It has been challenging for webmasters to offer an optimum user experience on both desktops and mobiles. Several efforts have been made to combine user experience for web-based applications with their native counterparts. And it resulted in the creation of progressive web applications that can be installed on a desktop or mobile.
These PWAs allow users to access web-based services with a native app-like experience. Indeed, a PWA is a website with an app shell and relevant features. Developing a PWA offers many benefits, especially in user experience.
Progressive web app development has emerged as a popular trend in web development. Businesses can use progressive web apps (PWAs) to deliver a phenomenal user experience across different devices.
You can choose a reliable PWA development company to create a feature-rich progressive web app for your business. If you want to create a PWA, you need to choose the right framework to build a robust PWA.
This blog lists the top 5 PWA development frameworks for 2023 that you can use to develop outstanding progressive web apps.
What is a Progressive Web App Development Framework?
A PWA development framework is a collection of prebuilt code or components that you can use to develop a full-fledged progressive web application. With all the tools and components for developing a PWA, such frameworks are widely used in web development projects.
These frameworks offer numerous advantages, like a faster and easier development process. They offer a wide range of features and capabilities that make PWA development easier and quicker.
Features of PWA frameworks
- Tools to manage data and state.
- UI elements and components to build user interfaces.
- Features to access native device functionalities like GPS or camera.
- Support for caching and offline functionality.
- Testing and performance optimization tools.
- Integration with push notification systems.
What Are the Benefits of Using PWA Development Frameworks?
Using a PWA framework in the development process offers several benefits that are conducive to a successful project. The following are some key benefits of using frameworks for progressive web application development.
Speed and Efficiency
Using a framework for your progressive web app can speed up the development process. PWA development frameworks come with a set of prebuilt components and features that expedite PWA development speed. Hence, using a framework can save you time by helping you to develop PWA more quickly than creating it from scratch.
Cross-platform Compatibility
There are many PWA frameworks that are designed to work on multiple platforms, different desktops and mobile devices. Therefore, using a framework enables you to build a PWA that works on a wide range of devices and platforms.
High Performance
Progressive web apps are supposed to be fast to provide an excellent user experience. With the use of the PWA framework, you can make sure that your progressive web application is optimized for performance that will enhance user experience.
What are the Trending Frameworks for PWA Development?
Developing a progressive web app is becoming crucial for businesses, and entrepreneurs invest hefty amounts in it. However, it is essential to pick the right set of technologies to create a robust PWA.
Some new technologies have hit the market, while some have been deprecated. We are now on the threshold of 2023, which will have several latest trends for progressive web app development.
Below, we will focus on the top frameworks used to develop PWA that will rule in 2023.
ReactJS
According to Statista, as of 2022, React.js is the second most used web framework for a myriad of projects.
ReactJS was released by Facebook. It is a popular JavaScript library that is widely used for creating exceptional user interfaces or UI components. ReactJS is an open-source front-end library that provides excellent JavaScript functions to create distinct web solutions. It serves as a solid framework for developing single-page or multi-page web applications.
You can take advantage of ReactJS to develop robust progressive web apps for your business. It utilizes JSX to render functions to connect HTML structures and for creating web development solutions.
Pros of ReactJS for PWAs
- PWAs built with ReactJS have high flexibility and are very scalable with many extra packages.
- The developers can deploy the same code for native apps.
- Due to the Virtual DOM, it has a fast rendering process.
- This Progressive Web App development framework helps in server-side and static rendered pages, generates API interactions, and routes different JavaScript libraries.
Cons of ReactJS for PWAs
- Building a React-based PWA solution requires knowledge of JSX besides JavaScript.
- In the absence of a clearly-defined methodology, the implementation is tricky.
- The presence of JSX makes ReactJS complicated.
- More functionality issues will arise in a React-based PWA solution as you go for more flexibility.
AngularJS
AngularJS is an open-source front-end web framework based on JavaScript, which was introduced and is now maintained by Google. It is one of the most popular front-end JavaScript frameworks for developing outstanding web solutions. Many individuals and corporations have deployed this framework to meet varied challenges in developing single-page web applications.
AngularJS allows using HTML as the template language and expresses the web app components in HTML succinctly and clearly. You can utilize AngularJS to create outstanding progressive web apps. It is one of the key PWA development trends. It offers CLI commands that simplify many tasks.
Pros of AngularJS for PWA
- It provides a clearly-defined methodology that makes implementation easier.
- It has a huge community of developers like ReactJS.
- Google maintains AngularJS code, makes operations smoother and ensures support.
- The learning curve of the framework has shortened due to the advent of CLI commands.
Cons of AngularJS for PWA
- You need to understand Typescript to take advantage of this Progressive Web App development framework.
- Although the learning curve has reduced, AngularJS is still more complicated than other PWA frameworks.
VueJS
It is another open-source front-end framework based on JavaScript that is available under an MIT license. A community of developers maintains it, and starting with this PWA framework is easy.
VueJS has many features that streamline the development process, like simple coding, high-speed rendering, routing, and more.
Pros of VueJS for PWAs
- You can utilize additional packages to scale up your app with Vue JS, just like you do with ReactJS.
- It offers unambiguous and detailed documentation that is quite useful for the developer community.
- VueJS helps in fast product delivery, so it is beneficial for creating MVPs and smaller solutions.
- It has the capacity to build dynamic and complex web apps.
Cons of VueJS for PWAs
- VueJS developers may feel difficulty in the two-way binding process.
- As major developers do not use this Progressive Web App development framework, it has small customer support.
- It has the benefit of flexibility, but it creates issues in PWA development when you use it.
Polymer
It is another reliable open-source PWA development framework that was created by Google. This framework comprises various features like templates, web components, and PWA tools that aid in creating robust progressive web applications.
The framework uses JSX, HTML, and JS, making it an Independent framework. Also, the tools and components that Polymer offers are supported on a wide range of web browsers, including Chrome.
Pros of Polymer for PWAs
- The APIs of the Polymer progressive web app development frameworks are relatively easy to understand.
- Excellent documentation is available for Polymer that helps users in the implementation process.
- Polymer provides full web applications stack support that includes routing, responsive layouts, and data tiers.
Cons of Polymer for PWAs
- Polymer doesn’t offer an official IDE.
- You may have a hard time making it SEO-optimized.
- The page reloading time is high with this framework which is not favorable to PWAs.
- This Progressive Web App development framework may sometimes require debugging tools because it has embedded development tools.
Ionic
It is an open-source web app framework built on top of AngularJS. This framework is widely used for developing hybrid web applications, and the massive library of components available with Ionic makes it an ideal choice for progressive web app development. You can also use Ionic for creating web pages that run inside a web browser through WebView.
Pros of Ionic for PWAs
- It is an open-source framework, so you don’t need to spend a single penny. Consequently, app development is very low,
- which makes it suitable for small businesses.
- It is an easy technique, and anyone with experience in Angular and web technologies can use it.
- It is easy to maintain Using the built-in debugging tools of a browser.
- It offers a huge library of plugins to access APIs without using code.
Cons of Ionic for PWAs
Frequent updates need to rework on the existing PWAs to reflect the changes. It could be cumbersome over time.
Which PWA Framework Should You Choose?
Choosing the right PWA development framework depends on your needs and goals. The various frameworks mentioned in this blog are excellent for PWA development, and they have their own pros and cons.
Here are a few considerations when choosing a PWA framework:
- Project requirements: Consider your project-specific requirements, like the platform it will run on, scalability and performance requirements, features, and more. You can compare different frameworks to find out which one meets your needs more perfectly.
- Integration and ecosystem: Check the framework’s integration and ecosystem capabilities. Find out if it can be integrated with the tools and systems you are using.
- Community support: Look for a framework with strong community support because you can easily find help when you run into any issues with your PWA.
Ultimately, the choice of a PWA framework depends on which one is the most suitable for your PWA development project. You can check the features and benefits of every framework to decide which is perfect for you.
Conclusion
In this age, the value of websites and apps is undeniable for every kind of business. However, companies have to face many challenges with these digital platforms like slow loading speed, poor appearance on different devices, internet speed, etc., which results in lower user engagement, conversion, and adoption rates.
The advent of progressive web apps has provided businesses with better solutions to reach their customers and boost sales by furnishing the best user experience across different devices. By opting for progressive web app development, businesses can derive huge profits and deliver an outstanding experience to customers.
To build a perfect PWA, you need to know the latest frameworks available in the market for PWA development. We discussed the top 5 PWA development frameworks prevalent in the market today and will also remain so in 2023. You can use these frameworks to create a robust progressive web app for your business.
