Top 5 Frameworks for building Progressive Web Apps

Top 5 Frameworks for building PWAs-Progressive Web Apps [2021]

PWAs are garnering so much love among businesses, developers, and mobile users around the world. 

PWA solutions are still new yet an excellent choice to build most sophisticated apps solving today’s user challenges. In Russell’s words, Progressive Web Apps are just websites that took all the right vitamins.

PWAs are essentially web applications that offer near-native like experience on mobile devices. PWAs are considered-

  • Reliable — as they load instantly and never slow down even in uncertain network conditions.
  • Fast — they respond quickly to user interactions via smooth animations and no janky scrolling.
  • Engaging — they feel like a natural app on the device, with an immersive user experience.

In this article, we have explained about PWAs, the key features of PWAs and the top five open-source frameworks you should consider for your next Progressive Web App development.

What are Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)?

A PWA is a web application that typically functions like a native app on a mobile platform but delivered over the web.

PWAs offer several benefits to users and developers. Once users have downloaded and installed your application, they can use it without having to log in over and over again. Also, PWAs use the least memory possible.

PWAs can run in the browser or can be added to the mobile home screen just like a traditional mobile app. PWAs provide a partial or fully offline experience by caching files using Service Worker and serving up these files when the user is offline.

Key Features of PWAs

Following are the key features & benefits of a PWA-

Highly Responsive– PWAs are highly responsive and can respond well to the user’s behavior and environment irrespective of the platform & device- desktop, mobile, tablet.

Secure & Safe – PWAs are always accessed via HTTPS to allow authorization, secured transactions, and prevent unauthorized use of your data.

PWAs are Progressive– As PWAs are built with progressive enhancement as a core principle, they work on almost every browser.

Work Offline/Connectivity Independent– PWAs work even in the offline mode. So, don’t worry about the network being not available or too slow, PWAs still work on the device.

No download/Installation–  PWAs though resembles completely like an app but don’t require download and installation on the device.

Push notifications – With PWAs, it is possible to send push notifications to the user. The feature is currently available on desktop and on Android devices, but not on iOS.

Easily Indexable – Unlike native apps, PWAs are easily indexable/searchable just like websites. They don’t appear in an app store.

Always Up to the Date– The service worker update process will always keep the progressive app up-to-the-date.

Also Read : Top 6 Mobile App Development Frameworks

Top 5 Frameworks for Building PWAs

Ionic

Ionic is a solid framework. Apps built using this framework offer you direct control of the code you are working with. Most businesses prefer building Progressive websites with ionic so as to get some of the control both with coding and over the app content. 

Ionic has a bundle of rich features that make it possible to build robust, fast, and interactive PWAs. It makes customization of the front end easy and quick.

Key Features of Using Ionic for PWAs 

  • Ionic is free and open-source platform that cuts the development cost 
  • Angular support and Cardova plugins shortens the learning curve 
  • Easy customization with readymade components 
  • PWAs are platform-independent, so are compatible with each device & platforms- Android, iOS, and Windows.

Angular

Responsive web design is a need of the hour. Using Angular”directives,” you can build websites that scale to different devices irrespective of the screen size. With Angular, you can write high-quality code to fit any device without making significant HTML code modifications.

Also, Angular uses TypeScript, a superset of JavaScript that automatically converts your JavaScript code into the languages you need to make development smoother. TypeScript can handle more than one programming language.

The built-in powerful TypeScript compiler and the in-house real-time runtime will get you the powerful PWAs.

Key Features of Using Angular for PWAs

  • As a framework, Angular is more adaptable than other frameworks due to its reliance on TypeScript. 
  • Angular has a strong support community. If you run into a problem, you are likely to get a solution on the web.

Vue Storefront

Launched in 2017, the framework has received 4.5+ ratings at various platforms. Vue Storefront is the developer’s first choice for eCommerce PWA. Vue is the best platform for agile development. As it uses Vue.js, a midway between React and Angular,  your progressive app well manages both simplicity and complexity.

The framework inherits the rich document library of the Vue.js and is supported by a massive community of 2000+ developers and 50+ official partners.

Key Features of Using Vue Storefront for PWAs

  • This free and open-source platform reduces the development cost 
  • It facilitates readymade eCommerce features to use 
  • The framework is highly SEO friendly 
  • The framework is compatible with eCommerce backends like Magento, Prestashop, or Shopware 
  • The framework is highly scalable to fit your growing business 
  • It is compatible with voice-based searches like Alexa

Nuxt.js

This open source PWA framework is built over Vue.js and makes the web development simple yet powerful. Among 50+ modules, you can select as per your needs.

The powerful combo of Vue.js and Node.js make your PWA’s performance shift to an auto mode.  It makes your web based app faster than ever. What more? Nuxt offers comprehensive error messages, thorough documentation, and defaults. This framework is also popular with the name ‘Vue.js on Steroids’ among developers.

Key Features of using Nuxt.js

  • This is a free and open-source platform and reduces the overall development cost.
  • The framework has a rich code library of Vue
  • It builds universal apps quickly without worrying about the interaction between client and server.
  • It can create snappy single page apps (SPA) smoothly 
  • The framework generates static pages for the website and keeps the size in control.
  • The framework organizes the project structure with ease.

ReactPWA

With a massive and fast growing community of users and promoters, ReactPWA is one of the highly used frameworks for progressive web app development. The framework maintains a comprehensive JavaScript library derived from Pawjs-built over React.js. One can prefer this framework for features like SEO friendliness and blazing fast speed.

What more? It requires just a basic React.js knowledge. Plus, the framework is compatible with Chrome and Safari browsers and supports scalability to a greater extent.

Key Features of Using ReactPWA

  • The free and open-source platform helps you save a lot of money
  • Code splitting facilitates quick loading of pages as per the requirements
  • The Babel feature makes it compatible with multiple browsers
  • It builds universal apps with SSR (server-side rendering)
  • It builds highly optimized app for SEO 6 secured with HTTPS protocols.

Conclusion

While building & designing a pogressive app is easy and smoother, finding and choosing the right framework for your PWA is still a daunting task. I hope this article will ease down your search in finding the best frameworks to build your next progressive web app.

Planning to build your own PWA? Get connected to an award-winning Web App Development company in the USA!

QSS Technosoft is an ISO certified CMMI level 3 company having expertise in building all forms of web apps using the latest technologies and tools. Our team of 150+ developers have technical expertise in trending frameworks like React, Node, Angular, Flutter etc and technologies like Blockchain, AI, Biometrics, GIS etc. 

Need expert opinion on PWA? Contact us to get a free discussion about your PWA project! We are here to help you right from consultation to building your PWA.

About Author:
Author Rashmi Kanti is a passionate content writer & a blogger having written numerous blogs for IT domain. Being into the Blogging world for the past 5 years, she is presently contributing technology loaded articles & blogs regularly to QSS Technosoft. Rashmi has a proficient knowledge of the latest market trends in the mobile & web applications and expresses herself a big technology geek.

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