Because we are always and everywhere online, we regularly receive the burning request from customers “I must have an app!”. Often to be ahead of the competition or simply because “everyone uses apps,” but an app is not always the best solution. Depending on your situation, a website or a web application can offer a suitable solution, but what is the difference between these solutions? More importantly, which solution suits your organization best? This article will look at the meanings of all these possibilities and what they are best suited for.
What is a website?
A website is a place on the internet that you can visit through a browser. This often consists of a collection of (static) pages. A website is used to make content such as text, images, and videos findable for others. Often to inform or convincing. Companies have a website to recruit customers, sell services/products, or (limited) interact with visitors. In almost all cases, a website is accessible to everyone.
What is a web application?
A web application can objectively also be a website. After all, many complex web applications also have an accessible front that can be accessed via a browser. However, a web application goes further than informing or convincing visitors. Web applications offer the user additional functionalities. Think, for example, of a customer portal, quotation module, or planning system. A characteristic of this is that they are often not accessible to everyone. The value of a web application is also often realized by the processes in the background (back-end) instead of at the front.
What is a (native or web) app?
An app has been specially developed for smartphones and must be installed on the phone. Apps can be developed in various ways, including as a web app or as a native app. A native app is specifically developed for platforms such as iOS & Android. An app built for iOS, therefore, does not work on an Android operating system. Native and web apps can be installed via the operating system’s app market such as the App Store or the Google Play Store.
What is a web application?
Before we move on to the cost, we will briefly summarize the difference between a website and a web application. A website is a collection of (static) pages that, in almost all cases, are accessible to anyone who wants to use it. Where the story takes place at the front of websites, most web applications are about the functionalities at the back.
Unlike having a website made, a web application is used to speed up business processes, reduce the number of errors or generate more revenue and are not just accessible to everyone. Because web applications contain much more complex functionalities, they are a lot more expensive to develop than most websites.
The difference between standard and custom applications
Earlier in this article, we talked about standard web applications and custom web applications. Where one provides you with standard functionalities, the other will be completely built based on your needs. All this difference determines the final cost. Compare this to building a house. Do you have a luxury villa with a swimming pool designed by a famous architect or a standard apartment? Depending on the complexity of your requirements and wishes, one of the two offers the solution.
For expectations that are not too complex, you quickly end up with standard web applications. Standard web applications have built-in functions that have been developed for multiple parties. You can think of ready-made accounting systems, agenda planners, or project management systems. Standard web applications are purchased via a license that often determines the accessibility to various functionalities. A standard application can sometimes be configured and linked to your website or other systems after purchase.
, Unlike a standard web application, custom applications are built entirely based on the requirements and wishes of one company. Customization involves complex requirements for which there is no standard solution yet. This can be the case, for example, if the standard software for a specific industry does not meet the requirements, but also when it comes to the development of an innovative product.
The pros and cons of standard and custom applications
Some see the light at the end of the tunnel through a standard solution or custom solutions. Both cases have their pros and cons. We go you exactly s tell you what you will encounter when using standard applications and custom applications, both positive and negative
Why is a cost estimate so difficult to make?
As can be read in our practical examples, the prices for custom web applications vary enormously. We prefer to send direct quotes, but unfortunately, that is not the reality. We can tell you what the most important factors that influence the price are:
The number of functionalities
Complexity functionalities
Collaboration between the functionalities
Amount of design work
Quantity of front end
Complexity algorithms
Software link(s) with other systems
Size and diversity of the dataCompiling a web application can be seen as a kind of box of blocks. Every functionality, every link, every external source is a separate block. As you pile up more and more blocks, more care must be taken to keep the pile stable.
The difficult thing about giving a targeted price is that you do not know how many blocks and what complexity these blocks have before you start to realize the web application. The first meeting with us can be seen as a process in which we want to get the basis as clearly as possible in mind to estimate this with Cyberg Reviews.
Subsequently, the customer often knows what he wants, but not at a detailed level, so that not all questions can be answered. That is why we always approach projects in an agile way to stay one step ahead of uncertainties. We divide the stack of blocks into smaller stacks to specify clear steps. This offers the possibility to zoom in step by step on each part of the project and receive a lot of input from various stakeholders so that the functionality fully meets the wishes.
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