Website or Web App? What You're Actually Asking For

A lot of first conversations with new clients start with 'I need a website.' Then they describe logins, daily records, and reports — and what they actually need is a web app.

A website answers questions

A website tells people who you are, what you offer, and how to reach you. The content is largely the same for every visitor, and it changes rarely — maybe a new service or a new photo now and then.

A web app does work

A web app tracks things and changes based on who's using it. An attendance system marks a child present or absent and totals it into a report. An ordering system tracks stock and payment status as orders come in. No two visitors see quite the same thing.

Real examples from projects we’ve built

We built an attendance system for a creche that replaced a paper register — staff check children in and out, and the reports that used to take an evening to compile now exist automatically. We've also built ordering systems for restaurants that track stock levels alongside incoming orders in real time. You can see some of this in our recent work.

Why the distinction matters for your budget

A website is close to a fixed cost. A web app's cost scales with the complexity of the rules it has to enforce — user roles, data storage, what happens in edge cases. Knowing which one you're actually asking for, before you request quotes, saves you from comparing numbers that were never comparable in the first place.

Once you know which one you need, tell us what you want to build, or see what a website costs.