness expected of an app. Wrapping the web system in an app just to be in the store usually ends in rejection.
The user who comes in now and then. Someone who uses the system once a month does not keep an app installed. According to the AppsFlyer uninstall report, 46.1% of Android apps installed in 2024 were uninstalled within 30 days. For that user, a link that opens straight in the browser works better.
The app because the competitor has one. If the competitor's customers use the app for something your customers do once a year, copying the decision means copying the cost.
One app per client. On the platform for sports coaching businesses that we built with Team Garin, each partner coaching business had its own app, with its own publishing and review, and every new one repeated the whole process. The new scope has a single app, and each business's brand shows up inside it. The App Store also treats multiple near-identical apps as spam (guideline 4.3).
Frequently asked questions#
How much more does an app cost on top of the web system?#
The app is a new codebase, with its own screens, navigation and tests, even when it uses the same server and the same rules as the web system. That is why it comes in as a separate environment in the budget and in the schedule. On top of development there are the store accounts ($99 a year at Apple and a one-time $25 at Google) and the time each review takes. What lowers that cost the most is limiting the app to the profile that really needs it.
Can I start with the web and build the app later?#
Yes, and it is usually the best path. In our projects with an app, the app is the last stage of the schedule: first the web validates the rules with the people who use them, then the app is built on top of a server that already works. The condition is that the web system was built with the server separate from the screens, so the app reuses the same rules instead of duplicating them.
Do I need an app to send notifications?#
On Android, no: a web system can send notifications through the browser. On the iPhone, notifications from a web system only work since iOS 16.4, and only when the user adds the site to the home screen. If the alert is essential to the product and a good part of the audience uses an iPhone, the app is the safer path. If it is a reminder that can arrive by email or message, the web handles it.
Does the app have to be on the App Store and Google Play?#
For the general public, yes, because the store is where people look for an app and where they trust it. Even a company internal app is usually published in the store with restricted access: at Beckers, the app is on Google Play as a corporate app, with no public sign-up, and only people the company grants access can log in. Being in the store also brings the review of every version and the store payment rules.
Does each type of user need its own app?#
In most systems, no, because usually only one profile needs an app and the others stay on the web. In Casa Follow Up, the patient uses the app, while the professional and the administration use the web platform. When two profiles outside the company need an app, like the customer and the service provider, it is worth splitting into two, because each has its own journey and its own store listing.
Sources#
- Apple, App Store Review Guidelines, revision of June 8, 2026 (guidelines 2.1, 3.1.1, 3.1.3, 4.2 and 4.3): https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/
- Apple, App Review: https://developer.apple.com/distribute/app-review/
- Apple Developer Program: https://developer.apple.com/programs/enroll/
- Google Play, registration fee: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6112435
- Google Play, testing requirements for new personal accounts: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/14151465
- Google Play, functionality and user experience policy: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9898783
- WebKit, "Web Push for Web Apps on iOS and iPadOS", February 16, 2023: https://webkit.org/blog/13878/web-push-for-web-apps-on-ios-and-ipados/
- WebKit, what is new in Safari 26, June 9, 2025: https://webkit.org/blog/16993/news-from-wwdc25-web-technology-coming-this-fall-in-safari-26-beta/
- Apple, "DMA and apps in the EU", version archived on March 15, 2024: https://web.archive.org/web/20240315042633/https://developer.apple.com/support/dma-and-apps-in-the-eu
- W3C, Geolocation API: https://www.w3.org/TR/geolocation/
- MDN, Web Bluetooth API: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Bluetooth_API
- Cetic.br, TIC Domicílios 2025: https://cetic.br/pt/tics/domicilios/2025/individuos/C16A/
- AppsFlyer, App Uninstall Report, 2025 edition: https://www.appsflyer.com/resources/reports/app-uninstall-benchmarks-report/
Next step#
If your system has people on the road and people in the office, it is the kind of project we do in custom systems: the app for whoever is in the field, like the Reticar sales rep, and the web system for whoever manages and decides.