Mobile apps soon became an essential aspect of people’s lives. Most of them are dependent on them for entertainment, banking, health, shopping, booking taxi, ordering food etc. This has led to certainly increased demand for mobile apps and opened new avenues for mobile app development services. There are two popular types of mobile apps, progressive web apps and native apps. Also, progressive web apps or PWAs are now making their mark while native apps have obtained higher penetration.
PWAs provide developers with the opportunity to optimize the overall quality of their entire user experience easily. Through seamlessly providing web pages in a browser of the user, the users can easily access a mobile application with quite ease. This has led to increased engagement as well as a session time.
However, few developers still opt to develop a native app based on the several advantages which can’t be replicated with any PWA. The scenario of each developer is quite different, which depends on the app’s actual function. Hence, it is quite critical for the app developers to look at the pros as well as cons of each application type. It ensures that you are spending your resources on a particular solution which will best serve your app users and also enhance the overall performance of the app.
Here, we provide you with what PWAs and native apps have to provide and share the relevant insight on why isprogressive web app development better than native app development. But first, let’s have a complete overview of PWAs and Native apps along with their benefits.
Progressive Web App
It is essentially an highly-optimized website for the mobile which is able to utilize a few of the features of the device like the camera. The users can access PWA from their different browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Safari etc. They can download its content whenever they are browsing and hence the name of progressive.
Benefits of PWA
1) It allows saving both time as well as money as it is developed just once, while native app development requires two distinct developments, one for iOS and other for Android.
2) As you access PWA from any web browser, you certainly don’t need to submit the application in the Stores.
3) The users don’t have to download all of the content of PWA before utilizing it. Hence, they access its entire content much swifter, directly through a URL.
4) As it doesn’t need any download, it utilizes only a small section of the memory of the phone.
5) If the users like it, they can easily share a PWA with its own short URL, that consists of just ten characters.
Native Apps
It is a type of app which is being developed for quite some time. It is developed twice. Once for iOS and another time for Android. It essentially works quite optimally with different types of devices. The users download the particular app with its entire content from the Stores, the Apple Store and Google Play Store.
Benefits of Native App
1) Native apps are more secure as well as reliable way of accessing any type of information.
2) If it takes quite long to install on the home screen of the user, it still performs better than PWA. It has faster, smoother as well as more enjoyable user navigation.
3) It is able to interact with different other native applications. For example, to provide its users to connect with Twitter, Facebook etc. easily.
4) It has far more features than PWAs such as geofencing which is sending a push notification whenever the user approaches a geo-localized point.
5) It offers more possibilities in terms of user experience and interface, like increased customization, games.
Even though native apps are quite a relevant option for developers, there are a plethora of ways in which they are simply outclassed by PWAs. Here are some of the key aspects of why a PWA development company opt to build PWAs essentially as an actual performance-enhancing alternative and why progressive web apps are better than native app development.
1) The Issue of Loading Speed
PWSs utilize service workers in order to manage requests as well as caching and even the storage of the entire shell data. Due to this, the app shell will certainly load much faster than any native app. Hence, loading speed is quite quick for the user even in case they aren’t actually connected to the internet. However, new information isn’t available to them until they finally get reconnected. Since loading speeds have a major impact on engagement and retention, it is a crucial benefit of developing a PWA in instead of native app development.
2) Improved User Experience
The progressive web apps provide the user with a unified experience, owing to the same interface in the browser as well as the app installed on their own device. This completely eliminates any requirement for the user to actually learn more than one user interface, which is an experience that can otherwise frustrate the users whenever using the mobile web as well as a native app.
3) Storage
Native applications require more storage space on the device of the user. It is a factor which is preferable to users which have limited storage space. In the case of PWAs, the users have the entire access to the app’s complete functionality without thinking about their device storage or long-period download time.
4) Reduced Development Cost
Creating a PWA which can operate on different platforms as well as operating systems is quite cost-effective and reduce the workload on PWA development company drastically. Also, creating separate native apps for Android as well as iOS would easily require React Native app development company to spend time on latest features as well as regular updates which are relevant to that particular operating system.
Conclusion
When it comes to mobile apps, there are two distinct popular types. One is progressive web apps and native apps. Both of them have their own advantages. However, in regards to user experience, cost of development, storage space, loading speed, PWAs are way better than native apps. This makes progressive web apps better than native app development.
