Ever since the smartphones came into existence and the websites’ popularity increased, merging the two to create an inexplicable experience for the customers has been a challenging task for the developers. Developers have explored different tools and methodologies to help them reach their goals to a certain extent, but the results were not satisfying. However, in 2015, the scenario changed with the advent of PWAs.
Progressive web apps emerged as a popular trend in web development and made it simpler for business owners to provide a great user experience to their customers.
Businesses can take the benefit of progressive web apps to deliver a great user experience to customers across different devices.
We will take a look at the popular and widely used progressive web app development frameworks in 2021 that you can use to develop robust and unique progressive web apps.
Before beginning with the discussion of top progressive web apps frameworks, we will discuss what PWAs exactly are.
Table of Contents
What are Progressive Web Apps, and Why is It Important?
PWAs are a unique cross-platform web app development methodology that allows users to install web pages on their mobile phones or desktops. It can be used as a native desktop or mobile app on your device.
Progressive web pages is a web app at the core. It has many features of native applications such as push notifications, work offline, installable, shareable, etc.
Since PWAs are a hybrid of a native app and a mobile website, it uses standard web technologies such as CSS, HTML, and JavaScript to deliver an app-like experience.
PWAs have a better loading experience, can work offline, and are easily discoverable by search engines. These are why PWAs are quite popular among certain brands such as Alibaba, Trivago, and Twitter.
What are The Top Features of Progressive Web Apps?
Progressive web apps are those unique web applications that are created to run on smartphones and desktops. PWAs provide many features and functionalities that make them similar to native mobile and desktop apps.
Here are some of the top features of progressive web apps that make them so popular among users and developers.
- Fully Responsive
PWAs are quite responsive as they are created on the principle of progressive enhancement, which means the apps provide basic content and functionality to the users no matter which device they use or which browser they use.
Thus, PWAs run smoothly on all the devices and provide a great user experience to the users.
- PWAs Work Like Native Apps
PWAs look and work like native desktop and mobile apps and have similar features as them. It is also provide features like push notifications.
- Easy to Install
PWAs are easy to install and easily discoverable. It can be easily found on search engines. Hence, PWAs are searchable and easy to find and install.
- PWAs can Rely on SEO
Technically, PWA is a website and therefore, one can rely on the power of SEO to boost the search rankings of the website and attract more traffic.
- Update Automatically
The users don’t need to update the PWAs manually because the updates take place automatically. Thus, it also saves the time and efforts of the users.
The popularity graph of PWAs is continuously going up. PWAs are becoming crucial for many businesses, and entrepreneurs around the globe are investing in them. It is essential to pick the right technology today because technology can do wonders.
We are in 2021, and each year brings new trends and in the industry. We will now talk of the top technologies in trend for progressive web app development in 2021.
Top PWA Frameworks that you can Choose from for PWA Development.
1. ReactJS
Facebook released ReactJS in 2013. It is the most popular choice among the developers or its extensive JavaScript library. The progressive web app development framework can create single page and multi-page apps with the same page’s content loads and changes. ReactJS uses JSX to connect HTML structures and create a React PWA solution.
Pros
- It has higher flexibility and has additional packages.
- In ReactJS, the developers can deploy the same code for native apps
- The rendering process in ReactJS is faster because of the virtual DOM.
- ReactJS uses different JavaScript libraries and enables the generation of API interactions.
Cons
- ReactJS PWA needs JSX apart from JavaScript
- Implementation is a bit tricky in ReactJS because of the lack of clearly-defined methodology
- Migration from Angular JS to ReactJS becomes difficult because of JSX.
- ReactJS PWA faces a few functionality issues.
2. AngularJS
Google built AngularJS in 2010, and it uses the Javascript ecosystem for making robust and reliable PWAs. Angular 5, which was released in 2017, was the first version to support the PWAs. It is one of the most popular PWA frameworks for developing excellent web solutions.
Many developers and corporation have used this framework to meet the varied challenges in developing single-page web applications. AngularJS development uses HTML as the template language and expresses the HTML component in HTML clearly.
AngularJS development is one of the powerful PWA frameworks having several benefits and features.
Pros
- AngualrJS has a massive community of developers like reactJS.
- It has a clearly defined methodology, which makes the implementation easier.
- The learning curve of AngularJS is faster due to CLI commands.
Cons
- You have to understand Typescript to take advantage of this PWA development framework.
- AngularJS is slightly complicated than the other frameworks.
3. VueJS
VueJS is an open-source front-end JavaScript PWA framework that is distributed under the MIT license. It is relatively easy to get started with the VueJS framework. This PWA development framework has several outstanding features, such as routing, high-speed rendering, and simple coding.
Pros
- VueJS has additional packages, just like ReactJS.
- It enables fast product delivery and is a perfect framework for smaller solutions.
- VueJS is an apt framework for complex and dynamic applications.
Cons
- There are only a few VueJS developers in the market.
- Vue has a small support team as compared to other frameworks.
- The advantage of flexibility creates issues in the progressive web apps frameworks when they are used.
4. Ionic
Ionic is an open-source SDK and is based on Angular and Apache Cordova PWA frameworks. It was designed in 2013 and has been used in developing over five million hybrid apps today. It is an ideal option for PWA development as it has a massive library of components for both iOS and Android app development. This PWA is used for building web pages running inside the device browser with the help of webview.
Pros
- There is no need to purchase Ionic because of its open-source nature.
- The cost of app development in Ionic is low, making it the right framework for small businesses.
- It can be used by anyone who is familiar with Angular and web technologies.
- Ionic has a huge library of plugins for accessing APIs.
Cons
- Frequent updates require reworking on the existing PWAs so that those changes are reflected. This can be tiresome sometimes.
5. PWA Builder
PWA builder is founded by Microsoft and is an open-source framework that offers one of the fastest ways to develop web app components across different devices. It has a vast community and provides excellent support for Android and iOS app development.
Pros
- It converts websites into PWAs with very little development work.
- PWA builder offers the easiest way to start the development process.
Cons
- The disadvantage is the flexibility which creates issues in the PWA when used. It makes it challenging to customize the web app.
- The automated processes make managing things harder in this PWA.
Let’s wrap up!
These were some of the top PWA frameworks considered to be the best Progressive web apps frameworks for developing robust websites and applications.
If you are looking for a PWA framework for developing excellent websites, you can talk to us about your needs.
Metizsoft Solutions is a Progressive Web App Development Company having expertise in developing high-quality websites and apps with PWA frameworks. You can reach out to us, and we will create excellent websites for you.
Put your trust in us, and we will not disappoint you.
