What is a web app?: WebApps

What is a web app?

A web app is software that runs in the browser and carries out your business processes, not just shows content. A website presents: text, images, a contact form. A web app works: it manages data, knows users and their rights, enforces rules and reacts to input. It is a tool, not a shop window.

The simple rule of thumb

As soon as people log in and do something (order, book, edit, approve) instead of just reading, it's a web app. A website has visitors; a web app has users with accounts.

• Website: content, marketing, conversion. Goal: convince visitors.
• Web app: logic, data, users, rights. Goal: get work done.

Concrete examples

A reservation system with live table occupancy. An ordering terminal that sends orders straight to the kitchen. A portal where customers see their orders, invoices and documents around the clock. An internal tool that turns a few inputs into a finished quote.

The most honest proof

Our own products are exactly such web apps: Kepler (contacts, pipelines, tasks, automation) and Mesa (content, roles, real-time editing), both built and operated by us. If you want to know what a web app is, look at what we use ourselves every day.