A web app is an app that opens from a link, without downloading anything from the store. The customer clicks, and has your business open on their phone as if it were a real application.
You already use about ten of them every week, without knowing it.
You already have it in your pocket and you don't know it.
Open Amazon from your phone. Open Zalando. Scroll, search, add to cart, pay. It feels like an app, right? It moves like an app, it's fast like an app, your thumb does everything.
You haven't downloaded anything from the store. That is the website, built to behave like an app when you open it from your phone. It's called a web app. Big companies have been doing it for years because they know one simple thing: the customer buys from their phone, and on the phone, a slow and inconvenient website makes them leave.
What they do, we will do for your business.
But what is, precisely, a web app?
It's your site, but built from scratch for smartphones and with the functions of an app inside.
The customer gets there in two ways: a link (that you send them on WhatsApp, you put in your Instagram bio, you print on a flyer with a QR code) or the QR itself. One touch, and they're in. No passing through the store, no "download the app", no space taken up on the phone.
And if they like it, with one gesture they can add it as an icon on their home screen.
From then on, they open it with their finger like any other app. No store, no updates to download, no hassle.
Your site, but that behaves like an app.
A normal site was born for the computer and then "restricted" to fit on the phone. You can see it, but browsing is uncomfortable: small taps, pages that dance, everything a bit slower.
A web app starts from the other side. It is designed for a single thumb, for the vertical screen, to be used standing at the counter or on the couch. The steps are shortened. Pages open in a flash. The customer gets to what they want (booking, ordering, calling you) in the fewest taps possible.
Less friction. More people reaching the end, instead of giving up halfway.
What does a web app do that your site doesn't?
Here lies the real difference. It's not about how it's made: it's about what it can do that your site can't.
- It sends notifications. New menu, weekend promotion, "there are free spots tonight". It arrives on the customer's phone, not in an email that no one opens.
- It sits as an icon on the home. Your logo on the customer's screen, between WhatsApp and Instagram. It opens with a tap, without having to search for you on Google every time. On iPhone, it's also the gesture that turns on notifications: those who put it on their home receive them like from a real app.
- It opens in a flash. The customer doesn't wait. And those who don't wait, don't run away.
- It also works with a shaky connection. Once opened, it remains fast even when the signal is weak. The normal site, in those cases, freezes and the customer leaves.
- It uses what the phone already has. The camera to read a QR, the location to take the customer to the nearest point of sale when they ask for it. Things that an old site doesn't even touch.
Your old site, all this, doesn't do it. It just sits there waiting. The web app works.
And if you sell online, we also set up the real store on the web app: catalog, cart, orders, payments. But that's a separate discussion, with its own rules, and I'll tell you about it here: Shopping App.
Web app or native app: what suits you?
Not everyone needs a native app (the one that you download from the store). In fact, for most businesses, the web app is more than enough: it costs less, goes online faster, and the customer can access it with a link without barriers.
The native app is needed when you need the phone "to the fullest". For example, to trigger a message when the customer is a hundred meters from your store, or more advanced notifications even on iPhone without going through the home screen. Stuff that requires the downloaded app and the right permissions.
If you are considering, we talk about it here: when is the native app worth it. And if from the conversation it turns out that a web app is enough for you, we'll tell you. We prefer a happy customer with the right tool than one who pays for something they don't need.
How we start
Tell us what you do and what you need. We design the web app based on your work, not on a pre-packaged model. Generally, in a couple of weeks you are online. From there, we take care of it: updates, support, improvements. You focus on the business, we take care of the technical side.
Do you want to understand if the web app is right for you?
Let's talk about it. We'll tell you right away if it's the right choice.