Does my small business need an app? An honest answer
Updated 20 October 2026
You need an app if your customers come back, and if you have something new to tell them more than once a month. A website is for people deciding whether to come; an app is for people who already came. If most of your customers visit once and never again, a good website is enough. If they return (a restaurant, a hotel guest who comes back next summer, a shop's regulars), an app on their phone is the shortest road between you and them.
Telaio: an app of your own, from €59 a month
Your own app, with your name, logo and colours, on your customers’ phones. They install it by scanning a QR code: ten seconds, no App Store, no account.
- A model for every trade: restaurant, bar, hotel, B&B and mountain hut, winery, shop and seller
- Offers and a digital loyalty card that count by themselves
- Notifications, scheduled if you like, to people who said yes
- Eight languages, and it works offline
- Live the same day, and you update it from your phone
from €59 a month · no setup fee · no commission · cancel any time
Founder code: a reserved price for twelve paid months, plus one month free · Get it ›
When a website is enough
- Your customers buy once, or once every few years.
- You have nothing new to tell them from week to week.
- People find you by searching, and you don't need to reach them afterwards.
When you need an app
- Your customers come back, and you'd like them to come back more often.
- You have news: this week's offers, an event, the new menu, the room that just freed up.
- You'd like to reward the regulars, with a loyalty card that counts by itself.
- You don't want to pay a platform every time a customer you already have comes back.
With Telaio: all of it is already in Telaio: offers, a loyalty card, notifications, news in eight languages.
What it costs, two ways
Building your own app usually costs $10,000–$50,000 for most projects reviewed on Clutch, plus 15–20% a year to keep it running, plus the app stores ($99 a year for Apple, a one-time $25 for Google). Or you can have your own app on a platform that already exists: with Telaio it's €59 a month (€69 for hotels and B&Bs), with no setup fee, ready the same day.
The part people forget: getting it on phones
An app nobody installs is worth nothing. Store apps ask customers to search, download and sign up. Telaio installs from a QR code on the table, in the room or at the counter: no App Store, no account, no password, in a few seconds.
What a ready-made app won't do
Said up front: Telaio doesn't sell online, take payments or handle bookings. If you need those, you need a custom build or a booking platform. If you need to talk to your customers, you don't.
Who decided they need an app
Hotels in Bibione and the Dolomites, a country inn in Farra d’Alpago, a farm restaurant and a winery in Vittorio Veneto, in north-east Italy: businesses whose customers come back, so they need an app of their own, with their own name.
Want to create your own app?
Your own app, with your business's name: ready the same day, from €59 a month, no commission.
Even better: ask for your Founder code. With the Founder code you get a reserved price for your first twelve paid months, plus one month free.
50 Founder codes for each model: they last while there are free ones.
On WhatsApp, or write to [email protected] · See how it works ›
Sources
More guides: How to get more Google reviews (without chasing your customers) · Loyalty program for small business: how to set one up, and what it costs · How much does it cost to build a small business app? · Small business marketing ideas that bring customers back · All guides ›