Appsite
A website you use instead of read.
Every page is a working app rather than a page about one. There is no brochure layer between you and the software. The tool, the audit, the calculator or the world is the page itself, and it runs in your browser with nothing to install and nothing to book.
Casa is an Appsite. That is the whole description of what this is.
What it is not, and what it is
A website does this
A page describing a tool, with a button to go somewhere else.
A brochure with a contact form at the bottom.
A demo video of software you cannot touch.
A download link, an install step, an onboarding wizard.
An Appsite does this
The tool is the page. It runs the moment it loads.
No account needed to get value out of the first click.
The work happens in your browser, not on a sales call.
Every route is a product, so the site map is a product list.
Four ways to tell the difference
The first-click test
On a website, the first click takes you toward the thing. On an Appsite, the first click is the thing. You land on an audit and the audit starts.
The screenshot test
If a screenshot of the page would be indistinguishable from the page itself, it is a website. An Appsite does not survive the screenshot. It has state.
The offline test
Close the tab mid-task and come back. An Appsite remembers where you were, because it was doing something rather than saying something.
The sitemap test
Read the sitemap out loud. On a website it reads like a table of contents. On an Appsite it reads like an app drawer.
Casa is the reference implementation
Every one of these opens and runs. None of them is a page describing something else.
Questions
What is an Appsite?
An Appsite is a website you use instead of read. Every page is a working app rather than a page about one. There is no brochure layer between you and the software: the tool, the audit, the game or the calculator is the page itself, and it runs in the browser with nothing to install.
How is an Appsite different from a web app?
A web app is usually one product behind one login. An Appsite is a whole site where every route is its own product, most of them open, and the navigation is the app drawer. A web app has a marketing website in front of it. An Appsite has no front, because the site and the software are the same object.
How is an Appsite different from a normal website?
A normal website transfers information. An Appsite performs work. The clearest tell is the first click: on a website it moves you toward the thing you came for, and on an Appsite it is the thing you came for.
Is Casa an Appsite?
Casa is the reference implementation. Every section of Casa is something that runs: AEO audits, browser tools, statistical research software, production apps, and interactive 3D worlds. Nothing on Casa is a page that only describes something else.
Appsite is a word coined at Casa in Toronto. Take it and use it. It belongs to anyone who builds this way.