One addition to the app landscape that is significantly changing how many companies approach to web and mobile app development today is Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). There are other numerous benefits you can enjoy by utilizing a PWA for your business, please read on to discover the 5 top benefits of PWAs.

Many companies and online communities with PWAs are noticing an incredible boost in their performance and conversion rates. For example, PWAs helped AliExpress’ user conversion rate rise by 104%.

Twitter also reported a 65% rise in pages for each session, a 20% drop in bounce rate, and the Tweets increased by 75%. Progressive web apps can be a game-changer in this modern high-tech era.

But is a PWA a good choice for your business too? The below advantages will help you decide whether or not a PWA is right for your business.

Mobile-First Design

Many companies, like Google and Microsoft, are promoting progressive web apps to motivate businesses to create improved mobile experiences. This is because numerous online interactions are conducted via mobile devices.

However, many websites surprisingly still face difficulties giving their users a better mobile experience. You can easily ensure your website has a better mobile user experience by developing a PWA to provide users with an optimal mobile experience, regardless of the device they use to access your website.

With a progressive web application, users can load to your platform faster and give your customers pleasant online experiences that will make them want to revisit your site.

No App Store Required

Progressive web apps are usually store-independent. This feature alone can make them a great choice for many businesses, such as small-scale businesses who want to avoid Apple and Google’s charges for selling their apps and in-app products and services.

Store-independent apps also allow developers to develop any type of app they want, without worrying about the restrictions and policies of companies like Apple or Google.

App stores also can make distribution and discovery hard by way of search engines. Selling digital products through apps is also expensive via app store-dependent apps. After the app store takes a cut, and by the time you pay taxes, your profit can be surprisingly low.

Nowadays, there are modern web features such as payment APIs that help to reduce friction on mobile devices for your consumers to pay through your PWA. Anyone visiting your platform can be a potential customer utilizing your low friction PWA.

Cheaper to Develop, Deploy, and Maintain

Native apps can be more costly to create and maintain. One thing most people don’t understand is how many apps are actually just well-designed websites. Many of the apps available are hybrid apps integrating web-based content into native app shells. Meaning, these apps are usually developed as “websites” then enclosed in a native shell.

In many cases, it’s not necessary to create and deploy a native application unless you depend on a specific feature or set of features only available via native apps for your app’s success.  Many native apps can require investments of $25,000 or $100,000 or even more to create, but a progressive web app will require only half or less the cost you’ll invest for a matching native app and that is assuming you only build it for one platform/app store, if you build it for both Android and iPhone, your costs for native apps will approximately double.

Requires Less Memory

The majority of native apps take up a lot of space. They can use more than 100 MB of a smartphones’ data storage capacity. Many users like to avoid installing such apps, especially if they rarely use them. High storage space requirements are one of the primary reasons why many customers delete apps immediately after installation.

Many smartphone users prefer to use that space to store their valuable photos, podcasts, videos, music, notes, and other fun or important stuff.

Progressive web apps typically take up minimal space. Many of them are even below 100 Kb. These apps also use less data than native apps. For example, Tinder’s PWA is only 2.8 MB while its Android app size is 30MB. This difference is huge, especially for individuals with limited mobile data and who can’t access free Wi-Fi.

Instant Updates

Apple’s App Store approval process can seriously delay your app’s updates. This whole procedure of updating a native app can take several weeks. However, this is different with progressive web apps. PWAs usually have near-instant updates since they’re not installed from the application stores and hence don’t require the app store’s permission process for updates to occur.

This aspect removes the lengthy process apps take to process updates and the risk of the app stores rejecting application updates.

There are some extensive websites that make more than 1,000 updates a day. For example, GitHub usually deploys updates about 1,500 times every day. Native apps can’t deploy updates this fast.

In Summary

Although it’s a recent tech development, PWAs have proven to be a great addition to the website and app building landscape. Their advantages make them a critical integration for many businesses today.

PWAs are an excellent tool for improving your business’s overall performance and customer experience. They can help to increase sales and engagement rates that can significantly increase the number of repeat customers for your business.

However, you should remember that developing a good PWA takes some time. It would be best to start slow and test and then enhance the features of your platform as you develop an understanding of what is working. If you don’t have a PWA today, don’t wait any longer; now is the best time to start providing great online experiences for your customers.

Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash