So you need to do a mobile app for your business idea. But you're not sure if you should make a mobile friendly HTML Progressive Web App (PWA) or a native mobile app for Android or IOS. A lot of decisions are going to come down to what your users will be doing with the app.
Not to worry we will go over the pros and cons in this comparison.
For native web apps you would be using Java/Kotlin and Android Studio, while for Apple IOS you would be using Objective C or Swift with XCode on the Mac.
A Progressive Web App can be built using HTML with Javascript along with frameworks so as Ionic, Angular, React and even CSS Frameworks such as Bootstrap and Zurb Foundation.
For making games and other apps that need to run really fast and smoothly, native apps cannot be beat.
However for the other 90% of apps that simple allow you to lookup and browse information, example, business apps and social media type apps using a PWA is all the performance you would need.
In this case, a PWA app wins hands down since it uses everyday browser based technologies. Search engines like Google and Bing can easily find and crawl the website that powers your PWA therefore making it easy for users to search for and link deep within your program.
A properly designed Progressive Web App is indistinguishable from a native mobile app. With modern UI frameworks like Ionic, UIKit and many others you have all the buttons and widgets typically available in native platforms for your HTML based PWA.
And what's more the best of the platforms design the widgets and buttons to look like Android or IOS depending on the device you're using them on.
Your PWA can use HTTPS to ensure secure connections to your servers. So can your mobile app too. Accessibility features in your browser are actually quite comparable to native apps and with modern browser technologies PWA's can cache offline content just as well as native apps.
Will Progressive Web Apps replace native apps? No. But they will replace 90% of the reason for developing your app using native tecnologies.
It's simply faster and easier to build a PWA and just send users the link to it, or even publish it in the App stores.
Additionally its easier (and less expensive) to find great HTML/Javascript programmers rather than native Java, Swift or Objective-C programmers.
In 90% of cases, PWA development is a much more rational (budget, quick to execute, simple, etc.) approach to the implementation of your mobile software idea, unless we are talking about interactive games or software that require speed and native processing power.
Contact multi-programming.com for more information about PWA development.