Progressive web apps (PWAs) or native apps? Many businesses are unsure of which one to choose. However, this blog outlines the benefits of PWAs to help you make the right choice for your business.
For a long time, native apps have been the preferred choice among businesses due to the satisfying user experience they offer, which allows for increased user engagement. However, now PWAs are influencing today’s app industry and have started to overtake native apps.
For example, when Forbes magazine launched its own PWA, Forbes’ PWA managed to increase scroll depth by 3x, improve sessions per user by 43%, get a 6x increase in readers completing articles, double the engagement rate and more.
What Does Progressive Web App Mean?
In simple words, the progressive web app is an application built and lives on the web but is similar to a native app in terms of the user interface, functionality, performances, and others. PWAs developers leverage programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build PWAs, which are packed-in with features like push notifications, offline accessibility, device hardware access, and more.
Do Progressive Web Apps Work on iOS?
Yes, PWAs work on iOS, apart from Android. Since iOS 11.3, it’s been possible to run PWAs on Apple devices, but they are not compatible with older devices.
Nowadays, progressive web applications are growing in popularity among businesses on mobile operating systems, progressive web apps, and support multiple desktop operating systems, including Linux, Windows, macOS, etc.
Advantages of Progressive Web Apps Over Native Applications
Easy and Cost-efficient Development
Developing PWAs is easy and cost-efficient. It allows the same build to function across multiple operating systems and platforms. Thus, developers only need to keep track of a single code base to develop progressive web apps. This minimizes the overall time of PWA development and hence the cost. This is the reason why PWAs are a suitable option for small businesses or startups.
On the contrary, the process of native app development is complicated and time-consuming. Developers need to write code for app development on iOS and Android platforms to make it compatible with multiple browsers.
Offline Access
While talking about the benefits of progressive web apps, it will be a gross mistake to forget about offline accessibility. It’s a significant feature that makes PWA the right choice for business. With an offline mode, any information can be saved automatically during the last online access, and users can access them subsequently without an internet connection.
Native apps, on the other hand, also include features like offline accessibility. But, these apps don’t benefit the users to access features with the same speed as PWAs do.
Lightweight in Nature
The average size of PWA is 350 kb, whereas iOS and Android apps are 11.5 Mb and 37.9 Mb, respectively. Progressive web apps are relatively smaller in size compared to apps developed on iOS and Android, which makes PWAs lightweight and quick.
Unlike the installation process for native applications, when users install PWA’s, there are no long download times, and visitors are not routed through Google Play or the App Store but are allowed to download the app directly onto their device.
Increased Conversion Rates
To use native apps, developers need to download and install the application first. Users go through ratings and reviews before downloading any apps. So, if you have a new app in the app stores with prosaic ratings and reviews, then there are possibilities that users will ignore your app.
Users, on the other hand, need to follow some simple steps to access progressive web apps. All they need to do is to make the PWAs add to their home screen. It allows them to access the app instantly to go through about your products and services and place the order quickly. It boosts the conversion rates of your PWA unprecedentedly.
You may also like to read: Learn if You Need a PWA or Mobile App for Your Business
Multi-platform Support
As the name suggests, progressive web applications are developed to run flawlessly on the web platform. So, both Android and iOS users can access PWA and its multiple features easily.
Native apps are meant to support either iOS or Android exclusively. Therefore, native apps support only a specific platform, depending upon the operating system the app is being developed on.
Quick Loading Time
As mentioned earlier, native apps are substantial, especially when compared with PWAs. So, users have to spend a long time downloading and installing such apps on their devices to use them. Since the loading speed depends on the size of the app, native apps take a long time to load.
However, PWAs are small in size and thus load fast. More than this, these apps run flawlessly even in poor network conditions. Progressive web apps are faster due to the way the underlying technology caches and serves text, stylesheets, images, and other content on the websites.
Storage Space not a Necessity
Users don’t need to download progressive web apps to access it. They can save URLs and add them to their home screen if they want to obtain it frequently. So, PWAs don’t need any storage space for users’ devices.
Native apps require a myriad of storage space while installing it on any device. It discourages users from installing native apps if they have limited space on their devices.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know the benefits of progressive web applications, I imagine you can see why you should choose PWAs over native apps. Progressive web applications are the way of the future, which is why you should consider switching to them now to get the most out of their capabilities for your business.
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