You don't need an app. You need a website that works.

Every few weeks a small business owner tells me they want “an app.” And almost every time, what they actually need is a website that doesn’t stink.

Here’s the uncomfortable maths. The average person installs roughly zero new apps in a given month. They are not going to download yours to check your opening hours. They’re going to Google you, glance at whatever shows up, and decide in about four seconds whether you’re legit.

That four seconds is the whole ballgame. And it happens on a website.

What an app actually costs

A custom app isn’t one thing — it’s at least two (iOS and Android), plus a backend, plus app-store reviews, plus updates forever because Apple changed something again. You’re signing up for tens of thousands of dollars and a maintenance treadmill that never stops.

A good website costs a fraction of that, shows up in search, works on every device ever made, and never gets rejected by a review team in Cupertino.

When an app is the answer

I’m not anti-app. If your product is the software — daily-use, logged-in, push-notification, lives-in-someone’s-pocket software — then yes, build the app. Ride-sharing needs an app. A taco truck does not.

For roughly 95% of small businesses, the honest answer is:

• A fast website that loads before people lose patience
• Clear info: what you do, where you are, how to reach you
• One obvious next step (call, book, buy, visit)
• Something that looks like you actually care

That’s it. That’s the app you needed.

The point

Spend your money where your customers actually are, not where a sales rep told you to put it. For most people, that’s a website that’s quick, clear, and quietly excellent.

Which, conveniently, is the only thing I make.