When people say "I need an app," they usually mean something in the App Store or Play Store. But there's another option called a Progressive Web App (PWA) that's often a better fit – and most people don't even know it exists.
What's a PWA?
A Progressive Web App is a web application that can be installed on your phone and behaves like a native app. It gets its own icon on your home screen. It can work offline. It can send push notifications. It looks and feels and functions just like any other native app – but under the hood, it's just a website – which means you build it once and it works everywhere: desktop browsers, mobile browsers, and as an installed app on both iOS and Android.
PWAs have technically existed for years, but until recently they weren't a viable option because Apple dragged their feet on support. The first big turning point was iOS 16.4, which finally added push notification support for PWAs. That was the last major gap. Apple still makes installation clunkier than it needs to be (more on that in a bit), but the core functionality is now there – for the first time, PWAs are genuinely viable on both platforms.
The hidden costs of going native
First off, there are the gatekeepers. Apple and Google review every app update before it goes live – even bug fixes. So if you discover a critical issue on a Monday, your fix might not reach users until Thursday – or even later, if it gets kicked back for some minor policy quibble – which can be incredibly frustrating. Ask me how I know.
Then there's the revenue cut. Both app stores take 15-30% of any money that flows through your app. That's a huge chunk of your gross revenue just for the privilege of being in their store.
And finally, there's the development itself. If you want to be on both iOS and Android, you're either building two separate apps (with two separate codebases to maintain), or you're using a cross-platform framework like React Native or Flutter. Those frameworks are genuinely useful, but they add additional layers of complexity. All of this adds up to longer timelines and higher costs.
"But can it actually do what a native app does?"
This is usually the first objection, and it's mostly based on outdated information. Modern PWAs have access to a lot more than people realize.
Camera and microphone? Yes. Push notifications with badge icons? Yes. Offline storage and background sync? Yes. Geolocation? Yes. The list keeps growing as browser APIs mature.
There are still some edge-case gaps – certain Bluetooth capabilities, NFC writing, and a few deep OS-level integrations aren't available yet. But for the vast majority of business applications, especially CRUD-style apps where you're creating, reading, updating, and deleting data, PWAs can do everything you need.
When a PWA makes sense (and when it doesn't)
PWAs are a great fit when:
- You're building a data-driven app (dashboards, internal tools, B2B software, consumer apps with accounts and logins)
- You want to ship updates instantly without waiting for app store approval
- You'd rather not give Apple and Google a huge cut of your revenue
- You want one codebase instead of two or three
- You control the onboarding experience and can guide users through installation
That last point matters because the main tradeoff with PWAs is user familiarity. Most people don't know you can install a web app to your home screen. And Apple, in particular, doesn't make it easy – the flow is buried under the Share button, then "Add to Home Screen," which doesn't exactly scream "install this app." The process isn't all that difficult. It's three taps and takes only a few seconds. But it requires a bit of explanation since most users aren't used to this flow. That bit of installion friction on iOS is probably the single biggest drawback to going the PWA route. It's worth noting that this is a non-issue on Android which makes it very easy to install with a tap.
PWAs are less ideal when:
- App Store presence is a key part of how you'll acquire users
- You need access to APIs that browsers don't support yet
- You're building something like a 3D game that needs deep hardware integration
For most custom business applications, though? PWA is a great option.
A real example: Nylo
We built Nylo ((nylo.app)[https://nylo.app]) as a PWA for our client. It's a subscription app for parents and kids featuring interactive activities, stories, and meditations. It has rich media, user accounts, payments, push notifications – all the things you'd expect from a "real" app.
Our client went with a PWA because it let us move fast, keep costs down, and deploy updates the moment they're ready. Having a single codebase means we're not maintaining parallel versions for web and mobile. And because parents sign up through our site, we control the onboarding experience and can guide them through installation.
Wrapping up
If you're planning to build a mobile app, it's worth asking whether you actually need to be in the app stores – or whether a PWA could get you there faster, cheaper, and with less friction.
Not sure which approach is right for your project? Book a free 15 minute consultation with us. We won't give you the hard sell – we love nerding out about this kind of stuff!