Which hosting plan for a mobile app: the website, the privacy page and the server

The short answer: a mobile app almost always needs a website (that presents it and that app stores require, with a privacy page and a support contact) and, sometimes, a server (an API). The site is light and the entry plan will do; the server depends on what the app does.

What the site needs

What What to do
Presentation site What the app does, screenshots and links to the stores. One page is enough to start.
Privacy page App stores ask for the address of a public privacy policy. It must say, truthfully, what data the app collects: Legal pages.
Support page A real contact (domain e-mail, form) for users and for the stores.
The app’s server If the app only shows content, a simple PHP API runs on the hosting. If it needs an always-on process, real time or more control, it is a VPS: Keeping a Node.js app running with PM2.
Links into the app To open the app from a link, some verification files sit in a fixed folder on the site (the “.well-known” folder). Do it when the developer asks for them.

Getting started

1 Register a domain for the product and use that domain’s e-mail as the store contact.
2 Publish the privacy and support pages before submitting the app.
3 Decide where the API runs: on the hosting if simple; on a VPS if it needs more. Deploying a Node.js or Python app from Git.
4 Keep the site apart from the API, for example the API on a subdomain: Subdomain or folder.
5 Back up the app’s database and keep the copies off the server.
The privacy policy has to match the app. If the app collects location, contacts or photos and the page does not say so, the store may refuse or remove it. Write it after you know exactly what the code collects, and update it when that changes.
For a site people install as an app without going through the stores, see A website people can install like an app.

Launching an app? Tell us what it stores on the server and how many users you expect.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

Legal pages for any website: privacy, terms and cookies, and which ones you need

Keeping a Node.js app running on a VPS with PM2

Deploying a Node.js or Python app from Git: pull, install, restart

Subdomain or folder: where to put a blog, a shop or a test site

A website people can install like an app: PWA basics

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