A prospective client reaches out asking for a mobile app. They want it on iOS and Android. They have seen their competitor release one. They want a rough quote in the first call.
My first question back is always the same: why does this need to be an app? The answer sorts clients into two piles.
Pile one is the companies that want an app because it sounds modern. "Our customers want mobile." "Everyone has a phone." "The board asked about it." These are not reasons to build an app, they are reasons to have a good mobile website. A responsive website solves the "we have mobile users" problem. An app is a much bigger commitment with much higher maintenance costs. For most of these clients, we recommend not building an app, and almost all of them take the advice.
Pile two is the companies that actually have a use case that requires an app. They need push notifications for a real reason. They need to work offline. They need device-specific features like camera scanning, Bluetooth, GPS tracking, or payments. They have a use case that repeats often enough that the user would want the app on their home screen. Those companies should build an app, and we love building them.
The pile-two test is something like this. Would your users open the app at least once a week, without being prompted, for at least six months? If the answer is no, you do not need an app. You need a better web experience. Apps that do not hit that bar get downloaded once, opened twice, and then deleted. The download number looks good in a quarterly review. The retention number is abysmal, and the retention number is the one that matters.
The cost of building an app includes not just the build. It includes two app stores, two platforms, two review processes, two release cadences, ongoing platform migration as iOS and Android evolve, and the permanent risk of Apple or Google rejecting an update at the wrong moment. The total cost of ownership for an app is several times the total cost of a comparable website.
If you are thinking about building an app, the first exercise is to write down what it would do that your website cannot. If the answer is "nothing in particular, it just feels more professional," save your money.