A key benefit of a Progressive Web App (PWA) is that a company doesn’t need to develop a separate web application and additional native apps for iOS and Android to deliver a mobile app experience. This can reduce software development costs, since one PWA can reach users across desktop, mobile, and tablets.
PWAs are also typically easier to develop and maintain than fully native applications. They combine many of the best features of the web and mobile apps while leveraging the vast web ecosystem of plugins, APIs, and community support. Compared to traditional mobile web apps, PWAs look and feel much more like native apps, are often smaller in size, and can perform well over low-bandwidth networks — leading to faster load times and reduced device storage usage.
That said, PWAs have not fully replaced native apps as once predicted. Adoption has been strong for lightweight applications, but many companies still prefer native apps for performance, deeper device integration, and richer capabilities. For example, some businesses that initially embraced PWAs (such as Twitter Lite) have since shifted focus back to native development.
One of the limiting factors has been Apple’s Safari browser, which has been slower to implement full PWA support (such as push notifications and comprehensive offline capabilities). This has constrained PWA adoption on iOS devices.
At the same time, cross-platform frameworks like Flutter, React Native, and Kotlin Multiplatform have matured, making it easier to build near-native experiences without relying on PWAs. These frameworks allow developers to share much of their codebase across platforms while still offering access to native APIs and performance.
While earlier statistics suggested that “50% of consumer-facing mobile apps are now PWAs,” this is no longer accurate. PWA adoption has fluctuated, and their role is best seen as part of a mixed app ecosystem: excellent for cost-effective, lightweight solutions, but complemented by strong growth in cross-platform and native apps where performance and device integration matter most.