Native mobile app or installable web app? When you really need the App Store

“We need an app” is one of the most common things we hear at the start of a project. Sometimes that is exactly right. Often, what the business actually needs is something customers can open from their home screen, that works on a poor connection and can send a reminder. An installable web app can do all of that, without app store reviews, fees or two separate codebases.

This guide compares the options honestly so you can decide based on what your product needs.

What a progressive web app can do today

A progressive web app (PWA) is a website built with a few extra capabilities: a web app manifest that describes how it should look when installed, and a service worker that can cache content and handle background events. With those in place, a PWA can:

• Be installed to the home screen or desktop and open in its own window without browser bars.
• Work offline or on flaky connections by caching pages and data.
• Send push notifications, including on iPhone and iPad for apps added to the home screen (supported since iOS and iPadOS 16.4).
• Use the camera, microphone, location, file uploads and sharing.
• Take payments through standard web checkout and payment providers.
• Update instantly for every user the moment you deploy, with no store review.

Where web apps still fall short

• Installation on iOS is manual: users must tap Share and then Add to Home Screen. There is no automatic install prompt as there is on Android and desktop Chrome.
• Some device features are limited or missing on iOS, such as Web Bluetooth and Web NFC.
• Background processing is restricted; long-running tasks, precise background location and scheduled work are better handled natively.
• Browser storage can be cleared by the system under storage pressure or after long periods of inactivity.
• No presence in the App Store or Google Play, which matters if store search is an important acquisition channel.

When native is the right call

• Heavy use of device hardware: Bluetooth accessories, NFC, health and fitness sensors, advanced camera processing.
• Reliable background work: continuous location tracking, background audio, frequent sync.
• Demanding performance: games, video editing, augmented reality.
• Deep platform integration: widgets, watch apps, rich notifications, system share sheets and shortcuts.
• Store discovery and trust: when customers expect to find you in the store, or the store listing itself drives downloads.
• Selling digital content inside the app, where store billing rules apply anyway.

The cost of the app stores

Publishing in the stores brings real benefits, but also ongoing costs. Apple’s Developer Program costs 99 US dollars per year and Google Play requires a one-time 25 US dollar registration fee. More significantly, digital goods and subscriptions sold inside apps are generally subject to store commission: Apple’s standard rate is 30%, reduced to 15% for developers in its Small Business Program and for subscriptions after their first year, and Google charges 15% on the first million dollars of annual earnings and on subscriptions. Physical goods and real-world services, such as deliveries, bookings and rides, are generally not subject to these commissions.

Every release also goes through store review, which can delay urgent fixes, and users update at their own pace, so you may support several app versions at once.

Comparison

The middle paths

Cross-platform frameworks

React Native and Flutter let one team build apps for both stores from a single codebase, with near-native performance and access to most device features. For most business apps, this is the best balance when you genuinely need the stores.

Wrapping a web app

Tools such as Capacitor can package a web app as a store app and add native plugins where needed. This can work well, but app stores may reject apps that are little more than a website in a wrapper, so the app should offer real value beyond the site.

A decision checklist

1. List the device features your product truly needs, then check current web support on iOS and Android.
2. Ask whether customers will discover you through the stores or through search, ads and word of mouth.
3. Consider how often you need to ship updates and fixes.
4. Estimate store fees on any digital goods you plan to sell.
5. Compare build and maintenance budgets for one, two or three codebases.
6. Think about search visibility: web pages can rank in Google; app screens cannot.

We build installable web apps, cross-platform apps and native integrations, so we have no reason to push one over another. If you are deciding, we are happy to map your requirements to the option that fits.