Ever used a website on your phone that felt surprisingly slick, loaded instantly even on a shaky connection, and even asked if you wanted to add it to your home screen? You’ve likely encountered a progressive web app (PWA).
A progressive web app is a type of web application that uses modern web technologies to deliver an experience so fast, reliable, and engaging that it feels just like a native app you’d download from an app store. It’s the best of both worlds: the broad accessibility of the web combined with the rich features of a dedicated application.
For years, developers and businesses faced a tough choice. Do you build for the web platform, reaching anyone with a browser and a link? Or do you build a platform specific app (one for iOS, another for Android) to get better performance and deeper device integration?
This created a classic trade off between capability and reach.
Websites offered incredible reach. A single site works everywhere, is easily shareable, and can be found on search engines. But historically, they lacked capability. They couldn’t work offline, send push notifications, or access many device features.
Native Apps offered amazing capability. They could access your camera, GPS, and contacts, work offline, and sit on your home screen. But their reach was limited. You had to convince a user to find you in a crowded app store, download a large file, and give you precious screen space.
A progressive web app aims to eliminate this trade off. It starts as a regular website but progressively enhances itself, gaining app like features in modern browsers. The goal is to bridge web and native, delivering native app capabilities with the massive reach and ease of access of the web.
The real reason PWAs are gaining momentum is because they deliver tangible results for businesses and a better experience for users.
PWAs are designed for speed. By intelligently caching resources, they can load in a fraction of the time of a traditional website.
Fact: A 2025-published empirical study measured a website’s performance before vs. after PWA implementation (using tools like Lighthouse and GTMetrix). The “before” version had a performance score around 62%, which jumped to ~98% after adopting PWA. Metrics like First Contentful Paint, Largest Contentful Paint, Speed Index and Total Blocking Time improved substantially.
One of the most powerful features of a PWA is its ability to work without an internet connection. Using a technology called a Service Worker, a PWA can cache its core user interface and previously viewed content.
Fact: The Washington Post’s PWA caches content, resulting in an 88% reduction in page load time for returning visitors and a 23% increase in returning users within a week.
A faster, more reliable experience naturally leads to better business outcomes. Numerous companies have seen significant lifts in key metrics after launching a progressive web app.
Fact: After launching their PWA, AliExpress saw conversion rates for new users increase by 104%.
Fact: The travel site MakeMyTrip achieved a 3x increase in conversion rates with its PWA.
Fact: The cosmetics brand Lancôme saw a 17% higher conversion rate on its PWA.
PWAs can be “installed” directly from the browser to a user’s home screen, bypassing app stores entirely. This low friction process means more users are likely to add your app to their device.
Fact: Pinterest saw a 40% increase in time spent on their site after launching their PWA, which offered a faster, app like experience without a formal download.
Instead of building and maintaining separate apps for iOS, Android, and the web, you build one progressive web app that works everywhere.
Fact: Developing a PWA can be 3 to 4 times cheaper than building separate native apps.
Fact: Some analyses suggest businesses can save up to 90% on development and maintenance costs by choosing a PWA over multiple native apps.
This “build once, run everywhere” model is a huge advantage, especially for startups and agile teams. Platforms like WeWeb’s visual web app builder take this even further, allowing you to build a powerful, production‑grade progressive web app visually, dramatically accelerating your time to market.
The magic behind a PWA isn’t really magic at all. It’s a combination of three key web technologies.
The web app manifest is a simple JSON file that tells the browser about your PWA. It defines things like the app’s name, the icons to use on the home screen, the app’s primary colors, and how it should launch (for example, in a full screen window without a browser address bar). This file is what makes a website installable.
The service worker API is the real workhorse of a progressive web app. A service worker is a script that your browser runs in the background, separate from the web page. This allows it to intercept network requests, manage a cache of responses, and enable features that don’t need a visible web page, like push notifications.
This background script is what enables:
Offline Operation: When you’re offline, the service worker can intercept requests and serve files from a local cache instead of the network, allowing the app to load and function.
Background Operation: It can perform tasks like syncing data or receiving push notifications even when the app’s tab is closed.
Advanced Caching Strategy: Developers can implement sophisticated rules, like “cache first, then network” or “stale while revalidate” (show cached content immediately while fetching an update in the background) to balance speed and freshness.
For storing more complex data offline, PWAs use IndexedDB. Think of it as a complete NoSQL database built right into the browser. It’s perfect for storing user data, articles, or product catalogs so the app can be fully functional without a connection.
Beyond the core components, a rich ecosystem of web APIs allows a progressive web app to achieve true parity with native apps.
Notifications API: This works with the Push API to let you send push notifications to users, reengaging them with timely updates even when they aren’t using the app. Support for this landed on iOS in 2023, making it a truly cross platform feature.
Badging API: Allows a PWA to display a small badge on its home screen icon, just like a native app showing the number of unread messages or notifications.
Web Share API: Lets your app hook into the device’s native sharing capabilities, so users can share content directly to their contacts or other installed apps.
Window Controls Overlay API: On desktop, this API allows an installed PWA to take over the entire window, hiding the default title bar and creating a completely custom, immersive interface.
Other Web APIs: The web platform is constantly evolving. A huge collection of other web API options exist for accessing device hardware like Bluetooth, NFC, and geolocation, further closing the capability gap with native apps.
While powerful, building a great progressive web app comes with some considerations.
The primary challenge has been inconsistent browser support, though this gap is closing rapidly.
Cross Browser Compatibility: For years, Apple’s Safari lagged in PWA support, particularly for features like push notifications on iOS. While now supported, some differences remain in how browsers handle installation prompts or certain advanced APIs.
Device Integration Limits: PWAs still can’t access everything a native app can, such as telephony, SMS, or certain low level hardware features.
Awareness of PWA: A significant hurdle is that many users simply don’t know a website can be “installed”. Apple once noted “very low user adoption” in part because the “Add to Home Screen” option is less obvious than a big install button.
To overcome these challenges and deliver a fantastic experience, follow these PWA best practice guidelines.
Be Responsive: Ensure your app looks and works great on any screen size, from a small phone to a large desktop monitor. Cross device compatibility is non negotiable.
Design for Offline First: Always provide a custom offline experience, even if it’s just a simple message. Never let the user see the browser’s default “no internet” page.
Use HTTPS: Security is mandatory. Service workers and many modern APIs only work on secure connections. Pair HTTPS with Auth0 authentication for secure login and role management.
Optimize for Performance: Keep your app fast and lightweight. An app shell model, where the UI skeleton is cached, makes return visits feel instant.
Make it Discoverable: Because a PWA is a website, it’s indexable by search engines. Use standard SEO practices to ensure users can find you, and track key events with Google Tag Manager integration.
While PWAs don’t need an app store, some stores have embraced them as a way to expand their catalog. The Microsoft Store is a prime example. On Windows, PWAs can be packaged and listed right alongside native applications, giving them increased visibility and a trusted distribution channel. Microsoft’s own Bing crawler can even automatically index high quality PWAs and suggest them for store listing.
This approach gives developers the best of both worlds: the reach of the web plus the discoverability of a traditional app store.
If you’re ready to build a progressive web app, there are countless resources available. You can also jumpstart your build with customizable app templates. You can find a guide or tutorial that provides step by step instructions, a how to article for a specific task, or deep technical reference documents on sites like MDN or web.dev.
However, building a PWA from scratch requires a good amount of technical knowledge, from setting up the service worker to managing caching logic. For teams and founders who value speed and autonomy, this can be a significant hurdle. This is where AI can help. WeWeb AI can scaffold pages, data bindings, and components from plain‑English prompts.
This is where a visual development platform can change the game. Instead of hand‑coding every component, you can use a tool like WeWeb to build your custom application visually. It also offers integrations with Airtable, Google Sheets, GraphQL, and more so your PWA connects to the tools you already use. You get all the benefits of a progressive web app: performance, offline capabilities, and installability, without the steep learning curve. It’s the fastest way to turn your idea into a production‑ready app that works for everyone, everywhere. Book a live demo to see it in action.
A native app is written in a platform specific language (like Swift for iOS or Kotlin for Android) and must be downloaded from an app store. A PWA is built with web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) and runs in the browser, but can be “installed” on a device’s home screen for an app like experience.
Yes. Modern versions of iOS and Safari fully support the core technologies behind PWAs, including service workers for offline functionality and web push notifications (as of iOS 16.4). The installation process is slightly different, requiring the user to tap “Share” and then “Add to Home Screen”.
Yes, technically any website can be enhanced to become a PWA. The core requirements are a secure HTTPS connection, a Web App Manifest file, and a registered service worker.
Many leading companies have built successful PWAs, including Twitter, Starbucks, Pinterest, Uber, The Washington Post, and Forbes. These companies have reported significant increases in engagement, conversions, and user satisfaction. Explore real‑world examples built with WeWeb.
