Statista predicts that there the total number of mobile users is likely to cross 4.78 billion by the year 2020.

number of mobile phone users worldwide from 2015 to 2020

Number of mobile phone users worldwide from 2015 to 2020 (in billions)

(Image source – Statista)

Mobile applications are an integral part of the business and are used extensively to inform, educate and promote your product and services to your target customers. Needless to say, it is imperative for your business to have a mobile presence if you want your business to prosper.

Another report from Statista shares that the percentage of mobile retail commerce sales is likely to be 44.7% in the year 2019 (Click here to access the report). A mobile application is just not a luxury for the e-commerce business but a necessity.

Traditionally, the e-commerce business used to develop native mobile applications for different platforms such as iOS, Android and Windows Mobile separately. They then opted for Cross-Platform development where a larger part of the code could be shared, thereby saving on development time and cost.

Then came the Progressive Web Applications (PWAs)!

PWAs are mobile-enabled websites built with modern JavaScript frameworks. They are built to look and feel like a native app and also give the same user experience. They can be easily added to the home screen of your mobile phone with an icon – similar to the native application that you download from the App Store or Google Play Store.

Progressive Web Applications are a bridge between web and mobile applications! They are built with standard web technologies, such as JavaScript, HTML, and CSS to provide an app-like experience. PWAs leverage modern browser capabilities and offer rich functionality and a smooth user experience. E-commerce Businesses largely favor PWAs due to their app-like user experience, offline features, and high-performance capabilities.

(Read our blog – The Significance of PWA for your E-commerce Business)

The Key Features of Progressive Web Apps

  • PWAs are reliable and work in offline mode when the network is unpredictable
  • PWAs provide a user experience similar to the native apps
  • PWAs do not require a download from play or app store
  • PWAs are fast, respond quickly, and do not occupy larger memory space
  • PWAs are economical vis-à-vis the native applications and reduce the development and maintenance cost
  • PWAs are platform-independent and compatible with different devices and browsers

On the other hand, Native Mobile Applications have already proved their mettle.  They are largely developed for Android and iOS platforms and use specific tools and programming languages – Java for Android, Objective C for iOS and C# for Windows.

The Key Features of Native Apps

  • Native app easily integrated with your mobile device’s hardware and software – Bluetooth, camera, wifi, etc.
  • Native app has some built-in feature like GPS, Camera and Sensor
  • Auto memory management is the key feature of native app
  • The auto-update feature of Native apps make it more secure
  • We can easily discover variations of mobile application from Play Store

How do PWAs differ from Native Apps

Parameter PWAs Native Apps
Development Time and Cost Relatively Lesser – One single codebase for numerous platforms More development time and higher cost – Separate Mobile Apps for iOS and Android
Installation Accessed from browser of your mobile device Download and install from the Appstore or Play Store
Security Runs on HTTPS – Better security vis-à-vis other web apps Highly secure – Login, Multi-Factor Authentication, Certificate pinning
Performance Faster loading time – Service workers help manage offline requests, prefetch and cache. An app added to home screen would load instantly and be used offline or in poor network conditions. Better performance than PWAs – Native app leverages the operating system and device hardware.
Access to device features Limited Access Complete Access to Camera, Geofencing, GPS, Contact List, Calendar, Near-field communication
Discoverability SEO ASO
Updates Instant and automated updates Need to wait for an approval from app store or play store

The Big Question – PWAs or Native Apps

PWAs are God-sent for small businesses that want to go to market faster with their ideas. If you are just venturing out with your new business, PWAs can help you save massively on development time and cost (Read our blog – Progressive Web Applications – The Right Choice for Your Startup Business).

PWAs have also proven to be very useful for well-established companies such as Starbucks, Twitter, Pinterest, Trivago and so on who now have much higher customer engagement and enhanced conversion rate after converting their websites into PWAs.

However, we are not writing off the importance of Native Applications!

PWAs, for all their advantages, cannot completely leverage the device features nor can it surpass the high performance and security offered by the Native applications. We recommend news publishers, blog sites, and B2B E-commerce companies to adopt Native application development.

About SynergyTop

SynergyTop can help you in developing Native Mobile Applications, Cross-platform development, as well as exciting PWAs.

Write to us at contact@synergytop.com for a free quote!