Mobile apps
Most local businesses don't need an app. Here's when you do.
I have actually shipped one — Bloom Mama, React Native, on both stores, built solo. So I will build you a good one, and tell you plainly when a website and a booking link would serve you better for a tenth of the money.
An app is worth it if…
The same people order or book every week: takeaways and coffee shops with order-ahead, salons and gyms with memberships or classes, clinics with recurring appointments, businesses with more than one location.
The test is simple. If enough customers would open your icon more than once a month, the maths works. Twice a year, and it does not.
An app is a waste if…
You are a single-chair barber, a solo nail technician, a dog groomer, a one-van trade or a florist. Nobody downloads an app to book a haircut twice a year, and the honest industry numbers back that up — adoption at this size is a small fraction of what a good booking page and a wallet loyalty card achieve.
Take the website, add the web app, use a booking tool. Spend the difference on your shop.
Three ways to get an app.
Store fees are billed at cost — Apple $99 a year, Google $25 once. I do not mark them up.
Web app
App-like, installed straight from your website. No stores, no waiting.
- Installs from a link, no App Store download
- Works offline: menu, prices, contact
- Home-screen icon on iPhone and Android
- Found by Google, unlike a real app
- No $99/year Apple fee, no review queue
- Built on top of your website
App Essential
A real React Native app on both stores. One codebase, both phones.
- Published to the App Store and Google Play
- Your menu, services or class timetable
- Order-ahead or booking built in
- Push notifications you send yourself
- Loyalty stamps
- I handle both store submissions
App Pro
For multi-site businesses and anyone taking money inside the app.
- Everything in Essential
- Customer accounts and login
- Card payments and deposits
- Multiple locations or staff
- An admin dashboard you control
- English and French (Optional)
App care plan — £39 a month
Store accounts kept alive, OS updates handled before they break something, small changes included. An app left unmaintained stops working within about a year — this is the part people forget to budget.
Bloom Mama, end to end, on my own.
A postpartum recovery app in React Native: subscriptions and paywalls, an AI assistant behind a secure proxy, three languages, live on the App Store and Google Play. Every awkward part of shipping an app — store review, in-app purchase config, release builds — I hit and fixed once already, on my own money rather than yours.
Before you commission an app
Do I actually need an app?
Probably not, and I would rather say so before you pay me. A native app only earns its keep with genuine weekly repeat custom — a takeaway doing forty-odd of its own orders a week, a salon with memberships, a gym with classes. Below that, a website plus a booking tool plus the web app gets you almost everything for a fraction of the cost.
Why is an app so much dearer than a website?
Two stores, two review processes, two sets of rules, OS updates that break things every year, and a $99-a-year Apple account that never stops. Agencies charge £8,000 to £20,000 for what I quote at £2,900, because I am one person with no office and I have already shipped one of these end to end.
What is a web app, in plain English?
A website that behaves like an app. Your customer taps “add to home screen”, your icon appears on their phone, and it opens full-screen and works offline. No download, no store approval, no Apple fee — but weaker notifications on iPhone and nobody stumbles across it in the App Store.
How long until it's on the App Store?
Six to eight weeks. Apple usually reviews in a few days, but Google now makes new developer accounts run a closed test with twelve testers for a fortnight before a public launch, so budget for that on a first app.
Have you shipped an app, or just websites?
I designed, built and launched Bloom Mama on my own — React Native, on the App Store and Google Play, with subscriptions, an AI assistant and three languages. That is why I will sell you an app, and also why I will talk you out of one.