9 June 2025
Progressive Web Applications are websites that provide a rich user experience running in a web browser, in a way that is indistinguishable from a native app provided through an app store or an executable. While the experience for the user is identical or very similar, the developer experience is very different.
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Most websites and webapps are not PWAs because they lack a few key features. To qualify, PWAs must have…
This is the aspect which requires the most engineering effort, but also yields the most benefits to users. A traditional website makes dozens of requests as soon as you visit. The simple blog you're reading now made 12 requests, for example. In a well configured site, most static files will be cached to reduce the load time for subsequent visits, but dynamic data will be fetched from the server every time. Without an internet connection you will see an error or missing data, with slow or patchy internet you'll have a frustrating delay, and even with a fast connection this delay will be noticeable. Similarly, if the server responding to your request is overloaded or down, the users will be unable to use the app at all.
In comparison, PWAs store dynamic data on your device. This means when you load the application you will see the last known state of the information almost immediately, regardless of your internet connection or the server's availability. The local data can then be updated in the background when an internet connection is available without disrupting the user.
Offline first delivers best in class performance and service continuity, and is the gold standard for all webapps today. Unfortunately, it's still very common to experience delays on popular websites when on the edge of a WiFi network, using an overloaded network, on the subway, or in remote parts of the world.
The user interface must work on a range of devices and screen sizes. Like offline first, this is best practice for any website, but unlike offline first it has already been well adopted, so most apps work this way already. It requires some additional upfront design work to understand how everything will flow at different resolutions, but after that is relatively easy to implement, and even retrofit into existing sites.
A PWA must also provide a manifest file with icons, app title, colour scheme, etc so it can be displayed like a regular application. The app must also be served securely over https but this is expected for any website today.
If an application meets the requirements above then it can run on any combination of device, operating system, and browser. This means instead of requiring developers with experience with all platforms, the product team only needs experience in web development. Furthermore, the user experience is consistent across devices, and all devices receive new features simultaneously, rather than rolling out to different platforms one by one.
Other technologies exist to allow a single application to be built for all common devices, for example Electron, but this is done in a proprietary way rather than the open standards used by PWAs, so your app is tied to one development ecosystem.
All that is required to make a PWA available is a URL and a web server, which can be bought and set up in less than a day. Once deployed the app is immediately available to everyone on the internet. This is in stark contrast to app stores which require lengthy developer verification and app registration. This is done in an attempt to protect users from poor or malicious applications, but hundreds of bad apps still get through, which in turn prompts stores to make the listing process even more onerous. Furthermore, actual bug and security fixes are delayed because they are forced to go through the validation process again, unlike PWAs which can be patched in seconds.
Additionally app store requirements change every year so applications must be updated or risk being removed from the store altogether. Keeping up with these changes often takes significant effort for no benefit to developers or users.
As PWAs are based on open standards supported by all modern browsers, an app written today will still work in a year's time on new devices and browsers. This means developers spend time delivering value for users, rather than making updates required by the platform just to support the latest devices.
Because the PWA ecosystem is open there is competition at every level of development, from UI frameworks and libraries, to IDEs, languages, and browsers. This thriving ecosystem is driving better developer experience and improved performance for users. The ability to switch between providers for services like payment processing and hosting forces these companies to keep improving and keeps pressure on prices.
As there is only one fully supported app store for each of Android and iPhone, apps on those devices are locked in and fully dependent on the store to be viable. With a PWA you own the method of distribution and can change providers easily and without disrupting users.
App stores commonly take 30% commission on all sales of, and through, your application. This is roughly 10x what a third party payment processing company (eg: Stripe) charges. The justification is that this fee covers the cost of the rest of the app store, but given the store offers no benefit to developers and very little to end users, this does not provide value for money.
Unfortunately the current implementation in browsers makes it difficult for users to discover that a website is installable as a PWA, or even what that means. Because PWAs execute well even without installation this isn't a deal breaker, but most users miss out on the benefits of the app-like experience simply because they don't know it is available. PWA developers need to do a little additional training to help users get through the installation step.
Rendering and user interactions can perform marginally better on native apps, particularly for complex applications or naive implementations, but comparable performance can be achieved reasonably easily. As all devices are running the same code, any improvements to the performance of a PWA will benefit all users, so developers only have to optimise one codebase.
Improvements are being made in devices, browser implementations, and technologies which continue to close this gap.
Listing on a store makes the app easier for users to find so it may get more installations. Increasingly though, ranking well in the app store search results requires paying for promotion, so this discoverability no longer comes for free. Most people still start with a Google search so traditional website marketing also works well for PWAs.
While PWAs are not right for every app, the vast majority of apps that exist today would work better in real world conditions, be cheaper to develop, and be more future proof if they were PWAs. Not only is this better for your business and your users, but only through the wide adoption of open standards can we break the app store monopolies and create a competitive and accessible marketplace for all.