Every other discovery call starts with the same question: 'should we build the website or the app first?' Here's the framework we actually use with clients.
Start with frequency. If your users need you daily — habits, chats, tracking, ordering — an app's home-screen presence and push notifications are worth their weight in gold. If they need you occasionally — research, booking, buying once a quarter — the web's zero-install reach wins.
Then check discovery. New customers find you through search and shared links, and both live on the web. Almost every successful app still leans on a strong website to convert curiosity into installs.
Mind the budget asymmetry. A website reaches every device on day one. An app must earn its install — which means your first version has to be genuinely better than your mobile site, or it gets deleted in a week.
Our default recommendation: launch a conversion-focused website first, validate demand, then ship the app for your power users — sharing one design system so the second build costs a fraction of the first. It's exactly why our Web + App bundle exists.
There's no universal answer, but there is a universal mistake: building both halfheartedly instead of one brilliantly.