Mobile App-Progressive Web App Framework

With the accelerating usage of mobile devices, mobile technologies have experienced rapid growth. Today, there are a number of applications for almost all purposes on the Play Store or the App Store. With the advancement in hybrid and native apps, web applications have started to upgrade according to changing trends. One such technological breakthrough is progressive web applications (PWAs). PWA combines the best of mobile and web apps. You can use PWA apps not only on your mobile phones but also on desktops and tablets. Developers can now develop applications that can give you a native app-like experience using web technologies without deploying them on Google Play or App Store. Modern web browsers have evolved to support this technological venture.

The market of progressive web apps is expected to touch approximately $9.43 billion by 2030. In seven years, from 2024-2030, the industries in PWA development are expected to grow at a CAGR of 30.5%. The most popular PWA applications you are all familiar with are Uber, Spotify, Twitter, and Pinterest. By these figures, you can imagine the growth potential of the PWA development landscape. Therefore, it has become a challenging task to select the right PWA framework that suits all the requirements. To help you out in this daunting task, we're here with a compiled list of the best PWA development frameworks.

In this blog post, we'll explore the key aspects of the top seven progressive web app frameworks, including their advantages and disadvantages. After reading this blog, it'll be easy for you to figure out a suitable PWA framework that fits your business requirements.

What are Progressive Web App Frameworks?

Progressive web frameworks consist of specific built-in web development tools, components, and libraries for developing PWAs. With the help of these frameworks, you do not need to code PWAs from scratch. They simplify complex tasks like setting up service workers. Therefore, PWA frameworks fasten the PWA development process and give you the best-performing PWAs.

Top Frameworks for Progressive Web Apps

Now, you might be wondering how to select the appropriate progressive web app framework. What are the parameters web developers must take into consideration when assessing the development framework? The standard criteria include a lightweight framework, the size of the PWA you want to develop, integration with third-party tools, a smooth learning curve, and community support.

To make it a little bit easier for you, we've compared the top seven PWA frameworks in a tabular format. The table below will present you with an overview of the progressive web app frameworks that have been given.

Angular

Angular by Google is the best open-source PWA framework for developing complex progressive web apps. It is the oldest JavaScript framework employing the MVC architecture. It is built of reusable components, which increases its modularity, and thus, it is a good choice for scaling applications. Angular's AOT (Ahead-of-Time) compilation and lazy loading feature quickly loads the built PWA, giving it a rich user experience.

One of the significant requirements of PWAs is to give the user a native app-like experience. Isn't it? Of course, it is. Angular uses virtual DOM, which offers a native app-like experience even when there is a high traffic load.

Pros

• The @angular/pwa package simplifies configuring service workers for caching, enabling offline functionality.
• You can easily add PWA features using the ng add @angular/pwa command in Angular CLI, reducing setup time.
• Angular is bestowed with a thriving ecosystem of libraries and plugins that streamline PWA development.
• Angular has an emerging developer community that contributes to extensive documentation and online support.
• Dependency Injection enhances code modularity and reusability.

Cons

• Angular uses TypeScript, which has a more extensive syntax than JavaScript, resulting in a steeper learning curve.
• By default, Angular apps use client-side rendering (CSR), which can pose challenges for SEO; however, Angular Universal supports server-side rendering (SSR) to address this issue.
• PWAs built with Angular often have larger bundle sizes compared to those built with some other frameworks, which may affect load times.

React

React is the most preferred JavaScript library for progressive web app development. The 'Create React app' package has libraries and tools, such as Create React App and Workbox, for building PWAs with almost no configuration. It is an open-source library created by Facebook. The React library is a component-based architecture that helps you create reusable UI components. The JS library is well adapted to make both single-page applications (SPA) and multi-page web apps.

React uses a virtual DOM that lets you update the user interface without changing the JavaScript code in the actual DOM. This is especially advantageous when you are building responsive, large, and complex progressive web apps.

React supports JSX so that you can write HTML-like code within JavaScript. It makes the integration of third-party tools and frameworks easy.

Pros

• React PWAs can send push notifications to users by integrating with Firebase Cloud Messaging or OneSignal.
• The React Native library helps build responsive PWAs that suit all screen sizes and resolutions.
• React is highly scalable, making it an appropriate choice for large-scale PWAs.
• React has an active community support, leading to enormous resources like tutorials and external libraries.
• You can make use of the same code to build web and native apps, increasing code reusability.

Cons

• React updates very frequently, thus introducing new changes and features that developers must adapt to quickly.
• There is no defined application development strategy. Developers can choose the methodologies according to their wishes, which can make implementation difficult.
• Knowledge of JSX is mandatory to build progressive web apps using React.

Ionic

Ionic is an open-source progressive web app framework tracing its roots in Apache Cordova and Angular. It supports the creation of both iOS and Android mobile apps owing to its large number of components. With the help of Cordova plugins, you can include native app-like functionality in your PWAs.

Ionic is built using familiar web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, increasing the flexibility for developers. It allows you to use the features of prevailing front-end technologies like Angular, React, and Vue.

Pros

• The development cost is lower due to Ionic's open-source availability and less development time.
• Built-in browser instruments and debugging tools facilitate easy code maintenance.
• PWA apps are built using Ionic support cross-platform compatibility as they can run on numerous platforms.
• Ionic has a rich library of pre-built UI components that can be customized accordingly.
• You can access APIs leveraging the massive Ionic plugin library without any coding process.
• Ionic generally has a manageable learning curve.

Cons

• Difficulties arise while implementing advanced features like push notifications and offline capabilities with Ionic.
• The performance of Ionic-built progressive web apps can be slower than that of native mobile apps.

Vue.js

Vue.js is an open-source model-view JS framework similar to React. A Vue application is composed of reusable Vue instances known as local and global components. It is lightweight compared to heavier frameworks like Angular and React. You can easily install Vue with the Vue CLI and other front-end development tools for developing progressive web apps.
When data changes, the UI updates automatically, thanks to Vue's outstanding reactivity. Lazy loading, code splitting, and tree-shaking features of Vue make performance-optimized PWAs. The Vue Router manages all the application routing, while Vuex takes care of state management.

Pros

• Newcomers to Vue can quickly learn it because of its simplistic coding. You can create a complete application by just writing 5-6 lines of code.
• The virtual DOM does speedy web page rendering.
• Vue is highly flexible; hence, you can easily integrate it with existing projects and libraries.
• There is two-way communication because Vue.js follows the MVVM (Model-View-View-Model) Architecture. This architecture also facilitates the handling of HTML blocks.
• The Vue ecosystem contains extensive libraries and frameworks that speed the development process.
• The Vue community is an excellent source of learning and documentation.

Cons

• It can be less scalable when developing large and sophisticated progressive web applications.
• The flexibility of Vue can prove difficult when making large projects due to unexpected errors and irregularities.

Polymer

Polymer is a Google-built open-source opinionated JavaScript library. It uses Google Material Design to build hybrid mobile applications. Polyfills web components specification allows you to build your own customized and reusable elements. Polymer comes with Polymer App Toolbox, which is a modern toolset for progressive web app development.

The web components in Polymer are made of pure HTML, CSS, and JS. Hence, you can recreate HTML components without changing Polymer's source code. These components can be used alongside other frameworks like Angular and React.

Pros

• Polymer is open source; hence, it's readily available free of cost, reducing the development cost.
• The web components are compatible across different frameworks and browsers.
• Polymer is equipped with comprehensive documentation, allowing beginners to start learning with ease.
• It uses simple syntax so that you can easily define the components.
• Polymer is a lightweight and minimal framework leading to high-performing progressive web apps.
• It offers easy-to-use APIs.

Cons

• Polymer lacks built-in server-side rendering (SSR), making it less SEO-friendly, resulting in longer load times and increased HTTP requests.
• Polymer does not come with state management libraries, making it necessary to use third-party state management libraries.
• Polymer does not have its official Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

Svelte

Svelte stands out amongst all the JavaScript frameworks as it comes with a distinctive approach to creating user interfaces. Unlike traditional frameworks that use virtual DOM, Svelte compiles components into highly optimized vanilla JavaScript code at build time. This reduces the performance overhead, ultimately leading to highly optimized and performing progressive web apps.

You can create dynamic user interfaces without using any third-party tools, as Svelte has built-in support for animations and transitions. The other key features include clean and declarative syntax, stores for state management, etc.

Pros

• Svelte is a lightweight framework resulting in efficient PWA development.
• JavaScript beginners can quickly grasp Svelte syntax as it's minimalistic and intuitive.
• SvelteKit provides support for service workers, making it suitable for PWA development.
• It is a reactive framework that facilitates developers in building interactive PWAs without the need for state management libraries.
• Using the intuitive drag-and-drop interface, novice developers can effortlessly create progressive web apps.
• Svelte has a growing community of support.

Cons

• The Svelte community is smaller than well-established frameworks, resulting in fewer resources compared to other frameworks.
• Svelts lack comprehensive documentation.
• Svelte is suitable for small to medium-sized progressive web app development, but it's less scalable for large-scale applications.

PWA Builder

Do you want to modify any particular website into a progressive web app without creating a new one? If yes, Microsoft has come up with this open-source framework called PWA Builder. It checks the website's readiness for PWA conversion. It lets you create a personalized web app manifest file with its user-friendly user interface. The service worker templates let you configure service workers for developing progressive web apps.

PWA Builder develops progressive web apps for both Android and iOS devices. It even provides support for WebKit-powered web browsers.

Pros

• It automates the generation of service workers and web app manifests, which are essential for progressive web app development.
• It ensures cross-browser compatibility across all devices.
• PWA Builder is open source; hence, you can build progressive web apps with a restricted budget.
• It uses Vue for app development; hence, you can easily turn your Vue-based application into a progressive web app.
• PWA Builder facilitates the packaging of progressive web apps for distribution on multiple app stores, such as the Microsoft Store, Google Play, and App Store.

Cons

• The automatic generation of service workers and manifest files provides no flexibility to the developers who wish to modify them at their convenience.

Final Words

The growing adoption of progressive web apps has led to advancements in existing web technologies. Now, it's up to the developers to choose the relevant progressive web app framework according to their project requirements. Requirement analysis must be carefully done following the right strategy. If you pick up the right PWA framework, you have completed a major part of progressive web app development. The selection of the wrong or not up-to-the-mark development framework may lead to significant rework in the future.
The above article will give you a direction in your journey of PWA development. You need to properly learn the concepts of the selected framework and try to implement your knowledge through small practical tasks before moving to the actual app development process. We have already published many blogs related to frameworks like Angular, Vue, and React. We'll come up with more blogs on other frameworks very shortly.

Till then, keep reading and stay updated on our future blogs.

FAQs

What are the top progressive web app frameworks?
The top progressive web app frameworks are Angular, React, Vue, Svelte, Ionic, Polymer, and PWA Builder.
How to choose the right framework for PWAs?
Generally, frameworks that are scalable, lightweight, easy to learn, support integration with third-party tools, and have good documentation and a wide community support are considered the right PWA development frameworks. Therefore, analyze your project and business requirements and select the framework accordingly.