Progressive Web App (PWA) vs Native Mobile App

Innovation in technology and development is an ongoing endless process to ultimately achieve most advanced and
limitless solution for better, faster and easing user experience. Just few years back once iOS and Android mobile
operating system become the core for mobile business solution, considered as must have native mobile app solution
for better user experience to shift the business over to mobile. Now since the progressive web app development
capability getting more advanced to almost deliver the same native mobile experience within less time, cost and
efforts.

It is interesting look over side by side key differences and comparison as Progressive Web App (PWA) vs Native Mobile
App, which one is better?

     User experience:

Native app requires to be installed on mobile handset and uses mobile storage so moving on one OS to another OS is
not possible., It need completely as separate set of UI / UX for better native only user experience.

PWA is to be just one single UI / UX layer best scales to view from any devices and web browser with an immersive
user experience, it is certainly become powerful to deliver native app like user experience without difference, so
it is OS and browser independent, provide omnichannel user experience.

     Cost and Maintenance:

Native App is specific to one mobile OS only, so to cover maximum mobile user base it requires to have Native App for
each separate mobile OS for the same app, Development platforms are different so need a dedicated development
resource, ultimately multiplies development and Maintenance cost, also a cost to publish app to promote on market
place.

PWAs are to be built as web page so completely independent of any operating system, so it is cross-platform solution
thus the cost of development and maintenance is significantly very law in compare to native app solution. Yes, no
monopoly cost to promote PWA Apps.

    New User Acquisition:

Native App must need an user account to download from respective mobile app marketplace, Every user need to download
native app and install it on mobile handset so new user acquisition takes more time and steps, Also while user is
visiting market place like “Play Store” or “App Store” user can see other similar app of
other brands and may distract to download and use other app as well.

PWA is completely independent from such tedious new user acquisition process as explained. it is simpler to access as
“Add to home screen” button, no downloading or installing. PWA can be saved directly from mobile web
page, ultimately very fast user acquisition process. Linking page URL of PWA is very simpler to share the
information and favorite product among many other users, as web page URL can be copied as a link to access it from
any browser from any device.

    Business Need:

Now this is the most vital point as far as monetize is concerned, Native app only to be uploaded on respective
application store for each app that suck up to 30% of marketplace commission, few businesses cannot even effort to
have dedicated native app solution due such high monetize process. Native app must need to be published on
respective app /play store.

Whereas PWA is an independent solution and free from such monetize process and monopoly control. PWA gives endless
opportunities to plan promotional activities without being controlled by app publishing companies.

    e-Commerce and m-Commerce:

PWA advent now significantly proven to be better solution for M-Commerce and E-Commerce over Native Mobile Apps just
as compared here. PWA now set the new standard to be as mobile first solution, lots of improvement and features
being added to make it more advanced for users.

Major eCommerce players have seen significant result and experience while shifting from Native to over PWA. Both
mobile sites and native apps offer advantages and disadvantages, and PWAs are proving to be the best of both worlds
for businesses. Bigger and better things await as this technology continues to develop.

    Discoverability:

To be discovered is the key advantage of PWA that can easily be found by search engines. It brings new possibilities
for content-centric companies that run native apps. PWA content will be crawled in the search engine results.

Whereas Native App cannot be as discoverable but just published store web page, limiting discoverability as compared
to PWA.

    Likability, Shareability, Updating:

Any page or screen of PWA has a direct link that can be shared very easily. PWAs can always be up to date as
require, Native App need to be approved and user to update it for new version.

    Features:

So far PWAs being sounds wonderful. However, it must need to consider that there are few features that put native
apps ahead of PWAs. For example, access to contacts, calendars, alarms and browser bookmarks. With a PWA, you also
can’t use the telephony features such as interception of SMSs or calls, sending of SMS/MMS, getting the
user’s phone number (use properly marked up form fields instead, and let the browser’s autofill do the
work), reading voicemail, or making phone calls. If really need to implement these features, then consider building
a native app.

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Conclusion:

Just to conclude, PWA can be an ultimate alternative to mobile native apps. PWAs are discoverable, linkable,
bookmarkable, always up-to-date, and you can use them offline as build to run inside a web browser – not on a
device. PWA installation on the mobile device is extremely easy and they have a lower barrier to entry than native
apps. User can easily add a PWA to an existing service, and in addition, no need to implement all the features that
PWAs offer, only those which are compatible with your business goals. PWAs, however, lack some features that are
present in native apps: access to calendar, alarm or telephony features.

So, there are pros and cons to consider while deciding whether to build a PWA or Native app?