When Should a Business Build a Mobile App?

A mobile app makes sense when your users need to interact with your business frequently and briefly — checking status, placing repeat orders, receiving notifications.

It also makes sense when you need device capabilities a website can't reliably access — camera, offline access, push notifications, background location.

It usually doesn't make sense as a first step if your website already gets little traffic — an app adds an app-store gatekeeper and ongoing maintenance on top of an unproven idea.

A strong, fast, mobile-friendly website is often the right first version — a native app becomes worth it once usage patterns prove people want it often enough to install something.