Progressive or Responsive Web Applications: Which One Suits My Business?
Smartphones have impacted our lives tremendously. With its evolution, it has managed to replace many of our daily life essentials. In all the aspects smartphones haven’t fathomed yet, they promise the technology to soon do so. Leading a comfortable life seems impossible without the indulgence of these smart gadgets. Their uses fight the case themselves. They have replaced the laborious tasks of newspapers, groceries, food, cabs, shopping and enhanced it by providing 24×7 access to them from anywhere in the world. Although these functionalities are a boon and a progression stamp upon the society as a whole, our dependency on these services has rooted a need to be unique and original regardless of any demographic.
One of the key realms to stand out from the tightly packed market is by exerting strict and benevolent user experience policies. From the first impression to the overall flow based on multiple dynamics of your product, everything determines the user experience of your customers. For instance, if any element of your website fails to synchronize with the harmony of your overall UX protocol, users might not think twice before moving on your competitor’s platform. Believe it or not, because your customers are constantly looking for ways to grow as individuals they are assuming that you, as a brand, are ready to do it as well. Which makes customizing user experience more necessary as it lets you convey your customers your story, authenticity and personality.
Technology blossoms from the cravings of individuality and constructing around the advancements that have changed the way we function altogether, it is very easy to state that we have travelled a long way. The hunt of uniqueness has led to creation of apps that could run on specific devices to apps that could run on almost all devices. These developments have managed to caress the short list of progressive and responsive web apps too. Given the increased complexity of any methodical options, short or small and to address the difference as well as importance of both responsive and progressive applications; we have deduced an extensive comparison between both to help you choose the correct functionality to build on.
Progressive or Responsive Web Apps. What fits you the best?
When it comes to appending or including something in your business blueprint, a comprehensive examination of its leverages and collaterals is supervised. While the singular selection of both responsive and progressive web apps affects the flow disparately, their pros and cons can be pointed out quite effortlessly as they belong in the same under root of things.
We present you the comparison of both possible courses of actions in shadows of the factors that denote directly to your website’s health and potential growth.
Speed
Your web app’s speed is probably an unfiltered first impression of your brand on your viewers. A good website speed can easily make your users comfortable and at ease, in turn, leaving them to explore. So when it comes to enhancing even a few tens of a second, brands usually go with the hassle. Progressive Web Applications have an upper hand on responsive web apps when talking about speed. RWA offer splendid speed which is notable in itself but if you are growth oriented then PWAs should be your go-to choice. This will allow you to optimize efficiency of your online presence. Your web app will naturally be able to tap a larger audience as PWAs work seamlessly on older devices and browsers. They can be customized around several modern features like push notification, audio capturing, video capturing and offline support.
Overall User Experience
As we denoted earlier, user experience is an essential part of your business which not only makes your brand stand out but also factors in revenue generation. Beginning with PWAs, they offer wide first hand options for customizations in comparison to RWAs. This gives them leverage over responsive web apps as progressive web pages look more detailed, intricately designed and are more sought after in terms of visual aesthetics. PWAs can run on any platform while leaving no air for third-party errors. PWAs pave a pathway for several features like task scheduling, SMS/MMS services, offline storage, location access and many more. Responsive web applications might boast about the automated synchronization of all screen sizes but they lack the grace that is needed to flaunt a pleasing user experience.
Offline Accessibility
When you are a business, to be resonated with the term “reliability” means more than accolades to you. Nothing speaks reliability like a 24×7 thread of direct connection with your customers. Progressive web apps will give you the diversity to store large scales of data and enable its use without the internet. Responsive web applications on the other hand are not able to sustain this assistance. Not only this, through PWAs you can easily harmonize your data related conflicts and reduce overall buffering time. Industry leading brands have shifted to PWA because of the massive list of benefits and customization that come attached to it.
Budget Friendliness
Everybody has imperial goals for their business and products, a wide plethora of ideas that radiate individuality one after another. But none of us come from an unending pocket, not even the biggest of brands prefer to go all in even on the most unique ideas. Which forces us to say, symphonizing the budget to meet the desired goal is one of the most crucial elements in any business. Responsive web applications require only a single coding script even though there are several devices with different dimensions out there. Its coding compliments the device’s functionality to tweak and present the application according to native dimensions. On the other hand, progressive applications demand to be developed using multiple languages like HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc. In simple terms, developers can be needed to make multiple versions of your product to fit the dimensions of different devices out there. Progressive web applications are bound to cost more than RWAs but they come with a fair share of benefits. PWAs bring along a wide array of possibilities to boost your business. Huge brands have reported a 50% more efficiency improvement and as much as 300% rise in revenue after switching to progressive web applications. This factor states how important it is to determine the base of your product as it can easily put a dent in your future plans if not assessed adequately.
Accessibility
Progressive web apps come in handy when it comes to accessibility. Users have an option to easily bookmark your web application right on their home screens. The feature of offline access adds on to PWAs prowess over RWAs.
Search Engine Optimization and Marketing
After you have intricately created a website, Search Engine tactics become a necessity for it to grow with time. SEO and SEM are essential for a varied audience to know about your brand. These practices can be deployed regardless of your website being progressive or responsive web based application. Both respond well to search engine promotions and do not hinder the activities of crawlers on your website.
Conclusion
The realm of criticizing both the possible choices was solemnly the genuine factors that play a crucial role in a website’s growth. All the topics discussed above are crucial for any online business to grow and prosper. There is no definite answer as to what comes from this debate because your lean towards any of these two web page applications is strictly based on your requirements as a business. If you have an ecommerce business then apart from the products, it is your duty to add your flare and make your product as user friendly as possible. Because by doing this, you are ensuring a better future for your brand and your choices should be a reflection of your aim as a whole. It should be your utmost priority to consider every aspect of your product and its optimal serviceability before making every concrete decision. We aim to make your job as an investor/guardian/entrepreneur a little easier with these juxtapositions.