A customer opens a link to check a quote. A technician records visits throughout the day, sometimes without a signal. Both use phones, but they don’t necessarily need the same kind of product.
Before choosing between a website and an app, describe the task and its setting. Record what must work on the device, how often, and what happens when the connection disappears.
A link may be enough
For presenting a service, receiving a request or allowing an occasional lookup, consider a responsive website first. People arrive through its address without an installation step in the way.
Test the complete task on a small screen. The keyboard mustn’t hide the next step, and fields need to suit someone standing, using one hand or short of time. Shrinking the desktop version doesn’t settle those questions.
If the proposed app only repeats the company’s information pages, identify the extra job it would do for customers. Without that answer, there’s little basis for taking on another product to maintain.
Test a PWA on the actual device
A PWA is a web application that can offer an installed experience. The web.dev installation guide explains that installation and criteria vary by browser and operating system.
Ask for a demonstration on a device your team uses. Check the required features, how the application opens and how easily someone can return to their task. A generic capability list doesn’t prove the proposed experience will work in your setting.
Consider a PWA when the team needs to open the application through a link and use it frequently. Confirm the required features on the chosen devices first.
Offline work needs business rules
Showing a screen offline is different from recording a visit and synchronising it later. The web.dev guide to offline data describes local storage and its limits. The application must decide what to keep and how to show the state of that data.
Describe the case in the brief: a technician saves a visit without a connection, someone else edits the same record, and connectivity returns. Which information wins? Can the user distinguish data already sent from data still on the device?
Include signing out of a shared device and losing the connection during submission. Use test data for this evaluation.
App stores belong in the scope
If store distribution is part of the plan, include submission, review and maintenance in the quote. Apple’s rule 4.2, checked in October 2026, requires utility beyond a repackaged website. Approval shouldn’t be promised as automatic.
Agree who owns the accounts and who answers review requests. Updates to the app and the service it connects to also need owners.
Prove the hardest task first
Choose the scenario most likely to rule out a solution: offline work, camera capture or another feature essential to the job. Build a small proof before developing every screen.
Then compare website, PWA and app using that evidence. The brief can be short: task, devices, frequency, available connection and essential capabilities. Use those answers to choose the technology.
Sources
- Installation. web.dev. accessed October 2026.
- Offline data. web.dev. accessed October 2026.
- App Review Guidelines, section 4.2. Apple Developer, accessed 2026-10-23. accessed October 2026.