The Ultimate Guide To Progressive Web Apps in 2023 – with 50 PWA Examples

Interested in building a progressive web app? This guide is going to tell you all you need to know – along with 50 of the best PWA examples on the market!
These examples of progressive web apps show you how far the mobile web experience has come. Today, you can give mobile users (who make up more than half of all internet users worldwide) a far more interactive experience when they land on your mobile website, rather than something that feels like it's supposed to be made for desktop users.
Buckle up, because this article is your one-stop-shop for everything you need to know about progressive web apps. Keep reading to learn just what a PWA is, what progressive web apps offer to your business, and then some of the best progressive web apps from real, successful companies.
For years we’ve been preaching non-stop: you need a native app. There were good reasons for that, and we still stand by it.
Native apps work excellently for building a deeper relationship with your core userbase, and are a must for any brand that values loyalty, engagement, and retention.
However, nothing’s perfect. Native apps are not a replacement for great web experiences.
Native apps are only relevant to those who, well, have the app installed. They do nothing for new visitors checking you out on the web for the first time, casual users who drop by now and again and aren’t yet committed enough to install the app, or customers who are on desktop.
These potential customers are absolutely crucial for success too. First impressions matter, a lot, and native apps always help in the early stages of the funnel. You need to provide a fast, smooth experience for the entire journey. How?
Enter progressive web apps (PWAs). If you have a website, and it’s remotely important to you or your business – you need a PWA.
In this article we’re going to define progressive web apps, discuss their most important benefits, and share 50 of the best PWA examples on the internet.
We’ll wrap up with some pointers on how to build a PWA, and how they work with native mobile apps to create a winning mobile UX combo. By the end of this article, you’ll know everything you need to know to get started on your progressive web app project.
PWAs are great to give a better experience to web visitors. But if you want to send push notifications across iOS and Android, or if you want to be on the app stores and give your users the experience they want from a mobile app, they might fall short of expectations.
A Progressive Web Application (PWA) combines the best of the web with features that were previously only possible on native apps.
PWAs live in the browser like a traditional website and are fully connected to the web’s infrastructure of links and search engine indexes. Like native apps though they can be launched from a home screen icon, send push notifications to the user’s device, load in a split second, and be built to work offline.
Progressive web apps are not separate from your site. They are an enhancement of your site that brings it up to date with current best practices and leverages cutting edge web technology like service workers to provide an app-like experience from within a mobile browser.
Maybe you still aren’t sure exactly what they are though.
This is understandable, as the term is bandied about a lot but solid definitions are elusive. Let’s look at the history of the term to clarify things.
The term “Progressive Web App” was coined in 2015 by Francis Berriman and Google engineer Alex Russell. They had been observing the emergence of a new class of web applications, and over dinner decided to define and name them.
They came up with the following criteria:
You can see how these criteria fulfill the “web app” part of the definition.
For many years companies like us and others created platforms that allowed businesses to create app experiences with web technologies. This works great to this day, but there are tradeoffs. In order to create great native app experience you lose the discoverability and linkability of the web.
New web technologies like service workers (we’ll get into those later) emerged and changed things – allowing developers to build experiences that took the best of native app UX and put that in the browser, thus retaining all the benefits of the web.
You no longer needed to accept a mediocre mobile web UX, while pushing people to download your native apps to get the real deal. You could provide a great mobile experience across the App Stores and the web, to everyone who interacted with your brand online.
This is what Berriman and Russell observed. They didn’t invent anything, they noticed a shift in the web and named it.
What about the “progressive” part?
In this context it means that the apps are built with progressive enhancement. This is a design technique focused on building a “baseline” experience that works for everyone but that upgrades and enhances on more advanced devices. The experience of a progressive web app isn’t necessarily the same for all users, it adapts based on the power of their device as well as the permissions they grant.
So is Berriman and Russell’s definition enough? The problem is that few PWAs actually fulfill all of those criteria. They are more like a wish list, or a target to aim for, or a model case.
Microsoft has been enthusiastic about PWAs for some time. Apple took some convincing and is now (mostly) in. Among big tech though, it was Google that really championed PWAs from the beginning.
That said, Google themselves don’t seem to be 100% sure about the definition. Back in 2015 they put out a list of 10 characteristics, then reduced that to six, then added three new ones.
Currently, Google’s definition of a progressive web app includes three pillars. In their introduction page, they state that PWAs are:
“Web applications that have been designed so they are capable, reliable, and installable. These three pillars transform them into an experience that feels like a platform-specific application”
This is more helpful, but not that helpful as it’s so broad. It hints at the key point though, that PWAs are bringing experiences to web users that were traditionally associated with native platforms exclusively.
A third way that we can define a PWA is by specifying the purely technical, rather than UX criteria.
This is what web developer and author Jeremy Keith attempted in his 2017 blog post What is a Progressive Web App?.
Keith thinks that the confusion about PWA definitions is unfounded and that basically, three criteria must be met:
Keith goes on to note that this is a minimal, bare-bones definition. PWAs are capable of a whole lot more, but they must fulfill these three technical criteria to make the cut.
So we’ve seen the original observational/aspirational definition, Google’s UX-driven definition, and a minimalist technical definition. What can we surmise? Although there may still be a little ambiguity, we now have a good idea of what a progressive web app is.
A PWA is a modern, secure, fast-loading website that uses cutting-edge web technologies to achieve these characteristics. Unlike traditional websites, it performs and feels to the user like a native app – and “escapes” the browser tab in the process.
As Alex Russell puts it:
“These apps aren’t packaged and deployed through stores, they’re just websites that took all the right vitamins”
This is a great way to put it. PWAs are the latest generation of the web. They are web apps that are able to leverage the potential of modern browser technology. By turning your own website into a PWA, you give it the “vitamins” necessary for it to perform optimally.
We’re now going to move on now to the benefits of building a progressive web app, before looking at 50 PWA examples to inspire your project.
Why stop at PWAs? It’s easier and more affordable than ever to convert your website into real, fully-functional mobile apps. Book a free demo of MobiLoud today to see how.
We stated earlier that if you have a website, and it is in any way tied to the success of your business – you need to build a PWA.
That may seem like a bold statement, but it’s the truth. Why?
In a nutshell, by not building a PWA you are likely leaving customers, revenue and growth on the table. As Pete LePage and Sam Richard from Google’s web team put it:
“The numbers don’t lie! Companies that have launched Progressive Web Apps have seen impressive results. For example, Twitter saw a 65% increase in pages per session, 75% more Tweets, and a 20% decrease in bounce rate, all while reducing the size of their app by over 97%. After switching to a PWA, Nikkei saw 2.3 times more organic traffic, 58% more subscriptions, and 49% more daily active users. Hulu replaced their platform-specific desktop experience with a Progressive Web App and saw a 27% increase in return visits”
This just scratches the surface.
Let’s take a look at the results that other well-known brands have achieved as a direct consequence of launching PWAs.
How are all these amazing results possible? A lot of it boils down to the fact that PWAs provide a much better user experience, and great business results flow from that.
There’s more to it than that though. Let’s take a more detailed look at some of the key progressive web app benefits, starting with the most important one – speed.
Modern consumers expect instantaneous loading. If something doesn’t load in a heartbeat, many will lose interest, perhaps permanently. This is both self-explanatory, and supported by a ton of data:
Essentially the faster your site loads, the better. If you make your customers/readers/users wait then a decent % of them will bounce and not give you their money.
Improving site speed drives better results across the board. That’s all there is to it.
So how can a PWA help you to achieve this? Progressive web apps are fast. Really fast.
Pinterest for example, managed to cut their “time to interactive” loading time down from a sluggish 23 seconds to just 5.6 seconds. This was on average Android hardware over a slow 3G connection. This had a welcome knock-on impact on key metrics.
Not bad at all. Pinterest’s results are not unusual at all though.
Streaming platform ZEE5 tripled site speed and halved buffering time by building a PWA. Uber’s PWA loads in less than 3 seconds on 2G networks. Forbes cut mobile loading times from 6.5 seconds on its previous mobile site to just 2.5 seconds with its PWA.
Speed improvements are guaranteed when you build a good, well-designed progressive web app.
PWAs are so fast thanks to the all-important service workers. As Jason Grigsby puts it in his excellent book Progressive Web Apps:
“Progressive web apps use service workers to provide an exceptionally fast experience. Service workers allow developers to explicitly define what files the browser should store in its local cache and under what circumstances the browser should check for updates to the cached files. Files that are stored in the local cache can be accessed much more quickly than files that are retrieved from the network”
Grigsby goes on to explain that:
“When someone requests a new page from a progressive web app, most of the files needed to render that page are already stored on the local device. This means that the page can load nearly instantaneously because all the browser needs to download is the incremental information needed for that page”
One of the traditional advantages of native apps is that they can be lightning fast. They achieve this in a similar manner – all the files necessary to run the app are downloaded when you install it, and it only needs to retrieve new data. Service workers allow progressive web apps to bring a similar impressive performance to the web!
Speed, which we’ve already discussed, is obviously a huge part of UX. There are other important factors though and PWAs help out here too.
Native mobile apps were long the gold standard for mobile UX. They still are (in some ways at least), but PWAs can now match much of their feel and functionality straight from the browser.
For example, PWAs can:
The early mobile web was pretty rough. The old paradigm of a desktop browser was “bolted onto” smartphones where it didn’t really fit. The responsive design era improved this significantly, but there was always something lacking.
Native apps were unambiguously built for smartphones. They always fitted the experience of the device better. PWAs have blurred this line though, the distinction in terms of experience can be hard to pinpoint.
For example – have you ever used Instagram Lite, Google Maps Go or Twitter Lite?
You can download them on the Google Play store and check them out – and see how they feel like any other native apps.
You would be forgiven for assuming that these are lighter, leaner versions of their main native apps. As you might have guessed though – they are progressive web apps.
This goes to show the potential of PWAs for recreating the native app experiences we all know and love. When we get onto the examples a little later, you’ll see exactly what we mean!
Note: you may have noticed that these PWAs are live on the Google Play store. Google opened the Play Store to PWAs in early 2019! This shows how confident they are about the future of PWAs as truly cross platform applications. You have to jump through a few hoops to get your PWA on there, but it is certainly possible. As of now, there is no information from Apple about whether this will ever be possible on the iOS App Store.
We’ve all had the experience of trying to use a website or web app on a shaky mobile connection. It isn’t fun.
Thanks again to service workers, that define specifically what the browser should cache locally – PWAs can be built to offer a fast, full experience even when the user has poor connectivity.
This can be taken a step further too. Through “precaching”, which is when the whole application is downloaded and stored on first visit, PWAs can also function completely offline!
This is really important, when you consider how many people still live in rural and poorly served areas, and the billion or so people coming online for the first time over the next few years – many of whom will not enjoy a flawless internet connection.
For service workers to do their thing, your website must be completely secure with HTTPS.
Hopefully it does already, but if not building a PWA will force you to do all the necessary work of making your site 100% secure.
PWAs are also very efficient. A key factor that puts people off downloading native mobile apps is the available storage space on their device. As the authors of The PWA Book put it:
“They treat their mobile devices like cameras, computers, notepads, assistants, and – most importantly – as a treasury of memories. If downloading an app means that they have to sacrifice precious photos or messages, they think three times before clicking yes.”
PWAs don’t force people to make such tough decisions. They are much lighter than native apps, and the installation process has less friction (one tap on a button and a shortcut is created on the home screen). The PWA does take a little space on the device, but it is negligible in comparison.
The service workers that drive this efficiency are also responsible for reducing server load and minimizing the risk of sluggish performance and crashes during intense periods.
Progressive web apps are also very adaptable. Since they are based on the web, they can be maintained, updated more easily than native mobile apps.
When you want to change or update something you can move fast, there’s no need to deal with the App Store gatekeepers, require the user to manually update, or contract specialized native app developers.
It’s as easy as updating your site is today – and the updates (deployed to a server) are available almost instantly to the user.
We’ve been talking about the power of push notifications for years. They are the best way to engage and communicate with your audience on mobile – bar none. You can use them to update users, nudge them back into the apps, promote offers and products, and generally stay top of mind in their busy lives.
Here are some example of how different businesses might use push notifications:
“Breaking News, X and Y just happened!”
Push notifications work great for digital publishers, and allow them to drive traffic back into their top stories and alert users with time-sensitive breaking stories.
“Special offer / you abandoned your cart / your items have been dispatched”
Push works wonderfully for eCommerce. Shopping apps regularly send notifications out to alert users to offers and new products, keep them up to date with the delivery process, and deliver special app-only coupon codes.
“Your friend just sent you a message/friend request/replied to you”
We’ve all likely experienced push messages from social platforms before. They are the secret ingredient that social apps use to get you back on their platform, engaged and interacting with other users.
These are a few of the use cases. But really push notifications can be a great boost for any business. They were (and still are) one of the strongest reasons to build native apps.
Thanks again to our friend service workers – you don’t need native apps any more to send push notifications. You can send them from your website (if you turn it into a PWA).
Push notifications need to be used properly and not abused, but they can bring a lot of benefits and are a great benefit of building a PWA.
For example after building a PWA, Lancome saw that 8% of consumers who tap on a push notification make a purchase, and improved conversion rates on recovered carts by 12% via push notifications.
Another one is eXtra Electronics, Saudi Arabia’s leading electronics retailer. eXtra made 100% more sales from users arriving through web push, and noticed that those who opted into push notifications returned 4X more often and spent 2X as much time on site. Chief Business development officer Mujeed Hazzaa said that:
“Push Notifications are a huge part of our mobile engagement strategy. It’s a more personal way to communicate with our customers. That’s incredibly valuable to our bottom line.”
When you turn your site into a progressive web app, you can get strong results for your business too. There’s one big caveat – you can only use them on Android. iOS doesn’t support them, and it’s anyone’s guess if it ever will. If push notifications are important to you and you want to send them to all users then you’ll have to build native mobile apps.
We’ve gone through some of the most important benefits of turning your site into a progressive web app.
The bottom line is that they make total sense for any business with a website, who cares about their mobile web presence. They allow you to upgrade your entire web UX, and offer a fast, modern experience that is all but guaranteed to improve key metrics.
What are the downsides of building a PWA?
None really, except the time and money you need to invest to build one. Even so, a PWA is relatively affordable, and very likely to (more than) pay for itself over time – especially if your site is tied to any kind of revenue through advertising, eCommerce or memberships.
Still need convincing?
Let’s tie everything together with some examples. We’re going to highlight 50 of the best progressive web app examples on the internet, and show you first hand what we’ve been discussing so far.
If you want to utilize PWA technology to deliver a native mobile app experience within the browser, the first step is to look into successful progressive web app examples for inspiration.
As part of our mission to inspire you, we’ve collected 50 model examples of the best PWAs out there right now. You can jump to the section that is most relevant to your own business, skim the list until something catches your eye, or read through all the progressive web app examples to get a good overview!
Let’s get into our 50 best PWA examples.
For one of the world’s most popular coffee chains, Starbucks developed its PWA to boost its customer engagement by featuring loyalty programs and an easier ordering process.
The app was designed to replace its old mobile app to keep its engagement better no matter the device.
Users can first view its Rewards section where customers can redeem their free food and drinks, birthday treat, refills, and payment options when ordering through their smartphone.
The rest of the app page features custom orders, store availability, delivery details and app menu.
And just like ordering from a barista, ordering your favorite drink allows you to customize its size, add-ins, and shot options. Starbucks also adds Nutrition Information, Ingredients and Allergens sections for those who monitor their diet.
What we like about this eCommerce PWA:
What Alibaba is to China, Jumia is to Africa. This successful online marketplace was first launched in Nigeria in 2012 and then swiftly took over Africa’s eCommerce industry since then.
In 2016, it launched its PWA as an answer to the unstable internet connections in the sub-Saharan region. With PWA, it was able to corner a significant chunk of the market relying on 2G networks with data caps.
Introducing a PWA was the perfect solution to deliver an app-like user experience without consuming large data bandwidth.
The result? According to Google, the company boosted its conversion rate by 33% and grew its users 12 times more (compared to native apps). In addition, it has tremendously reduced its bounce rate and user device storage requirements.
What we like about this eCommerce PWA:
When it comes to PWA for online marketplace, trust Indian classified ads company OLX.in. With its robust categories that span from properties to fashion, sellers and buyers are better matched with the company’s PWA.
Users can easily notice the ease of using the app when they search for specific products or score great deals from sellers.
OLX revealed that it has experienced higher CTR on its ads and a huge 80% drop in bounce rates since it transitioned to PWA as reported by Google.
What we like about this eCommerce PWA:
Another competitor in the Indian eCommerce scene is Flipkart continues to redefine the online shopping experience with its PWA.
As users scroll down through the app, product categories, limited offers, bestsellers, and discounts are presented, with the goal of hooking the customer to browse and spend more time on the app.
Flipkart’s PWA began in 2015 through Flipkart Lite. The company wanted to make shopping more accessible among Indians even if internet connections were intermittent in most areas.
What we like about this eCommerce PWA:
Realizing that the market for health supplements has become more competitive than ever, US-based Pure Formulas is considered to be a pioneer in this industry when it comes to launching its own PWA.
After discovering that its website and mobile app was suffering from very high bounce rates due to a sluggish checkout process, the company developed a PWA that gave them a complete turnaround.
It reported higher conversions and increase in average order value (AOV).
What we like about this eCommerce PWA:
With a highly responsive PWA, Ali Express is considered as one of the most in-demand apps today for B2C transactions.
Thanks to the company’s wide coverage of product categories, users can browse through thousands of options without slowing down page loading using the PWA.
Since its launch, AliExpress has announced that it has experienced better re-engagements and conversion stats thanks to its PWA.
What we like about this eCommerce PWA:
Jack Ma’s The Alibaba Group needs no further introduction when it comes to the success of its Alibaba PWA. The B2B eCommerce app is an ideal model for any PWA: fast, responsive, light and very engaging.
Alibaba was successful in terms of its mobile web and mobile app launches. However, it needed to corner a huge part of the market through improved engagement. And the company’s PWA was the perfect solution to that.
It reported a 76% increase in total conversions according to Google.
What we like about this eCommerce PWA:
Not to be outdone by its competitors, America’s eighth largest retail chain, Target, quickly acted on its customer analytics study. In 2015, it discovered that its customers begin their journey on their mobile device and then make the purchase using their computer.
The management thought of introducing a PWA and since then, its app users have increased by a huge number and online transactions have improved significantly without alienating users on different devices.
What we like about this eCommerce PWA:
For a seamless app experience, Walmart’s PWA just hits an app developer’s long checklist. With thousands of product offerings, the retail giant is able to integrate online purchases and pickup/delivery choices for each transaction.
Its geo-tracking feature monitors best-selling items in the user’s area, which enables the app to offer recommendations based on such a list.
Finally, its effective use of push notifications allow the company to acquaint its loyal fan base with superb deals and new finds.
What we like about this eCommerce PWA:
The high-end retail brand, Macy’s, had a goal in mind when it launched its PWA: provide the best experience for its millions of monthly visitors.
Recognizing the growth of its app users, the company’s PWA was a welcome addition to its consumer tools to keep its shoppers tuned in to what’s new on the store shelves.
What we like about this eCommerce PWA:
French luxury cosmetics brand Lancôme encountered a roadblock in their online sales: mobile users were up but conversions were slipping.
To understand the issue, the company looked into customer behavior and found out that they had terrible user experience on the mobile app.
The brand switched to PWA to reduce loading time and make the app highly accessible. According to Google, push notifications contributed 12% in conversions and mobile sessions spiked to 51%.
What we like about this eCommerce PWA:
The Financial Times PWA is considered as one of the best PWAs in the news industry. Covering business and global markets, the app takes a similar look and feel of the paper with its traditional salmon-colored background.
The publication is one of the first news sites to abandon its native app and transition to a PWA. It works well even on slow networks, making news easily accessible for business people on the go.
What we like about this News Publisher PWA:
This Buenos Aires-based news website has proven to be successful in the PWA scene thanks to its Spanish readers. According to Google, the Latin American audience contributed to three times more page views compared to its old mobile site, and spent more sessions on the app as well.
Infobae switched from its mobile site to PWA in 2017 to improve the speed of access among its mobile users. This was influenced by the huge drop in session duration (3 minutes on mobile compared to 27 minutes on desktop).
What we like about this news publisher PWA:
One of Switzerland’s leading news websites became extremely popular when it began flashing content in public areas such as terminals and petrol stations.
Nau (an abbreviation for “new”) was founded in 2007 with the goal of prominently displaying news in public transport to reach millions of commuters on their daily route.
To improve its reach, the company launched its PWA and has achieved 400 times more installations than its old mobile site in the first two days.
What we like about this news publisher PWA:
Regarded as the world’s largest financial newspaper (more than 3 million in daily circulation), Nikkei launched its PWA in 2017 with the goal of reducing load time, improve reader interaction and boost engagement.
Realizing that their website was not mobile-friendly (even taking more than 20 seconds to be fully interactive), the company assembled a team of five front-end engineers who worked on launching a PWA.
The result was truly impressive: improved loading speed, higher interactivity as well as better user experience with offline support according to Google.
What we like about this news publisher PWA:
As a global authoritative news organization, The Washington Post has released one of the most responsive PWAs to reach out to a wider audience on mobile.
Launched in March 2016, the paper’s goal is to provide “frictionless, uninterrupted reading.” This comes after its readers expressed their concerns over slow load times on its old mobile app.
With more than 1,000 articles published daily, they have announced that an 88% improvement in load times was initially observed. This has contributed to an increase in retention rate and longer readership according to Google.
What we like about this news publisher PWA:
With social journalism becoming a necessity for readers and publishers alike, Medium has made a mark in the online publishing industry with its 120 million readers.
Medium’s initial goal in 2012 was to reinvent the blogging platform through small stories that matter to any type of audience.
Now that it has grown into subscription-based service, its loyal users can follow exclusive content and audio narrations through its PWA even when working offline.
What we like about this news publisher PWA:
When tech publisher Wired launched its PWA in 2017, its main objective was to increase its app’s page speed and reach out to its 11 million users.
And true enough, it did. Not only did it result in higher readership but also more impressions per session, leading other Condé Nast publications to follow suit through what its chief of technology refers to as Alien Web Apps (AWA).
What we like about this news publisher PWA:
With almost a 50% lift in sessions, triple the rise in scroll depth and 100% boost in engagements according to Google, Forbes has definitely reaped the benefits of launching its fully functional PWA in 2017.
Its Chief Product Officer, Lewis Dvorkin, wanted a no-friction experience for its users to have content served to their devices the way they want.
In addition, Dvorkin states that the more people stay longer on their app, the more they view ads, thanks to increased personalization that yields better engagement.
What we like about this news publisher PWA:
To make its online content more accessible, UK’s leading news and media outlet, The Guardian, launched its PWA in 2017.
The app features high-quality images, interactive multimedia, and thousands of new content without compromising loading time and user experience.
The company also created a US-based innovation team called The Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab, which operated from 2015 to 2018, which explored mobile tools and chat apps to improve user experience.
What we like about this news publisher PWA:
Sports fans – football, F1, tennis, rugby, cricket, golf and even snooker – are able to enjoy Sports Mole’s website features right in their own devices through the site’s PWA.
Video clips, real-time scores and game schedules are just some of the exciting features in the PWA.
The result of this move led to higher readership rate and increased session time on the app.
What we like about this news publisher PWA:
Since the 1980s, The Weather Channel has been a trusted companion by travelers and households when it comes to providing an average of 40 billion daily weather forecasts.
While its previous native app was used by half of its total users through mobile web, the company found out that there are still users who don’t enjoy reliable connections or are not equipped with advanced smartphones.
Through its PWA, The Weather Channel is able to cater to millions of its global users in 62 languages. Google reports that it has improved its page load time by 80% through the app.
What we like about this news publisher PWA:
Offering a wide range of content from news to sports, travel to education, and weather to finance, MyNet is one of Turkey’s largest web portals.
Its old mobile site was plagued with complaints, most especially very slow loading speed. This led the company to develop a PWA to deliver fast and a highly engaging website.
Google reports that introducing PWA to MyNet’s readers influenced a 15% rise in average views per session and a 23% drop in bounce rate.
What we like about this news publisher PWA:
Formerly known as PadPiper, Kopa is a marketplace for furnished apartments and renters. It offers verification for both renters and rental hosts so matching them is more secure.
PadPiper initially launched its PWA to help students find suitable housing during the school year or once they begin their internships. It also thought of taking advantage of the opportunity to connect students and find out who are working near them for easier roommate matches.
What we like about this directory PWA:
This camera and home appliance rental marketplace is a solution to those who temporarily need such items.
Users place an order online and wait for the item to be shipped on the same day. After the rental period is over, the user will either have to return the item or opt to purchase it.
Rentio’s PWA (in Japanese or English) offers easy-to-navigate interface, fast search results, plenty of categories and fast response time.
What we like about this directory PWA:
As a developer recruitment platform, Joppy caters to companies on the hunt for talent and to some of the best applicants for tech job opportunities.
This platform focuses on matching applicants’ preferences with requirements set by recruiters. But unlike in other online job boards, job aspirants can set their profile to anonymous so that no one can bother them with unsolicited proposals.
Joppy’s PWA is clearly designed for both recruiter and applicant (who are mainly in Barcelona) to make the application process more streamlined.
What we like about this directory PWA:
Searching for a UK rental property market can be a headache without the right online tool. With OpenRent’s PWA, tenants and landlords can conveniently search for the right fit when it comes to available properties.
The PWA provides fast response and real-time updates. This is crucial for the site since OpenRent takes down listings as soon as they are let to avoid ghost ads that frustrate potential renters.
What we like about this directory PWA:
For an online automobile marketplace on PWA, Carsales, one of the most popular destinations by car buyers in Australia offers a lot of convenience to its users.
Buyers can search for cars based on body type, brand, price, special offers. Sellers, on the other hand, can ask for an evaluation of their car and Carsales will take care of the rest.
The PWA also offers expert tips through reviews, recommendations and advice on taking care of your auto.
What we like about this directory PWA:
Carigami is a French car retail broker that connects suppliers and renters. The PWA provides reliable price comparisons of cars according to user’s search preferences on city, driver’s age, date and time.
The app returns search results within seconds complete with all the details of each car rental.
What we like about this directory PWA:
Shine is India’s second top job portal that was founded in 2008. It matches candidates to more than 15,000 companies in a variety of industries.
Its PWA is one of the best for a job matching site. For instance, searching for specific jobs can be easily filtered according to skills, designation, department, industry, location and education.
Job alerts are also delivered seamlessly to a user’s device.
What we like about this directory PWA:
When Tinder disrupted the dating scene market, many users have gone to love the app for its innovative approach to matchmaking.
In 2017, the company invested in its own PWA after three months of development. The benefits were instantly observed. First, it was able to reduce its data-investment from 30 MB on its native app to only 2.8 MB on the PWA.
It also reported faster page loading and better engagement by users (in terms of swiping, messaging, purchasing and spending sessions).
What we like about this social PWA:
For three months, Pinterest, the popular image sharing and social media platform, built a PWA in order to expand its international user base. According to Google, in comparison to its old mobile site which was at 650 KB, the PWA’s 150 KB size was enough to impress its users.
Pinterest subscribers can now also wait for only 5.6 seconds for the UI to be usable compared to the previous 23 seconds on the previous mobile app.
Early results of the transition to PWA were promising: More than 40% increase in time spent on the app, user-generated ads were up by 44%, ad clickthroughs rose by 50% and core engagements improved by 60%.
What we like about this social PWA:
Telegram disrupted the instant messaging service in 2013 by providing a cloud-based tool that is compatible with different devices.
As of this writing, more than 400 million monthly active users rely on this cross-platform secure service to exchange text messages, photos, videos and audio files.
When its PWA was launched to provide the same functionality as its native mobile app (but at a lighter size), the company reported an increase in sessions per user as well as retention time by 50%.
What we like about this social PWA:
One of the earliest PWA that was launched is from Twitter with its Twitter Lite PWA way back in 2017. App developers later used it as a model for integrating web and native app features into a more ideal app for mobile.
According to Google, the PWA’s goal was to improve the re-engagement of its 250,000 daily users who check their accounts four times on average every day.
By lowering data consumption, improving instant loading (5 seconds over a 3G network), and improving user engagement, the company reported a 65% increase in page views per session, 75% rise in sent Tweets, and a 20% plunge in bounce rate.
What we like about this social PWA:
Instagram followed Twitter’s strategy of offering a PWA as soon as the latter’s app was released. In early 2020, Instagram also updated its Windows 10 app to be a PWA complete with direct messaging.
While its native app is still marketed, the site on a device’s mobile browser renders the same functionality and user experience. Users get the same features that they’ve long enjoyed from desktop and mobile app.
What we like about this social PWA:
Airbnb is an online platform that offers convenient arrangements for renting and tourist experiences around the world. In 2008, the company started connecting homeowners looking to rent their extra rooms to travelers looking for affordable accommodations.
Ten years later, the PWA was upgraded to work well with Edge on Windows 10 mobile. The result is a more seamless instant page transitions for customers. To date, there are more than 80 million visitors monthly on Airbnb, majority of which are on its app.
What we like about this PWA:
Another leader in the online booking industry is Treebo, a hotel reservations platform. Offering accommodation choices in more than 165 cities in India, users can compare choices for the best deals.
According to Google, its PWA loads in just four seconds over 3G network. The site also reports that it has achieved five times more click throughs and increased its conversion rate by threefold.
What we like about this PWA:
Dubbed as the largest travel-related site in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions, Wego has put in mind the behavior of its consumers when it designed its PWA.
Since most travelers rely on their phones to save photos, storage space can easily run out. In addition, traveling to different places can be frustrating with slow and unstable internet connections.
To get its users the convenience of booking hotel rooms and flights, a PWA was built. Wego announced that it has reduced its page load time from 12 seconds to just under three seconds according to Google.
What we like about this PWA:
One of India’s leading online travel agencies, MakeMyTrip joined the PWA bandwagon to better cater to its 8 million monthly visitors.
After experiencing success in its native app, the company found out that limited connectivity in the country with data caps on inferior smartphones can make user access a lot frustrating.
Furthermore, it noticed that visitors spent more time on their website than on their native app. Replicating the same experience is therefore crucial for mobile phone users.
The result is a whopping 160% increase in customer sessions and a 20% plunge in bounce rate according to Google. In addition, first time shoppers were likely to convert three times more than those who used the native app before.
What we like about this PWA:
Capitalizing on the success of its online marketplace, Jumia ventured into the travel industry with Jumia Travel. Its PWA was instrumental in increasing traffic by twelvefold and conversion rates by 33% according to Google.
Jumia Travel was then acquired by Travelstart in 2019 to create one of the biggest platforms in the travel industry. Jumia Travel’s mobile users are redirected to Travelstart even on the PWA where they can book flights, hotel accommodations and cars for rent.
What we like about this PWA:
To accommodate its 120 million visitors a month, German tech company Trivago launched its PWA to help more users search and compare hotel prices before they go on a trip.
Covering almost 200 booking sites, the app works fast in terms of generating price comparisons. Users can also conveniently use the Trivago map, real hotel reviews and refer to previous searches to save time and bandwidth.
The PWA has been added by more than half a million users from 55 countries to their home screens that resulted in an increase of 150% in engagement and 97% in click-outs to hotel deals based on Google’s report.
What we like about this PWA:
Uber’s PWA is one of the most uniquely designed apps today. The ride-hailing company placed its Window 10 app behind the scenes in 2018 in favour of the PWA that was first launched in July 2019.
Compared to its native mobile app, Uber’s PWA only takes up 50 KB of storage space. It loads very quickly, which makes it so convenient when you’re stuck in an area with a weak network.
Depending on one’s location, Uber offers ride-hailing services, food delivery, bike and scooter rental, and aerial ride-sharing at a tap on one’s mobile device.
What we like about this PWA:
Uber’s competitor, Lyft, which was founded in 2012, has expanded its rider and driver bases in the United States and Canada.
Offering cheaper rates (in terms of a subscription plan for frequent passengers), the company has taken a huge market share that was once dominated by Uber. It introduced its PWA in 2016
For new users, the PWA provides an easy registration process as well as booking services, which its native app has been known for.
What we like about this PWA:
A very popular flight and hotel booking app in the UAE, Tajawal offers complete solutions to access more than 450 airlines and thousands of hotels for travelers.
The PWA works very fast and offers easy booking solutions through a simplified process. The interface is straightforward and focuses mainly on reservations.
What we like about this PWA:
This unique travel booking company was founded in 2017 in Amsterdam. The goal is to offer weekend-only travel itineraries for users so they can hop on a plane and experience a two-day retreat based on the system’s recommendation.
FlyWeeked users simply enter their current location and select a weekend when they’d like to take a break. Then the system provides a list of clickable cities that the user can choose to “swipe away” if they’re not interested, or book the trip instead.
The PWA is easy to use, which guarantees higher engagement because of the unique concept.
What we like about this PWA:
Visiting a foreign country can be made more exciting when a local who shares your interests can guide you during your trip. With Cool Cousin, visitors can select trusted local city guides on their easy-to-use platform.
So-called “cousins” range from surgeons to musicians but all share the same passion for playing host to tourists in their hometown.
Its PWA was launched in 2018 to provide faster and smoother access experience among its users. In their official update, the company announced that the app has reduced loading time by 25% and decreased access to other online sources by users.
What we like about this PWA:
Learning how to play the guitar, piano, sax or banjo is now made easier with Soundslice, an app that syncs musical notation with real audio.
Soundslice’s PWA is perfect for self-teaching sessions using a mobile device. It allows a user to change the pitch, loop sections, and notate the music. On the other hand, music teachers can develop interactive sessions using the tool.
Sample “slices” let users play the audio accompanied by a moving vertical line guide on the music sheet.
What we like about this PWA:
For digital music streaming service Spotify, taking advantage of a light app through PWA is a must to pursue more subscribers.
Spotify’s desktop and mobile app are replicated in the PWA, giving listeners the same convenience even when listening offline. The PWA loads much faster plus the background colors adapt to album genres for a more personalized touch.
What we like about this PWA:
Contrary to popular belief, radio is not dead. With 1Tuner, any user can listen to radio stations (anywhere in the word) and podcasts.
They can even create playlists so they won’t miss out on listening to broadcasts from Brazil or top tracks played on local London stations.
The PWA works perfectly too. Selecting a particular radio station lets you listen to the broadcast in real time. On the other hand, podcasts are delivered in superb audio quality.
What we like about this PWA:
Online humor has never been the same since the launch of 9GAG. With internet memes, videos and images shared by users all over the world, the site has become a source of entertainment.
However, it soon realized that its old native app required longer time to load, especially when the trending content involved a lot of videos.
9GAG switched to PWA to reduce page loading speeds and encourage better user engagement. The site revealed that its users stayed on the app 25 percent longer compared to its native app.
What we like about this PWA:
The collated real-time information on the latest Euro lotto results on this PWA provides a handy resource from players.
The PWA loads extremely fast and works well with low-end devices and in poor internet connections. For any lotto player who just can’t wait to know the latest results, this PWA is a handy companion.
What we like about this PWA:
Hopefully, these progressive web app examples highlighted some of the main points we’ve been making in this guide.
These brands invested in their mobile UX, and reaped the benefits. You can and should follow in their footsteps and go “mobile first” with an impressive progressive web app for your own business. We’re going to tell you how, but first we’re going to answer a key question – “what about native apps?”
Maybe you were toying with the idea of building iOS and Android apps yourself, and you got side-tracked into looking at PWAs instead. Perhaps you aren’t that fussed about launching on the App Stores, and just want a much better website.
Either way – we’re going to briefly cover the “native vs PWA” debate, and explain why we think that a PWA is the minimum, and PWA + native app is optimal.
There’s an idea going around that progressive web apps and native apps are rivals. That PWAs will render native apps irrelevant and unnecessary. That businesses will choose between building a PWA and a native app and always opt for the latter.
This narrative is misguided and presents native apps vs PWAs as an either/or choice, which is a false dichotomy. The truth is that PWAs and native apps are a brilliant combination, and work synergistically together. They cover each other’s bases and ensure that you are giving everyone an optimal user experience regardless of the channel.
PWAs benefit from the reach, discoverability and ubiquity of the web. They pull in organic traffic and impress first time visitors with a fast and sleek experience, persuading them to spend more time (and money) on your site. They give an easy installation option that reduces friction and gatekeepers, and can appeal even to those worried about limited device storage space.
They provide the perfect means of building a connection with new visitors, and those who are engaged enough to return but not enough to download your native apps for whatever reason. PWAs are the perfect means of nurturing people through your funnel.
Native apps on the other hand have poor reach and visibility compared to PWAs. They are behind the “walled gardens” of the App Stores, and require a higher level of commitment from the user to install and download them. On the other hand, they are more in-keeping with existing user habits, allow you to send push notifications to iOS users, and can get you brand-boosting visibility/presence on the App Stores.
Native apps are great for your core readers/customers/users. Your most loyal base should be encouraged to download your native apps and access them – behind a login screen or paywall even – so you can gather them in one place and really focus on understanding and engaging them, maximising LTV and retention as much as possible.
Native apps are a great “home” for your biggest fans.
Google puts it this way:
“PWAs don’t have to replace native apps; they can work in tandem with them. Retailers, for instance, can use a native app to engage loyal users who are more likely to install an app, but use a PWA to easily reach new users. Users who interact with the PWA can then be prompted to download the mobile app in the future”
Our recommendation – build both!
If you’re limited budget wise, go for a PWA. If you have a native app but not a PWA, you should definitely build one ASAP. If you’re fully committed to building an optimal mobile-first UX and able to invest in achieving that then build both and have them complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
You can get great native apps with MobiLoud, all you need is a website or web app. Get in touch with our team to find out more!
The purpose of this guide is to give you a complete high level overview of PWAs. The intricacies of their development isn’t something we’re going to get into, but we are going to lay out your options so that you can make the choice yourself.
There’s a lot of content floating around online about how you can build a PWA in “10 minutes”. With promises of bringing that native app feeling to a traditional web app all from scratch in just less than an hour, it’s easy to get enticed by these tutorials.
Is it legit though?
Yes and no. These PWA “hacks” also are for fulfilling the absolute minimum criteria – HTTPS, web manifest and service worker. If you are interested in creating a very basic, functional progressive web app – you could try Microsoft’s PWABuilder. With a bit of tinkering and technical know-how you could get something decent up and running.
In order to build a unique, optimized and feature rich progressive web app – that really fulfils its potential – you need to invest more. To see why, let’s break down the fundamental steps.
Sounds easy, right?
In reality, to do this well and build a good custom progressive web app requires front-end developers with experience building complex web apps.
The vital work of setting up the service worker and caching for optimal performance is complex and requires real skill. Then, Depending on your requirements you’ll also may also need designers who understand native app user experience and how to apply that effectively on the web.
Unless you’re a pretty big company, you probably don’t have a load of talented front-end developers sitting around waiting for you to tell them what to do. You’d need to find them, hire them and put a team together and manage them – a difficult task if you’re not experienced with such things. Good front-end developer are always in demand too, and their contract rates reflect that.
So how much would this cost? Well, it’s a bit like the classic “how long is a piece of string?”
It depends entirely on the complexity of the app you want to build. According to the authors of The PWA Book:
Building a PWA from scratch will take something between 3400 wh (for a small app) to 9000 wh (a dedicated project we’ve done). This means a cost between $400K and $1m. Using a cloud platform will be at least 75% cheaper, and Time to Market will also be 75% shorter (2-3 months instead of 8-12 months).
This seems on the pricey end, but it gives you an idea of how major brands like the ones we looked at above invest in their experiences.
Of course if you are converting a site into a PWA rather than building it from scratch it will be cheaper and easier in most cases. As a rough estimate, you’re looking at investing at least 3 months, and $20,000 to $50,000 to get a great result.
Developers follow different project phases but in most cases, it involves seven phases: discovery, design, revision, preliminary development, testing, bug fixing and final launch.
If your PWA is more complex, then expect its completion to last longer considering the advanced functionalities that have to be integrated such as GPS, social media support and camera access.
That being said, simple PWAs can take less than three months (or even just a couple of weeks if they are bare bones). If you want to have more advanced features such as backend admin panel, visualization patterns and other integrations, then you can still have your PWA in less than six months.
This may seem like a sizable amount, but if you put it in context it’s more than worth it. Not only are they more affordable and faster to build than native apps, but the speed and improved user experience is likely to more than pay for itself in the long run.
If you’re on WordPress, there are some more straightforward ways to turn your WordPress site into a PWA, and some WordPress PWA plugins that you can try out.
We can help to advise you on your options, and If your site is the right fit – use our custom platform to convert it into a PWA in just 2 weeks, for a fraction of the standard cost. We can also build native iOS and Android apps from your site in a similar timeframe, so you’ve got all your mobile bases covered!
Get in touch with one of our mobile experts for a consultation to find out more.
You should have a good overview about the characteristics and power of progressive web apps by now.
To learn more, check out these resources:
Now it’s your turn. It may seem like a daunting task – but you need to turn your website into a progressive web app to really have an impressive, modern, optimal web presence.
When it’s ready to launch, you’ll be happy, we guarantee. And your customers will reward you by spending more time, attention and money engaging with your business.
As we mentioned though – a PWA is not a replacement for native apps. PWAs are primarily a much better website. It can be hard to get users to install them on their devices, as they are not accustomed to that yet, and you miss out on sending push notifications to iOS users and a brand presence on the App Stores.
A PWA is a must, but native apps are still the ultimate mobile user experience. The only reason some are wary or negative about the prospect of native apps is the large expense ($50,000+), and the long and laborious development process that traditionally came along with them.
If you share those concerns, but are interested in building iOS and Android apps for your brand, you should check out our platforms, MobiLoud. tconvert your site or web app into top quality native apps in just weeks, for as little as $100
Our platforms can be used to convert any website to a mobile app. It doesn’t matter what your site is built with. MobiLoud is great for building:
And anything in-between! You’ll be set up with unlimited push notifications on Android and iOS, and you’ll have all the features you need to build a winning cross-platform presence on the web and the App Stores.
We can also help you out with a PWA, so you’ll have the ideal mobile combo going forward. If this sounds good – then get in touch and book a demo today. If you decide to take another route, then good luck in your journey. We hope you enjoyed the PWA examples and got some inspiration to help you thrive on mobile!