PranulisWebsite or web app: which one do you need?
A website tells people about you. A web app does work for them. The difference decides the budget, the timeline and the tools.
"We need a website" is one of the most common first messages I get. Sometimes it really is a website. Often it is a web app in disguise. The difference matters, because it changes how long the project takes and what it is built with.
A website informs
A website presents your business: who you are, what you offer, how to reach you. Visitors read, look and contact you. Typical examples:
- a company or portfolio site
- a landing page for a product or campaign
- a blog
- an e-shop with a standard checkout
You should be able to edit texts and images yourself, so it usually comes with a CMS such as WordPress or a headless CMS.
A web app does work
A web app lets people do something: log in, enter data, get results that depend on who they are. Typical examples:
- a client portal where customers see their orders and invoices
- a booking system with availability and confirmations
- a dashboard that pulls numbers from several systems
- an internal tool that replaces a pile of spreadsheets
Web apps need user accounts, permissions, a database and business logic. I usually build them with React and TypeScript on the front and Laravel on the back.
Three questions that decide it
- Do users need to log in? If yes, it is probably a web app.
- Does the content change per person? Personal data means an app.
- Does it replace a manual process? Then it is an app, and the process is the real spec.
You can start with one and grow
Many projects start as a website and grow an app part later: a booking form becomes a booking system, a contact form becomes a client portal. Building on a solid back-end from the start makes that step cheaper.
Not sure which one you need? Tell me what you want it to do and I will tell you which it is.