A website or a Telegram Mini App: what a business should choose
Published , 5 min read
Sooner or later a business that sells through Telegram wonders whether it needs a website at all, if everything can be done in a Mini App. Sometimes it does not, sometimes it does. Below we compare both options on the questions that decide it in practice.
What a Mini App is
A Mini App is a web page that opens inside Telegram on top of a chat. Technically it is the same thing as a website: HTML, JavaScript, a server. The difference is that Telegram passes the user’s data to the app, provides built-in payments and links the app to a bot. The person does not type a password, look for a link in a browser or fill in their name.
So the real question is not “website or app” but “where your client is and where they come from”.
When a Mini App wins
- Your audience is already in Telegram: a channel, a group, bot subscribers. Getting from a post to the shop takes one tap.
- Repeat purchases. The client comes back through the bot, not through search. The bot reminds them about an order, sends its status and new arrivals.
- Instant sign-in. Telegram passes the user’s name and ID, and the server checks the signature of that data. There is no sign-up form, so nobody drops off at that step.
- Digital goods. Subscriptions, courses and access to a private channel are sold for Telegram Stars right in the interface.
When you need a website
- Clients come from search. Mini App pages hardly ever show up in Google or Yandex results. If people search for what you sell, without a website that traffic goes to competitors.
- Your audience is wider than Telegram. Some buyers do not use it, some keep it for work and do not want to shop there.
- Complex pages. Large spec tables, product comparisons and long descriptions read better on a big screen.
- Platform dependence. A Mini App lives by Telegram’s rules. If the bot gets restricted or the rules change, the shop stops. A website on your own domain depends only on you and your hosting.
Technical comparison
| Mini App | Website | |
|---|---|---|
| Sign-in | Automatic through Telegram | Sign-up by email or phone |
| Search engines | Hardly indexed | Indexed |
| Payments | Provider through the bot, or Stars | Bank acquiring or a payment service |
| Notifications | Bot messages | Email, SMS, push |
| Address | Inside Telegram | Your own domain |
| Whose rules | Telegram’s and the provider’s | The provider’s |
Comparison by money
At our prices a landing page without a backend costs from $190 and a bot from $125. A Mini App with a server, a database and an admin panel starts from $430. An online shop website with the same logic costs about the same, because the backend is identical: products, orders, payments, admin panel.
The practical takeaway: the backend is built once, and it can have several interfaces. You can launch a Mini App and add a website on the same server later, or the other way round. The second interface costs noticeably less than the first, because all the logic is already written and tested.
If there is no budget for either yet, start with a bot. A button catalogue and order intake cover a small range, and the bot’s server later becomes the base for a Mini App.
Example: a clothing shop with a channel
Take a shop with 15 thousand subscribers in its Telegram channel and about 200 products. Orders now come through private messages, and a manager answers each one by hand.
The first step here is a Mini App: a catalogue with sizes and photos, a cart, payment through a provider. Every channel post links to a product, and the buyer gets to payment in a minute. The bot sends the order status and tells subscribers about new arrivals.
This shop needs a website too, but second. People search for clothes by brand and model, and over time the website starts bringing buyers who are not in the channel. By then the backend is ready, and what is left is building pages and tuning them for search engines.
One mistake is common: making the Mini App a copy of a website with every section. Inside Telegram a person wants to buy quickly, not read an about page. Keep the catalogue, the cart and orders there, and move the rest to the website.
About PWAs
There is a third option people often forget. A PWA is a website that installs on a phone like an app: an icon on the home screen, offline mode, push notifications. Search engines index it like any website, and it does not depend on Telegram. It fits when clients open your service often, not once a month.
How to choose
Answer three questions.
- Where do your clients come from now? If most come from a Telegram channel or group, start with a Mini App.
- Do people search for your product? If yes, you need a website either way.
- How many products do you have and how often do they change? With a dozen items a bot with buttons is enough. With hundreds you need a proper catalogue, and that means a Mini App or a website.
If the answers point different ways, that is normal. Build a shared backend and whichever interface brings money in faster. The second one comes once the first pays for itself.
Our portfolio has an example of each. Pereplyot is a bookshop inside Telegram with a catalogue, a wallet and a reader. Yelnik is a website with a 3D house configurator. Brovka is a PWA with a news feed that works offline. You can open and try each of them.