Quick summary
Web app vs mobile app: a web app runs in the browser on any device from one link, with no app store in the way; a mobile app is installed from the App Store or Google Play and can use more of the phone. For most SaaS products, a web app that works well on phones is the right first build.
What a mobile app adds: often a second codebase, app store review on every release, developer fees ($99 a year for Apple, $25 once for Google) and a 15% to 30% commission on digital sales made inside the app.
When to build mobile first: when the product depends on the phone itself: offline use, the camera, location, Bluetooth or work in the background. A progressive web app (PWA) is the middle step.
Web App vs Mobile App at a Glance
| Web app | Progressive web app (PWA) | Native or cross-platform mobile app | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How people get it | Open a link | Open a link, then add to the home screen | Download from the App Store or Google Play |
| Devices | Phones, tablets and computers | Phones, tablets and computers | iPhone and Android (a web app is still needed for desktop) |
| Releasing an update | Live as soon as you deploy | Live as soon as you deploy | Goes through store review each time |
| Access to the phone | Limited | More: offline caching, home screen icon, push notifications | Full: camera, location, Bluetooth, background tasks |
| Store fees | None | None | $99 a year (Apple), $25 once (Google) |
| Commission on digital sales | None, you bill on your site | None, you bill on your site | 15% to 30% on in-app purchases |
| Found through | Search, links, your marketing | Search, links, your marketing | App store search as well |
| Best for | Most SaaS and business tools | Tools customers open on their phone every day | Products built around the phone's hardware or offline use |
Before you choose, answer these three questions:
- Question 1, "Where are my customers when they use this?" At a desk, a web app. Out on the road, in a warehouse or with patchy signal, a mobile app may earn its cost.
- Question 2, "Does it need anything only a phone can do?" The camera, location, Bluetooth, offline work or long tasks in the background point to native.
- Question 3, "How fast do I need to change it?" A web app can be fixed several times a day. A store app waits for review on every release.
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This guide is for founders and small teams deciding what to build first, or whether a SaaS product that already runs in the browser needs a mobile app. It is written for the person paying for the work, in plain English. One disclosure up front: StackTie builds web apps and does not build native iOS or Android apps, so weigh our recommendation with that in mind. The facts below come from Apple, Google, Statcounter and the web standards documentation, and are linked at the end.
What Is the Difference Between a Web App and a Mobile App?
People use "app" for several different things. The differences decide what you pay, how fast you can ship and what the product can do.
Web app
Software that runs in a browser, such as Chrome or Safari, on any device. Your customers open a link and sign in. Gmail, Notion and most SaaS dashboards are web apps. A good one adapts to the screen, so it works on a phone as well as a laptop.
Native mobile app
An app built specifically for iPhone (in Swift) or Android (in Kotlin or Java), installed from the App Store or Google Play. It gets the fullest access to the phone and the smoothest feel, but each platform is its own build.
Cross-platform mobile app
One codebase, written with a framework such as React Native or Flutter, that produces both an iPhone and an Android app. It is installed from the stores like a native app and is usually cheaper than building two. React Native is not the same as React for the web; our guide to hiring React developers explains the difference.
Progressive web app (PWA)
MDN, the Mozilla web documentation, defines a PWA as "an app that's built using web platform technologies, but that provides a user experience like that of a platform-specific app." It is a web app that can be installed on the device, work offline and integrate with the device.
Wrapped web app
A web app placed inside a thin native shell, with a tool such as Capacitor, so it can be listed in the app stores. It reuses your web code, but app store rules still apply (more on that below).
Web App vs Native App: The Trade-offs That Matter
Reach: most SaaS products need a web app anyway
Phones are a large share of web traffic, but in the US they are not yet the majority. Statcounter, which measures traffic across the websites that use its tracking code, puts US mobile traffic at under half.
These figures cover all kinds of websites, not just business software. Still, if your customers do any of their work at a computer, you need a web app whatever else you build. The real question is usually not "web or mobile" but "web first, and mobile when?"
Speed: the app stores sit between you and your customers
A web app is live as soon as you deploy it, so a bug found at 10am can be fixed by lunch. A store app has to pass review on every release. Apple says at least 50% of submissions are reviewed in less than 24 hours and 90% in less than 48. Google Play requires personal developer accounts created after November 13, 2023 to run a closed test with at least 12 testers for 14 days before they can apply for production. Our guide to how long it takes to build an app covers the timelines in detail.
Cost: two or three products instead of one
A web app is one codebase that serves every device. Going native typically adds an iPhone app and an Android app, and you still keep the web app for desktop users. Cross-platform frameworks bring the mobile side down to one codebase, but it is still a second product to design, test, release and keep up to date with each new phone operating system. For what a first version costs to build, see our guide to SaaS development cost.
Device access: what only a native app does well
Native apps get the deepest access to the phone: the camera, precise location, Bluetooth, health data, long-running background tasks and smooth, graphics-heavy screens. Web apps can do more than many people expect, but if your product is built around one of these, native is the safer choice.
Money: app store commissions on digital sales
If customers buy a subscription or unlock features inside a store app, the store usually takes a cut. Payments taken on your own website, such as through Stripe, carry no store commission.
| Store | Commission on digital sales in the app | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Apple App Store, standard | 30% | Apple |
| Apple App Store, Small Business Program | 15%, for developers with up to 1 million USD in proceeds the year before | Apple |
| Google Play, first $1M a year | 15% | Google Play Console Help |
| Google Play, above $1M a year | 30% | Google Play Console Help |
| Google Play, auto-renewing subscriptions | 15% | Google Play Console Help |
Apple's App Review Guidelines say that apps which unlock features or functionality must use in-app purchase, but they allow multiplatform services: an app "may allow users to access content, subscriptions, or features they have acquired in your app on other platforms or your web site," provided those items are also available as in-app purchases within the app. On the United States storefront, the guidelines also allow buttons and links to other ways of paying. Rules like these change, so check the current guidelines before you plan billing around them.
PWA vs Native App: Is a Progressive Web App Enough?
A progressive web app is often the best middle step for a SaaS founder. It is still your web app, built once and updated instantly, but customers can add it to their home screen and open it like any other app.
What a PWA gives you
- One codebase for phones, tablets and computers
- Updates go live without store review
- No store fees or commission on your billing
- A home screen icon and app-like full screen view
- Push notifications, including on iPhone since iOS 16.4
Where a native app still wins
- Not found through App Store search
- Weaker for heavy graphics and animation
- Limited background work and hardware access
- On iPhone, people must add it to the home screen themselves
- Some customers expect to find you in the store
The iPhone gap has narrowed. WebKit, the team behind Safari, announced in February 2023 that iOS and iPadOS 16.4 add Web Push to Home Screen web apps, with one condition: the app can only ask for permission "in response to direct user interaction", such as tapping a subscribe button. The same release let other browsers on iPhone offer "Add to Home Screen" in the Share menu.
Wrapping Your Web App for the App Stores
If customers ask for "the app" but your product is a web app, you can wrap it. Capacitor describes itself as a cross-platform native runtime for web apps: it runs your web code inside a native iOS and Android shell, with plugins for device features.
Wrapping works best once the web app is stable and you know which phone features customers actually want. It is a way to reach the stores with code you already own, not a shortcut past the work of making the mobile experience good.
Which Should You Build First?
Fastest to ship and change, one codebase for every device, and billing stays on your own site. This is the right first build for most founders.
The same web app with an install option and push notifications. Little extra work on top of a good web app.
One codebase for both stores with React Native or Flutter. Keep the web app for desktop users and the admin side.
The best experience and the highest cost. Usually justified for consumer apps, field tools and hardware products, rarely for a first SaaS version.
Questions to Answer Before You Decide
Web app or mobile app: a checklist
- Where will customers be, and on which device, when they use the product most?
- Does any feature need the camera, location, Bluetooth, offline use or background work?
- Will customers expect to find you in the App Store, or will they arrive from your website and sales calls?
- How will you charge, and what would a 15% to 30% commission do to your margins?
- How often will you ship changes in the first year, and can you wait for store review each time?
- Who will build and maintain each version, and in whose accounts will the code, the store listings and the developer memberships live?
Write the answers down before you talk to anyone who builds software; our guide to writing software requirements has a template. If someone recommends a native app for a product that would work fine in a browser, ask them why, and whether they also sell native development.
How StackTie Fits
StackTie is a development subscription for founders building web apps and SaaS products. We build the web app: the customer-facing product, the admin dashboard, logins, Stripe billing, integrations and the work that makes it fast and usable on a phone. You add each piece as a request in plain English on your own Trello board. Requests are worked one at a time in the order you set, and each comes back within 2 business days as a pull request with a plain-English summary of what changed and why. A big build is split into pieces that each ship on that schedule. One senior developer, Michael, leads every build. Everything we build belongs to your company, there is no contract, and there is a money-back guarantee. We do not build native iOS or Android apps, and we are not a whole team working in parallel. If you decide a native app is the right call, the web app and its API are the foundation a mobile developer builds on. The flat monthly price and what is included are on the homepage.
