When a mobile site beats a native app
The "we need an app" brief is right about half the time. Here is when the website wins instead.
"We need an app" is one of the most common briefs. About half the time it's right. The other half, a mobile-optimized website would have shipped sooner, cost less, and converted better.
When the website wins
The product is mostly content - articles, listings, search. Native chrome buys nothing here.
The traffic is one-time or occasional. Asking visitors to install an app for a yearly use case is a friction wall.
The team is small. App-store presence requires updates, review cycles, two platform builds, and ongoing infrastructure. Most small teams underestimate this maintenance.
When the app wins
The product needs a hardware feature the web can't reach reliably - bluetooth, complex camera flows, background location.
The use case is daily, sticky, and benefits from app-icon presence on the home screen.
The product genuinely benefits from offline-first behaviour. Web makes this possible, but native still wins on consistency.
The default answer
Build a great mobile website first. Add a Progressive Web App wrapper if it earns one. Reach for native when the brief actually needs the things only native gives. Most don't.