[bjplink]

I've been writing custom web apps for awhile now and with my less technically astute clients I usually just refer to the application as a "system" that they can access from your web browser.

Eventually clients will call for help and say "I need you to look at the system." or "Can you login to the system and change something?"

Also, and this is just my perception and probably not 100% true, I feel like you get less pushback on things like pricing when you tell them you are building them a system and not a website.