Standart websites are getting older, and web apps become a trend and gain their popularity day by day. They are more convenient, have a high speed, they are not one-platformed and update automatically. Moreover, more and more consumers prefer online markets and prefer to use not just laptops, but tablets and mobile devices. So, it is needless to find a solution that allows users to have more functions, like one coherent interface, offline mode, push notifications.
And there are so many kinds of web apps today that it’s easy to lost in them😶.
But let’s move deeper together in one of the popular questions: “PWA or SPA, the question is…”
Due to some reasons, some of us really thinks that PWA & SPA are the same kinds of apps, but that’s not true.
It’s needless to understand that “ a SPA can be a PWA, but a PWA doesn’t have to be a SPA”.
And it’s high time to start with definitions, to memorize, what is PWA & SPA by themselves.
SPA: Single Page Application📃
SPA (Single Page Application) is an application or website that is fully loaded once.
All the code needed for website operation (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) is sent at the beginning or added dynamically in pieces, usually in response to user-generated interactions.
This is a relatively young way of producing software, however, it has already found many fans. A lot of technologies and communities have been created, which aim is to accelerate the process of creating this type of application.
Technologies for SPA:
There are some popular frameworks that are used for creating SPAs in 2020. They include:
1)Angular is a platform, created and developed by Google for several years. Angular is one of the two most popular solutions(next to React) used in existing SPA and PWA implementations. Uses JavaScript-based TypeScript language.
2)React is a framework for Angular, built and created by Facebook. It’s a less holistic approach focused on the view layer. Uses JavaScript, enhanced with JSX technology used to create page templates.
3)Vue.js is a popular SPA / PWA framework created by a former Google employee immediately after working on early versions of Angular.
4) Ember is an open framework that facilitates writing client-side Internet applications (SPA) using the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.
PWA (Progressive Web App)👨💻
PWA (Progressive Web App) is a web application launched just like a regular web page (through any modern web browser), but operating like a native mobile (or desktop) application, with a consistent interface, user experience and functionalities.
In particular, such a website must provide a special manifest containing inter alia and application icon address and must work to some extent offline. To read more about PWAs, just click here.
👉For creating PWAs, there are different modern technologies used. To know, how to build a PWA from scratch, just follow the link👈.
👉If you want to read about another type of apps – RWA – and why they are differ from PWA, read our next article: “PWA vs RWA: alike but different?“👈.
SPA or PWA: which one is best for you?
SPA is a kind of app, that can work inside a browser and you shouldn’t reload page during your observing.
A frequently asked question is what is better for me, SPA or PWA? The answer is simple: PWA is often a SPA (for e-commerce: an unorthodox SPA). Why so often🤔?
This small percentage contains pages that simulate PWA-style activities (responsive design resembling native applications, offline functions, speed of operation and indexability by search engines), although they are not based on technologies, built mainly on the client’s side. You can take this path to your online strategy, although this is not the recommended path due to lack of compliance with standards, but the only imitation in order to achieve high results in benchmarks checking compliance with the PWA checklist, such as Google Lighthouse.
So, it’s usually up to you, which app you want. But you need to keep in mind that if you create an app for your business, it should be convenient for your users. If you’re still thinking about the kind of app, you can contact us and we will give you a consultation and share our thoughts with you. And let’s create new apps together😃!