Website or web app: what’s the difference, and which do you need?

The terms get used loosely, but the difference matters when you’re planning a project, because the two are built, priced and maintained differently.

A website mainly gives people information

A website tells visitors who you are, what you offer and how to get in touch. Most of its pages look the same for everyone. Its job is usually to bring in enquiries, so speed, clear writing, working well on phones and being easy for search engines to read matter most.

Contact forms, a booking button or a newsletter sign-up don’t turn a website into an application. They pass information on, but the site itself isn’t where the work gets done.

A web app is where work gets done

A web application is software that runs in the browser. People sign in, see information that’s specific to them, and create or change records. A scheduling system, a customer portal, a quoting tool or an inventory system are all web apps.

Because a web app stores and changes data, it needs a database, user accounts with the right permissions, backups and more careful testing. That’s why it usually costs more to build and maintain than a website of a similar size.

Many businesses need both

A common setup is a public website for finding new customers, plus a web app behind a sign-in for the people who already work with you. The two can share a design and a domain, and they can be built at different times. Starting with the website and adding the application later is a perfectly good plan.

A quick way to tell which you need

Ask what someone will do when they arrive:

• If they’ll read, compare and then contact you, you need a website.
• If they’ll sign in and do part of their job, you need a web application.
• If customers keep emailing to ask for things they could look up themselves, you probably need a portal, which is a small web app.