Applications · 7 min
When you need a web application (and when you do not)
A simple rule so you do not spend a software project on what should be a website or a well-made spreadsheet.
Not everything that can be coded should be. A web app makes sense when there are users, states, permissions and history. If you only need to explain and collect an email, you need a website. If you have ten rows, maybe a sheet.
Signals that you do
Several people touch the same data. There are states. There are roles. You need the past. Errors are expensive. The process repeats daily and no longer fits in one person’s head.
Signals that you do not
You want “an app” because it sounds modern. The process changes weekly and nobody has written it down. Nobody will actually use it. A €30/month SaaS covers 90% and the rest is not your advantage.
The middle
Sometimes the answer is a site with a small private area, or an automation from form to CRM. That is not giving up. It is not building a product nobody will maintain.
How we decide
We ask for the flow on one page: who enters, what they decide, what cannot fail. If it cannot be drawn, it cannot be built well. The brief on this site exists to see whether the fit is website, app or software.