Do I get both a website and a mobile app with my package?

On Growth (£60k) and Scale (£100k), you launch both a mobile app and a website. Starter (£25k) launches one or the other. Prices exclude VAT.

How it splits by tier

The difference isn’t just one extra product. An app and a website share the same accounts, data and logins. Making those agree with each other is a big part of why Growth costs more and takes longer. Our answer on how much a LaunchPad build costs breaks down the rest.

Do you actually need both?

Often not on day one. It depends on who uses which side.

You probably need both if your product has two different kinds of user. A delivery service might have customers booking on the web and drivers working from an app. A care business might have families using a portal and carers using their phones.

You probably need one if everyone does the same job in the same place. Then the question is which one.

App or website: which first?

If you’re on Starter, here’s a rough guide.

• Choose the app if people use it on the move, need the camera or location, or need it to work offline.
• Choose the website if people find you through search, use it at a desk, or visit occasionally.

A website can be built as a web app, which runs in a phone’s browser and logs people in. Plenty of first products don’t need a native app. A web app is cheaper to ship and to maintain, and nobody has to remember their App Store password.

A native app is installed from the App Store or Google Play. It earns its extra cost when the phone itself matters: offline working, the camera, notifications or location. Our answer on whether we build for both iPhone and Android explains what we build.

A real example of both

Vault gives employees a private, secure way to report misconduct at work. We built its reporting app on iOS, Android and the web. Employees can report anonymously and still answer follow-up questions.

The other side is a case manager, where compliance teams triage, investigate and close reports. Two very different users, doing two very different jobs. That’s the shape of a product that needs both. Read the Vault story.

Starting with one and adding the other later

Starting on Starter doesn’t lock you out of the second product. Many founders launch one side, learn from real users and add the other once they know what it needs to do.

What makes that cheap later is building the first one on foundations that can grow. That’s the difference between launching a product and building a throwaway first version. Our answer on coming back later for new features covers what happens next.

Not sure which you need?

That’s exactly what Discovery is for. We map your users and the jobs they need to do, and the answer tends to become obvious once it’s on a whiteboard. You decide with that map in front of you, not with a guess.

To compare the tiers in more detail, see which LaunchPad package is right for you. For how platform choice drives cost, read how much it costs to build an app in the UK.