Custom apps for local business

Your business. On their home screen.

A custom app your customers install straight from your website. No app store, no waiting, push notifications included.

Get an App Quote

What your app can show customers

• Daily-special push (an idea for your business) — Announce today's special and it lands on their lock screen. Restaurants.
• Order ahead and pickup (an idea for your business) — Menu, cart, and a pickup time. Paid before they park. Restaurants, cafés, food trucks.
• Digital punch card (an idea for your business) — One visit from a free coffee, and the app reminds them. Cafés, bakeries.
• Booking plus rebooking nudge (an idea for your business) — Book in two taps. Six weeks later, a reminder to rebook. Salons, barbers, spas.
• Class schedule and check-in (an idea for your business) — This week at a glance. Check in from the parking lot. Fitness and yoga studios.
• Restock and flash-sale alerts (an idea for your business) — Back in stock, VIP drop, 20% off till close. They'll know first. Boutiques, specialty shops.
• Works offline (built by MBM) — Lists, menus, and reading load with one bar of signal. Buggy, Pocket Apologetics.
• Live, two-way sync (built by MBM) — One person updates the list; the other phone sees it instantly. Buggy, ShiftSurge.

Everyone has a website. Almost nobody has an app.

AI made websites easy to build. It didn't make apps easy. An app puts your logo on a customer's phone and lets you reach them with one tap, for free, whenever you want.

• 76% more conversions after switching to a web app (Alibaba · Google web.dev case study)
• +30% active users with push and home-screen install (Alibaba · Google web.dev case study)
• 115% more likely to order through the restaurant's app when they're loyalty members (Klaviyo · 2025 restaurant research)

From published case studies and industry research. Your results will vary.

Built by MBM. Running right now.

Real apps we built and ship.

• Buggy (MBM in-house app) — A shared grocery list two people run from their phones: add items, check them off in the store, attach photos, import recipes from a link or a photo, track the pantry, and get a nudge when the other person updates the list. Offline-first, Push, Realtime sync, Photos.
• Pocket Apologetics (MBM in-house product) — An installable field handbook with 80 entries you can read with no signal, a daily question, saved items, and a community board. Installable, Offline reading, Full-screen. See it live. Case study.
• ShiftSurge (Client platform) — Restaurants post perks; verified hospitality workers claim and redeem them by QR code. Three roles, live dashboards, push that works with the app closed, Stripe billing. Push, QR redemption, iOS + Android, Stripe. See it live. Case study.

What your app can do

• Push notifications: Announce today's special and it lands on their lock screen.
• Loyalty rewards: Digital punch cards that remind customers when they're one visit away.
• Order and book: Online ordering, appointments, or reservations built in.
• Works offline: Menus and info load even with one bar of signal.
• Your brand, everywhere: Your icon, your colors, your name on their phone.
• Instant updates: Changes go live the moment we ship them. No app store review.

Built for

• Restaurants and cafés: Order ahead and pickup, Digital punch cards, Daily-special push.
• Salons, barbers, and spas: Two-tap booking, Rebooking reminders, Fewer no-shows.
• Fitness and yoga studios: Class schedule, Check-in from the car, Membership perks.
• Boutiques and specialty shops: Restock alerts, Flash sales, VIP drops.

How it works

1. Strategy call: We map what your customers actually need from an app.
2. Clickable prototype: You tap through your app before we build it.
3. Build and launch: We build, test on iPhone and Android, and put an install button on your site.
4. Grow: We host it, maintain it, and help you run push campaigns.

Most apps launch within 4 to 10 weeks. Launch time varies with project complexity and feature depth.

Packages

• Pocket — Your business, installable. Starting at $3,500, plus $99/mo to run it. Includes: Branded installable app, Menu or service pages, Click-to-call and directions, Contact form, Basic push notifications.
• Magnet — Built to bring them back. Starting at $6,000, plus $179/mo to run it. Includes: Everything in Pocket, Loyalty punch card, Online ordering or booking, Segmented push campaigns, Customer accounts, Offline mode.
• Flagship — Whatever you can dream up. Custom quote, plus from $299/mo to run it. Includes: Everything in Magnet, Payments, POS and CRM integrations, Multi-location, Custom workflows, Native-app path.

The monthly plan covers hosting, security and compatibility updates, push delivery, monitoring, and small content edits. New features are quoted separately.

Need App Store apps? Native iOS and Android builds are quoted separately.

Want it in the App Store too?

Most businesses never need the App Store. Your web app handles ordering, loyalty, booking, and push. If you need tap-to-pay, Bluetooth hardware, Apple Wallet, or App Store search visibility, we build full native iOS and Android apps too. Talk Native Apps.

Questions owners ask

Is this a real app?

Yes. It installs to the home screen, opens full-screen, and sends notifications. Technically it's a progressive web app (PWA), the same technology Starbucks and Uber use for their web apps.

Does it work on iPhone?

Yes. On iPhone, customers tap Share, then Add to Home Screen, and we guide them with a built-in prompt. Push notifications work once it is installed.

Why not the App Store?

No approval delays, no 30% store fees, instant updates, and one app for every device. Native is available when you need it.

Do I own my app?

Yes. Once your build is paid in full, your app, content, branding, and data are yours. Some of the behind-the-scenes building blocks are MBM's own tools, and you get a permanent license to use them. That's part of how we deliver apps faster and for less than a typical agency.

What does the monthly cover?

Hosting, security and compatibility updates, push delivery, monitoring, and small content edits. New features are quoted separately.

How long does it take?

Most apps launch within 4 to 10 weeks. Launch time varies with project complexity and feature depth.

Be the business in their pocket.

Your competitors have websites. Give your customers something they'll actually open. Get an App Quote.