Brochure site, e-commerce or web application: which one does your business need?
The three big families of web projects compared on what matters: goal, budget, timeline, maintenance. With a simple method to choose without getting it wrong.
Most projects that go off the rails were not badly built: they were badly chosen. A company orders a brochure site when it needs to sell online, or has a full application built for a need a form would have covered. Before comparing quotes, you therefore need to compare project types. Here are three, with what they do, what they cost and who they are for.
The brochure site: get found and convince
A brochure site presents a company, its services, its work and a way to get in touch. It does not sell directly: it triggers a call, a form, a quote request.
Who it is for
Service providers, firms, tradespeople, manufacturers, agencies, professionals. Any business whose sale goes through a human conversation. The Wimo Delivery platform, which presents a delivery offer and converts into "become a client", is one example: the transaction is closed afterwards, off the site.
What it has to do
Three things. Be found on Google for the queries of your trade, which requires a structure designed for search engine optimisation from the start. Inspire trust within seconds, with real work and proof rather than promises. And make contact obvious: a clickable number, a short form, WhatsApp if your customers use it.
Budget, timeline, maintenance
12,000 to 35,000 MAD, three to four weeks of production, light maintenance. It is the project with the best ratio of cost to impact for a company that has nothing online yet.
E-commerce: sell without an intermediary
An online store takes money. It manages a catalogue, a cart, a payment, orders, deliveries and returns. Its success is measured in revenue, not visits.
Who it is for
Brands and retailers who have products, stock (or a reliable supplier) and logistics, even simple ones. A store is not a brochure site with a "buy" button: it is a point of sale that has to be stocked, animated and delivered. Essadrati Bio, which sells honey and organic products to an Arabic-speaking audience, illustrates what the store has to handle: catalogue, weight variants, prices in dirhams, ordering and tracking.
What it has to do
Display products in a way that creates desire and reassures (photos, descriptions, reviews, delivery times). Keep the purchase short: a checkout of three steps at most, local payment methods, delivery calculated without surprises. And work on mobile, where most purchases now happen.
Budget, timeline, maintenance
25,000 to 90,000 MAD, six to ten weeks, and heavier maintenance than a brochure site: platform and extension updates, payment security, performance monitoring. You also need to plan the human time to run the store, often left out of the calculation.
The web application: automate a business process
A web application is software accessed through a browser. It has identified users, roles, its own data and business rules. A SaaS, a customer portal, an internal management tool, a federation platform are all applications.
Who it is for
Companies that have a process to equip: member tracking, complex order management, scheduling, reporting, a customer area. And founders who want to sell a software service, like Ekygai, which serves three user profiles (athletes, coaches, teams) in a single interface.
What it has to do
Exactly what the scoping defined, and nothing more at first. The first risk of an application is scope that swells. The right method is to deliver a first version that covers the core need, put it in users' hands, then extend. That is what application development in short sprints allows.
Budget, timeline, maintenance
From 60,000 MAD, a timeline set at scoping and never before, and maintenance that becomes a real line item: sized hosting, backups, monitoring, evolutions. If you are not ready to keep the tool alive after delivery, it is not the right time to build it.
How to choose in three questions
Forget the technology for a moment and answer this.
- How does a sale close in your business? Through a human conversation: brochure site. Online, without intervention: e-commerce. Through a subscription or regular use of a service: application.
- What costs you time today? If it is lack of visibility: brochure site. If it is order-taking and payment: e-commerce. If it is repetitive manual management (spreadsheets, emails, re-entering data): an application, or sometimes an ERP like Odoo rather than custom development.
- What budget can you commit, build and running costs included? A brochure site is financed over a quarter. E-commerce needs cash for stock and animation. An application is a multi-year investment.
Common combinations
These categories are not mutually exclusive. A brochure site can include a small shop for a few products. A store can offer a trade area with negotiated prices, which brings it closer to an application. A public application always needs a brochure site to be found and explained.
The right strategy is often progressive: start with what pays off fastest, measure, then add. Serious scoping consists precisely of writing down what the first version will be, what comes next, and what will never be done. If you want to place the budget before going further, our 2026 pricing guide gives the ranges for each type of project.