How Much Does a Progressive Web App Development Cost?
The cost of PWA development is a highly individual matter. Considerations range from the condition of the original website to the necessary post-release improvements. Furthermore, the price varies depending on the agency you choose to engage with. Rates will, first of all, correlate with the team's expertise. As a result, you may anticipate hourly prices that range from 25 to 70 USD.
We've thoroughly investigated the topic in the Magento PWA cost article, mentioning the best PWA app builder tools and approaches.
Are There Any Notable Performance Considerations for PWAs?
After receiving permission, native apps are granted full access to the device's hardware and can use all of its features. PWAs could run into some limits, either because iOS/Android purposefully put them in place or because of technical constraints of systems.
There are certain restrictions with access to the GPS, camera, calendar, mobile payments, fingerprint sensor/Face ID, and other features. Their level of access is determined by the OS. Android, for instance, refreshes its environment more quickly than iOS. It concerns push notifications as well. They are functional on Android and operate in Chrome, Opera, and Mozilla; however, there are still some issues with iOS and Safari.
Another issue is that cached files expire quickly. The previously downloaded files will disappear if users don't open the PWA for a while, yet the shortcut will remain. However, the PWA regulations change over time; it’s growing its capabilities and winning more and more trust.
Note: A PWA may require verification during service worker updates, content caching, and app installation. The ""verification successful"" waiting process may be quite long due to the size of updates, network conditions, device performance, and more.
What Are the Benefits of PWAs?
When building an online presence, many businesses create apps for mobile devices, which often includes developing native and web applications. Sometimes, companies even choose to create progressive web apps rather than native apps, but why? Here are the most prominent advantages PWAs provide:
- High Speed
Fast loading is possible thanks to service workers, ensuring advanced caching, and GraphQL as API. By using these technologies, PWAs operate almost as quickly as native applications. - Excellent UI/UX
The PWA code is compatible with numerous platforms, including desktop, iOS, and Android. PWAs may adapt to the OS and show native-like components due to the flexible interface. Regarding button placement, menus, navigation, and other aspects, the solution adheres to standard native app features. As a result, PWAs visually remind native apps while working from the browser. - Lightweight and Easily Discoverable
PWAs use memory only for the cache. They weigh less than 1 MB, don't need a specific location in the device memory, and may alter in size as needed. Additionally, search engines may index PWAs like ordinary web pages, increasing your company's visibility. - Cost-Effective
It takes two distinct codes to make a native app accessible to both iPhone and Android users. Native app developers are key in this process, creating solutions in Swift for iOS and in Java or Kotlin for Android. PWAs, on the other hand, work with all mobile browsers and OSs, so you need two times less effort to create one. Additionally, you'll get a bonus of the site's enhanced desktop version by redesigning it as a progressive web app. - Operates Offline
Without the internet, traditional websites would not be accessible. PWAs are similar to native applications in this regard because they both function without an Internet connection. PWAs employ Vanilla JavaScript, React, Angular service workers, and others to cache data and enable user browsing. Naturally, offline functionality is constrained; for instance, you cannot finish an order or send a message. However, customers may still add items to their shopping carts or read their message history, and the web page will refresh once the connection is restored. - Installability
Native applications need to be downloaded and installed from app stores. Yet, they are pretty heavy. Therefore, before downloading any of them, people tend to hesitate. Aside from that, consumers eventually need to get rid of certain native mobile apps because they gradually eat up more and more storage space, and your app may be among those. The key with PWAs is that, unlike native apps, a web app icon may display on the home screen without really being downloaded.
Videos
iOS - Safari currently doesn't support a Web app install banner, like in Android - Chrome.
There is no way to programmatically trigger install banner in Android as well, except for the case when you catch the beforeInstallPrompt and use that to show the banner.
In the linked answer, you can check on the alternate option on how to show in app banner to guide user to add to home screen. Here is some code example for the same, which is iOS specific (look under #PROTIP 3).
For now, Apple doesn't give the possibility to make this "Add to home screen" experience easy.
You can provide a tooltip explanation to your users though, for IOs users:
Details explained here: https://web.archive.org/web/20200809175125/https://www.netguru.com/codestories/few-tips-that-will-make-your-pwa-on-ios-feel-like-native
in the section: PROTIP 3: Create an “Add to home screen” popup yourself!
Do people around here know https://progressivewebapproom.com/ ? What other repositories of pwas are there? Are there really only these few high quality pwa out there? Googling "best pwa" I found mostly references to the same ones, especially https://progressivewebapproom.com/app.html?id=towergame & https://progressivewebapproom.com/app.html?id=thecube always come up.