The mobile market is growing at a fast pace. According to the research, the number of mobile users in the world will reach 3 billion by the end of this year.
To cater to the current customer’s demands and meet their expectations, brands need to optimize their online store for smartphones. But, that alone may not work!
It is time to go the extra mile and design a high-quality mobile app that makes the shopping experience pretty convenient for users.
First of all, you need to decide which among the Progressive Web App and Native App can benefit your brand in the long run. Each method comes with its share of pros and cons.
Let take a look at what kind of app your business needs right now by comparing Progressive Web Apps and Native Apps in iOS and Android.
Read this article and make an informed decision!
What is Progressive Web App?
Progressive Web App looks almost similar to the native apps. The only difference is the PWA is available on your browsers. You can access the native app features on your mobile or desktop browsers without having to install the additional app on your device. PWAs are designed to eliminate poor connectivity and lack of storage issues.
As far as the quality is concerned, the Progress Web App offers a fast, secure, and reliable user experience. The best example is Twitter. You can access your Twitter account via your mobile browser and get real-time notifications.
Pros of PWA
- Offline Mode: You can operate the PWAs mobile app in an offline mode. It keeps you up-to-date with real-time notifications.
- Easy to Develop: PWAs are faster and easier to develop than native apps. You don’t need to learn iOS and Android coding languages to design a separate application for both devices. PWAs only need JavaScript, HTML, and CSS knowledge.
- Accessible: Approx 25% of mobile users uninstall apps because of insufficient storage problems. The PWAs do not consume your phone’s memory. It is easily accessible on your browser.
Cons of PWA
- PWAs have limited features. They can’t access alarm, bookmarks, and calendars on your mobile. Similarly, they cannot collect the user’s mobile number.
- PWA is only compatible with Android browsers. For instance, it doesn’t work on Safari. Considering that Safari is one of the most-used browsers, you could lose your audience by relying on PWA only.
- The brands can only send push notifications to Android users. So, if you only have Progressive Web App, there is a good chance you will lose the iOS audience.
- PWAs cannot access the customer’s information. This results in a lack of personalized user experience and low engagement rates.
What are Native Apps?
Native apps are available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store. These apps feature a broad range of functionalities and give a smoother user experience. Native apps can’t be accessed via mobile browsers.
Basically, the apps designed for individual platforms such as Android and iOS devices are called Native Apps. Since they are designed for individual platforms, native apps need platform-based programming languages.
For example, an iOS native app can be developed using Swift language while Android apps need Java coding. The best example is Facebook. The app is available for both Android and iOS users.
Further reading Native vs React Native for Mobile App Development
Pros of Native Apps
- High-Performance Apps: Native apps are designed for a specific platform. They offer a seamless navigation experience to the users. The apps are downloaded on a smartphone and use your mobile’s processing speed to function. These apps load considerably faster than web apps.
- Customizable: native apps offer a great room for customization. The app developers can add many unique and advanced features to make their app stand out in the app stores.
- Work Offline: Most native apps run without an internet connection. Even if you are on a flight, train, or a no-network area, you could access native mobile apps offline.
- Personalized: Native apps offer personalized user experience by gathering customer’s purchase, browsing, and navigation history.
- A Great User Experience: App store only publishes mobile apps that meet their basic app-design criteria. So, you can rest assured that native apps offer great user experience.
- Access Customer’s Data: Unlike PWAs, native apps can collect customer’s numbers, emails, and other data for better engagement. These apps also allow store owners to target the customers entering a particular location through geofencing.
Cons of Native Apps
- Native apps are pretty expensive. They take relatively more time to develop than progressive web apps. The app developers need to develop individual native apps for each device, using platform-specific coding language.
- Less accessible: Users need to install these apps from Google Play Store or App Store to access the application. This not only makes it less accessible, but additional software can consume considerable mobile space.
Progressive Web Apps or Native App: Which one to Choose?
Both PWA and Native apps are designed to boost customer engagement rates. Each has unique features. If budget and accessibility are your major concern, then a progressive web app is an ideal option for you. But, make sure that web apps are not compatible with third-party apps and geofencing. You won’t be able to send push notifications to your prospects.
Developers should consider a native app if they want to offer a high-quality and seamless user experience.
Why are Native Apps Better than PWA?
While progressive apps are cheaper and less complicated than native mobile apps, they fail to cater to the iOS audience. You cannot target your prospects through geofencing and push notifications through progressive apps. Sure, PWA uses transparent and 100% secure URLs. But, native apps are considered more reliable.
On the other hand, native mobile apps offer the best User Interface and seamless user experience. If customer satisfaction is your priority, then you should invest in native apps. From faster user navigation to customizable features, native apps outperform progressive web apps in many ways.
Further reading : Most Popular Mobile App Development
Hope you got the idea of choosing the right app for your business. If you have any idea to build an app we have and want to know how much it will cost to build it, give our estimator tool a try.
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