What Is a PWA?
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What Is a PWA?
A PWA (Progressive Web App) is a website built to behave like a native mobile app — it can be added to a phone's home screen, work offline or on a poor connection, send push notifications, and load quickly, all while remaining a single website rather than separate apps for each platform.
PWA vs Native App
A native app is built specifically for one platform (iOS or Android), submitted to an app store, and typically has the deepest access to device hardware and the best performance for graphics-intensive tasks like gaming. A PWA is built once using standard web technologies and runs in any modern browser, meaning one codebase serves desktop, Android and iOS users alike, updates instantly without an app store review process, and doesn't require users to download anything from a store before trying it.
When Should a Business Build One?
PWAs suit businesses that want app-like engagement — home screen presence, offline access, push notifications — without the cost and delay of building and maintaining separate native apps for each platform. E-commerce sites, content publishers, and internal business tools are common use cases where a PWA covers most of the benefit at a fraction of the cost. Businesses needing deep hardware integration (advanced camera features, Bluetooth, complex background processing) or maximum performance for graphics-heavy use cases like games are usually still better served by a native app.