Progressive Web App or Native apps: what should you use for your business

People are spending more time on their mobile phones as they always carry them around on their person. With the proliferation of 4G internet and WiFi hotspots in many places, the opportunity to reach mobile users is only expanding rapidly. You can create a responsive web design which allows you to connect to your users through your website. Or make native mobile apps which users can download through an app store. If you are looking to work with a dedicated mobile app developer who can develop any kind of apps, then get in touch with the team at WebVillee. 

Recently, we have Progress Web Apps (PWA) which is kind of a middle ground between mobile websites and mobile apps. Let us learn what PWAs and React native apps are. 

What is a Progressive Web App?

PWA is an application where all the assets of the website like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, documents, etc, are kept in the browser which you can use offline. They run faster than web apps and websites. They are safe because users don’t have to download it from an app store but directly from a website. They are also made with many safety protocols. PWAs are basically websites, you can share them as URLs too. 

What is a React Native App?

It is a software framework that uses JavaScript code to build mobile applications with a native look. You can build a single app for both iOS and Android. Your native app gets you an app that is highly responsive to the operating system and interacts with the features in the device. In fact, the responsiveness of the native app is so good that it reduces the learning curve for new users. 

Progressive Web Apps vs React Native apps: Here are some of the differences between the two:

#1 Cross-platform availability:

When developing an app using react native, it should be designed specifically for iOS and Android users separately. This means that they don’t have to worry about cross-platform compatibility. On the other hand, developers create the responsive instance of the PWA app and rely on the user’s browser to display it correctly. 

With native apps, developers can create an excellent user interface as the app is designed specifically keeping mobile apps in mind. But with PWAs, you can end up saving a lot of time and effort since the single app can be loaded on both iOS and Android. 

#2 Using the apps offline

Mobile apps could help you access information about a business without getting connected to the Internet. Thankfully, you can get it on the web too, with the help of PWAs. Since it is a web-based app that gets installed on your system, PWAs utilize cache data to work offline. PWAs efficiently run offline with the help of Service Workers, these are JavaScript files that run without any help from the web app.

PWAs cannot obviously provide all parts of the app to the user when offline. Anything that isn’t naturally a part of the web page’s caching system will be unavailable until there is Internet connectivity. 

In this area, native apps are a clear winner while PWAs do provide a distinct advantage by helping the user access information even when they aren’t connected. 

#3 Searchability:

Native apps can be either found within the app stores or in search engines. But there is a small caveat though, you cannot index the pages of the app. This is why you need to App Store Optimization (ASO) which can be done by using a bunch of tactics. 

You need to find out the keywords that your potential customers use to find you and include it in your app’s title and description. Write a strong headline, quirky description, increase the number of customer ratings, and so on. If you utilize the categorization feature properly, there are high chances that your app will get recognized properly. 

A PWA, on the other hand, is more like a website, so it is like any other search result. If you can do SEO well, you can strike gold by being on top of the search results. In fact, it can even give you links to relevant pages within the app. 

#4 Push Notifications:

Accengage’s Push Notification Benchmark says that opt-in rates are 91.1% for Android and 43.9% for iOS devices when a business sends a push notification. In fact, Push Notifications are one of the reasons why most businesses are keen on building mobile apps. Why? Mainly because of the high opt-in rates. It creates high engagement with your content. 

You can use 3rd-party push notification services such as OneSignal, PushBots, Google Firebase, etc. In PWAs, you can use push notifications with the help of Service Workers. Native apps are a leader in this category as push notifications in PWAs are not available for iOS yet. 

#5 Security:

Privacy is an important factor, no matter which field you are in. Mobile apps should secure the data of their customers and be GDPR compliant too. Native app uses multi-factor authentication for both users and app owners. It also uses certificate pinning which is something PWAs cannot do. 

In a way, PWAs are still more secure as they are only available over HTTPS which allows for browser-to-server encryption. If you download an app from the Play Store or Apple store, you can expect them to be trustworthy as they will not get accepted if there are security issues. 

Conclusion:

There are a lot more aspects that can be considered when comparing the creation of apps using either PWAs or native apps. We believe there are use cases for both. Depending on the kind of solution that you want, you can choose to use either of these. 

The benefits and advantages associated with PWAs will only increase with time when its utility is coupled with newer technologies. PWAs are also beneficial when you don’t have the budget to create full-fledged native apps. Building apps and maintaining them on separate platforms are added costs that startups might not be able to bear. PWAs are also your best bet if you are looking to create an MVP for your product. It would not only be cheaper, but you can also get it on the ground faster.

With all that said, native apps helps you give a highly personalized experience to your users. If you want to deliver timely news and other information, native apps with its push notification feature make it a compelling choice. It takes more time to build and is costlier, but both of these factors are justified.  

If you are looking to create mobile apps for your business using either of these technologies, the WebVillee team will be more than happy to provide you dedicated mobile app resources who can get it done.