With 2.7 billion smartphone users present in the world today, the need for business to target customers on the mobile device is unavoidable. Other than a responsive website, two of the options that are widely prevalent among the business today, to reach out their mobile-based customers are
Don’t the terms seem similar? Yes, of course, but they are totally different from one another. If that’s the case, two questions will pop up in your mind:
We listed some of the key points that will help you understand the difference between the two and choose the best out of them for your business.
A native mobile app is a software program that is developed for use on a particular platform. Some of the popular examples are Instagram, WhatsApp, and Swiggy, etc.
A progressive web app is a combination of the best of mobile and website. It uses a collection of technologies, design concept, and Web API’s that works together to provide an app-like experience on the mobile web.
Difference between Progressive web app and Native Mobile app
The native mobile apps are designed for specific platforms. They are developed for a particular platform such as for iOS or Android. This makes sure that the experience within a native app is tailor-made to each platform. On the other hand, Progressive web apps take a different approach. They are not platform-specific. As a result, you only need to develop one app which works across every device.
Since the design of a native app is platform specific, it provides a more user-friendly experience. At the same time, a native mobile app saves time and cost.
The development of a mobile app is more expensive when compared to the development of a web app. As native mobile apps are platform-specific, they have a unique development process for each platform. On the downside, PWA has a common processing code for every platform.
While a PWA is easy to launch without any approval, a native mobile app requires approval from the app store. This might take a long process and sometimes your app might get ret rejected too whereas a developer you might have to end up making extensive changes.
Users can only access a native mobile app after downloading it from an app store. Once installed, the app will appear on your home screen with a recognizable icon and text label. PWA, on the other hand eliminates administrative headaches in app stores. Users can access it by searching in a mobile browser. You can simply add it to your home screen.
A user using the mobile app has to update it frequently from an app store or play store to make sure that they are using the latest version. Taking this into consideration things are easier for a PWA user as they need not worry about updates.PWA will update by itself.
Native mobile apps have access to system resources. This adds to the functionality of the mobile apps but at the same time the use of device battery, storage and data will be more. PWA apps only have limited access to system resources.
Native mobile apps can work offline whereas one can only access and run a PWA with a proper internet connection.
Users need not worry about the safety and security of the native mobile app as it requires the approval of the app store. Apps that pose security issues to the users are highly unlikely to get accepted. At the same time, a web app user needs to be worried about security issues as it is not subjected to standardized quality control.
Whether you are planning to develop web apps, native apps or progressive web apps, you need to take a lot of factors into consideration. The app speed, performance, if you want the app to be internet-enabled, which mobile platform you want it to support, your budget, etc.
You can also opt to work with all the types to widen the reach of your products.
