Let’s face it, in the year of our Lord 2026 apps are not the hot new thing they once were. Apple’s famous “There’s An App For That” campaign is 17 years old. For perspective, go back another 17 years and you’re looking at the collapse of the Soviet Union. But despite their age, apps are more essential today than they ever have been. A whopping 65% of the planet is on a smartphone. This is a decent-sized addressable market - one you don’t want to miss out on.
There’s also nothing that brings gravitas to your digital presence quite like an app. An app screams (in a non-hysterical, refined sort of way) “That’s right, we know what we’re doing.” Every organization has a website and a SnapTok, but only the few who truly have it together have an app.
Apps are more difficult to launch, but they offer a level of polish, performance, and functionality that websites haven’t yet been able to match. The average user may not be able to articulate this distinction, but deep down they can feel it. “Whoa, they have an app”, your users think to themselves before they download your app and start generating 3-5x more value. Obviously, you need an app.
Ok ok, so how do I get one?
So you’ve decided you need an app? Excellent! You’ve got three basic options to procure one: build it, vibe it, or rent it.
Build it
You can develop your very own bespoke app by either paying a development agency or hiring your own developers. The latter option will virtually force you to become a technology company. If you’re reading this article, this isn’t the right path for you. The former option is great if you have deep pockets, very particular needs, and are comfortable navigating the waters of outsourced development. In other words, consider this if you are a large, established organization. Otherwise if you’re just starting out, are on a budget, or need to get to market quickly - don’t do this.
Vibe it
Maybe you can just have the clanker bang out an app for you! This process is known as “vibe coding”. You ask the AI (short for “Artificial Intelligence” in case you haven’t heard of it) to build an app for you and voilà, you have an app. As the founder of a SaaS company, a curmudgeon, and a human I’m loath to say this, but vibe coding can actually be a great option under certain circumstances. Today’s AI models are pretty darn good at code. If you meet the following criteria then vibe coding may be an good option for you (dare I say the best option):
- You want a truly unique app chalk full features - and you want it on tight budget.
- You do not plan to deal with sensitive information like user accounts and subscription payments.
- You are willing to invest a significant amount of your time (or your intern’s time) prompting for the right solution, fighting through app review, addressing outages at 2am, rinsing, and repeating.
- You are willing to put up with an elevated dose of bugs and quirks.
If that sounds intriguing to you then go for it - AI is dirt cheap (relatively speaking) and worth giving a shot. If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea then I’d recommend steering clear of vibe coding for now. When used in the wrong circumstances it is likely to end in tears for everyone.
Rent it
Your last option is to find an already-built app that does what you want and pay a “rental” fee to re-launch it as your own app. This is known as “white-labelling” an app. It’s a great option if you want a high-quality solution at an affordable price point with minimal effort. You’ll get much higher quality than a vibe-coded app with much less effort, and all at a fraction of the price of a custom-built app. A white-label app will also give you the fastest time to launch. So what’s the catch? The tradeoff is flexibility - you’re getting something that has already been built and the features may or may not meet your exact needs.
Isn’t this convenient
“Renting is clearly the right choice for me”, you find yourself thinking. If you’re a creator or publisher of any kind of digital content - well isn’t this convenient! Treefort happens to be the premier vendor of quality, white-label media apps that can stream anything - videos, audiobooks, albums, ebooks, blogs, podcasts, etc. We let you brand the entire experience as your own, customize the app to your liking, choose your monetization strategy, and skip over all the tricky technical steps straight to “your app is live!” If that sounds great we’d love to chat!
P.S. A Note About The Web: We talk big about apps at Treefort, but we really do love the web. We think it’s fantastic that anyone in the world can publish a website without asking for permission from a multinational conglomerate or the Chinese Communist Party. That’s why we offer every Treefort customer a high-quality PWA (progressive web app) along with their iOS and Android apps. However, it is an unfortunate reality that native apps are currently more capable than web apps, especially for things like offline media access and background playback (absolutely essential features for any media service). We do hope that over time this feature gap will shrink and the web will become a more central piece of the media streaming puzzle!
