Progressive web app (PWA): an app without the App Store?

The service technician is standing in a basement with no signal and needs to register the job as done, take two photos and get the customer’s signature. The restaurant chain wants a digital loyalty card but has no wish to pay for two apps and wait for Apple’s approval every time the menu changes. Both ask us the same thing: do we need an app? Often the best answer is a progressive web app, a solution that feels like an app and installs like an app, but is built and updated like a website. Other times it is the wrong choice. This guide helps you tell the difference.

What is a progressive web app (PWA)?

A PWA is a web app that uses a set of modern browser features to behave like an installed app. The user opens an address in the browser, can add the app to the home screen, and then launches it by tapping the icon, full screen and without the browser’s address bar. The word "progressive" means the solution works for everyone in an ordinary browser and gets better the more features the phone supports. There are three technical building blocks that all PWAs share.

• A web app manifest: a small file that tells the phone the app’s name, icon, colours and how it should open.
• A service worker: a piece of code that runs in the background and can store pages and data, so the app works offline and can receive push notifications.
• HTTPS: an encrypted connection, which browsers require before they allow the first two.

It helps to understand that a PWA is fundamentally a web app with extra capabilities. Everything that costs money in a web app, such as login, database, admin panel and integrations, costs the same in a PWA. The PWA part itself is typically a smaller item on top.

PWA vs native app: what is the difference?

What can’t a PWA do on iPhone? The iOS limitations

In Denmark a large share of the population uses iPhone, so iOS in practice decides whether a PWA is good enough. Apple has gradually opened up more features, most recently push notifications and icon badges in iOS 16.4. In 2024 Apple announced that home screen web apps would be removed in the EU as a result of new competition law, but reversed the decision a few weeks later. PWAs therefore still work on iPhone in Denmark. These limitations are still worth knowing:

• No automatic install prompt. Users have to find "Add to Home Screen" themselves.
• Push notifications require the app to be installed first and the user to actively allow them.
• No access to Bluetooth, NFC or advanced sensors from the browser.
• No background sync, so data is sent when the app is opened again.
• Stored data can be cleared by the system if the app goes unused for a long time.
• No listing in the App Store unless the solution is wrapped as a real app.

When should you choose a PWA, and when a native app?

We have written a broader comparison of web apps and native apps, which also covers ordinary web apps without PWA features. It is worth reading if you are still unsure whether your users need anything on the home screen at all.

What does a PWA cost compared with an app?

A worked example: a service company with 25 field staff wants an app with today’s jobs, check-in and check-out, photos and the customer’s signature. As a PWA, every employee gets a link by email, and the app works on their own phones regardless of brand. There are no two store releases to prepare, and a new version reaches everyone the same day. As a native app, you get better offline handling and more reliable reminders, but also approval rounds and a developer account to maintain. For this particular task we most often choose a PWA, because the users are known and the roll-out is under your control. Read more about price levels in the guide how much does an app cost.

How is a PWA built? The process step by step

Can a PWA be listed in the App Store and Google Play?

In Google Play it is straightforward. A PWA can be packaged as a so-called Trusted Web Activity and published as an ordinary app, while the content still comes from your website. The Microsoft Store also accepts PWAs. The App Store is harder. The solution has to be wrapped in a native shell, and Apple’s guidelines reject apps that are just a website in a frame without enough app-like functionality. If you need to be in the App Store, building a real app is often the more durable route. We have gathered Apple’s and Google’s requirements in the guide to app store approval.

Which myths about PWAs should you know?

• Myth: "A PWA is just a mobile-friendly website." Reality: it can be installed, work offline and send push notifications.
• Myth: "PWAs do not work on iPhone." Reality: they work, with the limitations described above.
• Myth: "A PWA is always slower than an app." Reality: a well-built PWA opens quickly, because its pages are stored on the phone.
• Myth: "A PWA is free once you have a website." Reality: a brochure site does not become a useful app with a manifest. The value lies in the features.

How does Ceptiv choose between a PWA and React Native?

We build both web solutions in Next.js and mobile apps in React Native, which gives one codebase for iOS and Android. That means we have no interest in selling you one over the other. We start with the critical features and the users: known staff and occasional users point to a PWA, while push-dependent consumer apps and hardware point to React Native. Because both are written in TypeScript, business logic and the API can be shared if you start with a PWA and later want an app in the stores. You own the code and data, and running costs are a fixed monthly price.

Describe briefly who will use the solution and what it must do on day one, and you get a fixed price within 24 hours, with a recommendation of PWA or app and the reasoning behind it.