Web App vs Website

A website tells people things, while a web application does work for them, and that one line is the whole difference between the two. It also decides most of what a project will cost, so it is worth being clear about before anyone quotes you a price.

An ordinary website is a set of pages that shows your address, your prices, your photos and a form that sends you an email. Every visitor sees the same thing, because nothing is saved, nothing is worked out and nobody ever signs in.

A web application starts by asking who you are, so each person signs in and sees only their own records. It keeps what they type, adds it up, lets them change it tomorrow and prints it when they ask. A shop owner opens one to see what sold this morning and reorder the shirts running low. A clinic receptionist uses hers to book a patient at four, mark her as arrived and print the receipt at the desk. Both are doing work, not reading a page.

You can tell that a business has outgrown its website by counting the spreadsheets around it. One person keeps the bookings in a file on her own computer while another keeps a copy on paper, and when two of them write in the same row, one entry quietly disappears. Staff then start ringing each other to ask whether an order was paid. Once a simple customer question needs three people to answer it, more pages will not help.

The cost gap between the two is real, and it is worth hearing early. A clear website of eight or ten pages takes weeks, while a web application takes months, because every screen carries rules behind it. Who may see this, who may change it, and what happens when two people press save in the same second. The work also carries on after launch, because a system people use all day keeps needing small changes, which is why Linkysoft prices the two very differently.

So ask which one your business actually needs before you spend anything. If visitors only have to read and then call you, put your money into website design and development and stop there. If your staff will sit inside the screen all day, entering and finding records, then a web application project is the honest answer, and Linkysoft will say so before the first invoice.