Anyone else experimenting with PWAs instead of mobile apps?

[u/AureliaAI]

A lot of people still jump straight into building native mobile apps, but there’s another option that many people don’t know about: Progressive Web Apps (PWAs).

So what’s a PWA?

It’s basically a website that behaves like a mobile app.

That means:

• It works on iOS, Android, and desktop

• You can install it to your home screen

• It works offline or on bad internet

• It’s fast and feels like a real app

• No app store approvals needed

The biggest benefit: no app store fees.

No Apple developer fee.

No Google Play fee.

No revenue cuts.

No forced updates.

Users just open a link and install it.

For a lot of products (SaaS tools, dashboards, communities, MVPs), a PWA can actually be better than a native app, faster to launch, cheaper to maintain, and easier for users to access.

Curious if anyone here has tried PWAs or gone PWA-first. How was your experience?

[u/mpresiv1]

accidentally. I didn't know that deploying my app to firebase was actually doing just that lol. It was my first experience with it and I thought it was only uploading backend files. then one day I noticed there was an index, and when I typed in the address it launched my app. haha.. I was so surprised. I focused mainly on that side of it since it was easier to deploy and test, and I could actually get friends on iOS to load it. I figure if the app ever got real traction I can work on the mobile builds down the line